You’re Not Lazy: The Real Reasons Change Feels Impossible

Her Time to Talk: Women’s Mental Health

We all know that 2 a.m. moment. You’re lying awake replaying all the ways you wish your life looked different. You can see the vision, you even know the steps, but when the morning comes you find yourself frozen. You scroll, clean the kitchen, help someone else, and promise you’ll try again tomorrow. Then comes the shame spiral: What’s wrong with me? Maybe I’m just lazy.

In this episode of Her Time to Talk, Meagan unpacks why so many women feel stuck even when they want change. Together, we’ll explore:

• How patriarchy and systemic oppression condition women to blame themselves for exhaustion and “stuckness.”
• The science behind freeze and fawn responses, learned helplessness, and the role of chronic stress on the brain.
• Why decision fatigue and invisible labor make motivation even harder.
• The good news: neuroplasticity means your brain can change, and small steps really do build new pathways.
• Five practical strategies you can start using today to gently “unfreeze” and create momentum toward the life you want.

You’ll leave this episode with both compassion for your nervous system and concrete action steps to begin shifting your patterns—one small, doable step at a time.

Recommended Reading:

For clients & listeners:

• Burnout by Emily & Amelia Nagoski (+ companion workbook)
• Untamed by Glennon Doyle
• The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
• Set Boundaries, Find Peace by Nedra Glover Tawwab
• Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach
• What Happened to You? by Oprah Winfrey & Dr. Bruce Perry
• More Than a Body by Lexie & Lindsay Kite

For therapists & providers:

• Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman
• Women and Girls in Psychotherapy: Reframing Resistance (ed. Carol Gilligan & Carol B. Lyons)
• The Politics of Trauma by Staci Haines
• Feminist Therapy by Laura S. Brown
• Polyvagal Theory in Therapy & Anchored by Deb Dana

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This is your time. Your story matters. Your voice is powerful. And your mental health is worth prioritizing.