14/07/2025
Can I share something thatโs been making my brain light up lately? (And not just because itโs beautifully narrated into my ears while I potter about!)
Iโve been listening to Dr. Sarah McKayโs audiobook, and wowโฆ Itโs one of those rare finds that feels like a conversation you didnโt know you needed.
Hereโs what I really love about it, and also where I want to gently clear something up.
Dr. McKay doesnโt say that womenโs brains are inherently different from menโs. In fact, sheโs very clear: biologically, our brains are remarkably similar. What does shape the female brain isnโt hardwired difference, itโs a lifetime of hormonal shifts and the deep, often invisible pressures of societal expectations.
One example she shares hit me like a ton of bricks: a study where five-year-olds, both girls and boys, believed their own gender was the โsmart one.โ But just a year or two later, many girls had already started pointing to the man when asked who looked more intelligent. And more heartbreakingly? They began to opt out of games designed for the โreally smart kids.โ
Not because they couldnโt do it.
Bu because somewhere, the world had told them they probably werenโt meant to.
As someone who works with the body, mind, and nervous system, especially around pain, stress, and neurodivergence, this kind of insight matters deeply. Because it shows us how early the stories begin. The ones that tell us to be smaller. Softer. Nicer. Less brilliant.
Those stories donโt just stay in our heads. They lodge in our muscles, our posture, our energy levels, our pain.
Womenโs brains arenโt broken, delicate, or mysterious. Theyโre just shaped by the world they move through. And that shaping often leads to overwhelm, chronic stress, or the constant sense that weโre not quite enough.
This book has been such a gentle but firm reminder, that unravelling those stories, and replacing them with truth, is powerful work. Itโs healing work.
Have you read or listened to something recently that shifted how you see yourself?
Iโd love to hear about it โ and share in the joy of unlearning together. ๐ฌ
