Joy Herbst, and the Women’s Community Wellness Collective

01/13/2026

Greetings everyone!

I’d love to meet healing practitioners who are seeking office or studio space in or near Fairfield.

Please comment or DM me if you’re seeking a space to offer your healing arts! 🙏

01/03/2026

🐍🌀🕯️

From Ananke to the Pythia, and even to Eve, the wisdom of the serpent has always been at the heart of women's power and spirituality. In this episode of The ...

01/02/2026

She Proved Women’s Brains Change During Motherhood, Permanently.
They told her motherhood was instinct.
Hormones.
Emotion.

Something soft. Temporary. Something you went back from once the baby slept through the night.

Then she put mothers in an MRI machine—and proved something far more radical.

Motherhood doesn’t just change your life.
It rewires your brain.

Permanently.

Her name is Pilyoung Kim, and her work changed how science understands motherhood—not as a phase, but as a neurological transformation on par with adolescence.

For most of modern medical history, the maternal brain was treated as an afterthought. Pregnancy research focused on the fetus. Postpartum research focused on pathology—depression, anxiety, breakdown. Motherhood itself was framed as something women handled, not something their brains actively adapted to.

Pilyoung Kim suspected that assumption was wrong.

She noticed a contradiction that wouldn’t let go.

Mothers routinely perform feats of attention, endurance, emotional regulation, threat detection, and multitasking that would overwhelm most people. They read micro-expressions. They wake instantly to subtle sounds. They anticipate needs before they’re expressed.

Yet culturally, motherhood was described as cognitive decline. “Mom brain.” Fog. Forgetfulness. Loss.

Kim asked a different question.

What if the maternal brain isn’t deteriorating—
what if it’s specializing?

Using high-resolution neuroimaging, she began studying women before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and after childbirth. What she found stunned even seasoned neuroscientists.

The brain didn’t just change.

It reorganized.

Regions associated with emotional processing, empathy, motivation, threat detection, and executive function showed measurable structural and functional shifts. Gray matter volume changed. Neural networks strengthened. Sensitivity to social cues increased.

This wasn’t damage.

It was adaptation.

Just as adolescent brains rewire for independence, maternal brains rewire for caregiving. The changes weren’t random. They were targeted. Purposeful. Evolutionary.

Most striking of all?

These changes persisted.

Years later, mothers’ brains still showed patterns distinct from women who had never given birth. The maternal brain did not “snap back.” There was no reset button.

Motherhood left a lasting neurological signature.

This explained something millions of women had felt but couldn’t articulate.

Why they sensed danger before it appeared.
Why they could hold an entire household’s emotional state in mind.
Why they felt both more vulnerable and more powerful than ever before.

It also explained why early motherhood feels so overwhelming.

A brain undergoing structural reorganization is not broken—it’s busy.

Imagine learning a new language while running a marathon while never sleeping fully while being responsible for another human’s survival.

That’s not weakness.

That’s neuroplasticity under pressure.

Kim’s research reframed postpartum struggle in a way many women had never been offered.

You are not failing to cope.
Your brain is actively remodeling itself for care.

The awe in this discovery is quiet but profound.

Motherhood is one of the few experiences that alters the adult brain at a structural level. Not temporarily. Not symbolically.

Physically.

And yet society treats it as invisible labor. Expected. Unremarkable. Something women should endure gracefully without recognition.

Science now tells a different story.

The maternal brain is more attuned, not less.
More responsive, not diminished.
More complex, not compromised.

That doesn’t mean motherhood is easy.
It means it is serious.

It deserves respect—not platitudes.

Dr. Pilyoung Kim didn’t romanticize motherhood. She measured it. And what she found replaced shame with pride.

The fog? A side effect of reorganization.
The intensity? A recalibrated threat system.
The emotional depth? Expanded neural connectivity.

Nothing about this is accidental.

Motherhood leaves a mark because it matters.

And once you see it that way, something shifts.

Exhaustion becomes evidence of work being done.
Sensitivity becomes skill.
Change becomes achievement.

The maternal brain is not a loss of self.

It is an expansion.

One that science finally learned to recognize.

If you value this work and would like to support the time, research, and care it takes to preserve and share women’s history, you can Buy Me a Coffee. Every contribution helps keep these stories alive and accessible, told with respect and truth.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you for remembering.
And thank you for honoring the women who came before us—and the legacy they continue to build.

https://buymeacoffee.com/ancientpathfb

12/12/2025

This is why we dance: https://bbc.in/3MohOWn

12/09/2025

10/30/2025

How exciting!! In NY!

10/16/2025

Live, community experiences of art are deeply meaningful & their beauty is so deeply needed, now more than ever! Our Veil & Ember fusion dance concert has been carefully curated with hardworking local artists as a labor of love.

We cannot wait to present our spellbinding evening of fusion belly dance to you THIS Sunday, October 19th 4-6pm at the Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport. Please come & support our event!

Movement, magic, and mystery await.

Tickets: bitly/4oaGbVT or joyherbst.com

10/14/2025

🙏✨ The JoyDancers are looking forward to dancing for you this Sunday!🔥
https://mailchi.mp/1683ad6b2e03/the-wheel-of-the-year-turns-17445736 The JoyDancers are Adeza, Dee, Joaquina, Joy, Krystalline, and Nadia. We work very hard in order to present our graceful and flowing contemporary fusion belly dance that blends folkloric dance with modern movement styles. This student troupe is directed and choreographed by Joy Herbst.

JOIN US THIS SUNDAY, October 19th at the historic Bijou Theatre in Bridgeport, CT! Get your tickets here: Bit.ly/4oaGbVT

10/10/2025

Good morning and happy Friday!

I am producing a passion project, a contemporary fusion dance concert at the Bijou Theatre, and we are just about 1 week away from showtime! I hope you will consider supporting local women in dance and join us. The show features dancers from all over CT and MA! Thank you for your support and letting me share

10/10/2025

💎✨ Please join me in warmly welcoming our next guest performers in our Autumnal show, Veil & Ember... 🔥 https://mailchi.mp/2543e775f95a/the-wheel-of-the-year-turns-17445630 The glimmering Beledi Jewels! 💎

Judy’s Beledi Jewels are a dance group from the Connecticut Valley area. Our group of ladies love to share their joy of bellydance performing at nursing homes, senior living communities, rehab centers and various other venues.

Please support local women in creating the art of dance! Tickets here: bit.ly/4oaGbVT or by visiting joyherbst.com

10/06/2025

Announcing the spectacular Stephania Meda to our Veil & Ember stage! 🌟 - https://mailchi.mp/35a3f4f7a6e4/the-wheel-of-the-year-turns-17445334 🙏✨

Stefania took her first class at the age of 16 and fell in love with the dance. She started her intense training at the Middle Eastern Dance Academy in 2020 and has studied with various artists both locally and internationally. The dance is a constant source of healing and joy.

Please support local women in creating the art of dance! Tickets are selling fast, get yours here: bit.ly/4oaGbVT

10/03/2025

Please help me warmly welcome our next guest performer in our Autumnal October 19th show, Veil & Ember... 🔥 The gorgeous Persephone!

Persephone is Artemis D. Morris, ND, MS, L.Ac, a physician and medical director of Artemis Wellness Center, specializing in the Mediterranean Diet, lifestyle medicine, and women’s wellness. Artemis shares belly dance as a healing art that empowers our archetypal divine feminine through movement.

Tickets are selling fast, get yours here: bit.ly/4oaGbVT