January: Settling Into the New Year
January often arrives with a lot of noise — expectations, goals, and pressure to reset or improve.
But bodies don’t move through time the way calendars do.
After a busy December, many people notice their system feels a little heavier, slower, or more sensitive. Energy may be lower. Old aches may feel louder. Sleep, digestion, or focus can feel slightly off rhythm.
Nothing is wrong.
This is what it looks like when a body has been adapting — to travel, emotion, disruption, cold, reduced daylight, and the cumulative load of the year behind us. January isn’t a failure point.
It’s a transition point.
Why the Body Can Feel Worse When Life Slows Down
Many people expect their body to feel better once life becomes quieter. They rest more, sleep longer, and reduce demands — yet aches may feel louder, energy lower, and the body less predictable than expected.
From a whole-system perspective, this response is not a setback.
It is a normal physiological transition.
During busy or demanding periods, the nervous system prioritizes stability so daily life can continue. Muscle tone may increase slightly to support posture and movement. Breathing can become more contained. Fascia helps distribute strain so no single area carries too much load. These changes are adaptive — not dysfunctional — and often happen quietly in the background.
When external demands ease, the nervous system no longer needs to stay in this protective organization. With more space to register sensation, areas that were compensating may become more noticeable. Tissues that were held steady for function may feel less tolerant of strain. This doesn’t mean the body is breaking down. More often, it reflects increased awareness as the system begins to settle.
Settling takes time. The nervous system doesn’t shift out of protection instantly. As it recalibrates, circulation can change, tissue responsiveness may increase, and long-held patterns of tension can begin to soften. This phase may involve temporary sensitivity or a greater need for rest before ease returns.
What helps most during this transition is support, not pressure. Care that prioritizes listening, pacing, and whole-system regulation allows the body to reorganize more efficiently and with less resistance.
If your body feels slower or more reactive right now, you haven’t lost ground.
More often, your system is settling after sustained demand.
Care during this phase isn’t about effort or correction.
It’s about steady support — and allowing the body the time it needs to adapt.
The Heart of Myofascial Release
We would like to pause and acknowledge the passing of John F. Barnes, whose work has deeply influenced how we understand pain, healing, and the body as a whole.
At the heart of his teaching was a profound respect for the body’s intelligence. He reminded us that the body is not a collection of parts to be fixed, but a living, interconnected system that adapts continuously to life.
One of his most enduring principles was listening. Listening to tissue. Listening to patterns. Listening to what the body is asking for — rather than imposing what we think it needs. He taught that when the body is met with patience instead of force, change often unfolds in ways that are more sustainable and meaningful.
John emphasized that pain is not an enemy, but a form of communication. That restriction is often protective. That the body holds memory, load, and experience — and that healing happens not by overriding these realities, but by creating enough safety for them to soften.
His work challenged practitioners to slow down, to trust subtlety, and to stay present with the body’s process rather than rushing toward an outcome. For many, this approach was not just a technique, but a shift in how care itself was understood.
As therapists, we each gravitated to this work for a reason. We found it at the moments we were ready to change how we provided care—to move from fixing toward listening, from imposing toward supporting. This clinic exists because of his work, and because of his invitation to do things differently. The lessons we learned from John continue to shape how we show up for our patients every day.
We continue to feel the influence of his teachings in every session that prioritizes listening over fixing, gentleness over force, and respect over urgency. Therapists around the world will continue his work, and Myofascial Release will forever be changed by his guidance, his curiosity, and his deep invitation to honour the wisdom of the body.
His legacy lives on in the quiet moments of care — where the body is allowed to lead, and healing is given the time it needs.
Canada Life Update – Osteopathy Claims
As we move into the new year, we want to provide an update regarding Canada Life coverage for osteopathy services provided by Shea Puckett, DOMP.
At this time, Canada Life is not accepting or reimbursing any osteopathy claims. We recognize how frustrating this has been, particularly for patients who previously had claims paid without issue.
If you have had prior claims reimbursed by Canada Life, we encourage you to continue escalating your claim. Canada Life established a precedent by paying these claims in the past, and patients could not reasonably have anticipated an unannounced change in coverage.
When escalating, you may wish to reference the following points:
- Canada Life previously reimbursed claims for this provider, setting a precedent.
- Patients cannot reasonably be expected to reconfirm eligibility for a provider whose services were already covered.
- If Canada Life is reviewing an entire association, plan members should have been proactively notified.
- At minimum, claims already incurred should be reimbursed as a one-time exception while this review is ongoing.
If you would like a letter from the ACMA confirming Shea’s good standing, to support an appeal with Canada Life, please email us and we will gladly provide it.
Please know that the ACMA, Shea, and her osteopathic school are continuing to advocate on behalf of patients to make this right. We will keep you informed as updates become available.
Thank you for your patience and continued trust.
Seasonal Affective Disorder: A Whole-System Response to Winter
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is often framed as a mood issue, but it’s more accurately understood as a whole-body response to environmental change.
Reduced daylight, colder temperatures, altered routines, and fewer regulating inputs all influence energy, focus, and emotional tone. The nervous system often shifts toward conservation rather than activation.
This is adaptive — not dysfunctional.
Emotionally, SAD may feel like withdrawal or reduced motivation. From a nervous system perspective, this reflects fewer cues for engagement, not a personal failure.
Trying to push through this season with more pressure often adds strain. Support tends to be more effective than force.
Gentle movement, consistent sleep routines, exposure to natural light, and steady, regulating care can help the system navigate winter without depletion.
Winter care isn’t about fixing something broken.
It’s about supporting the body through a lower-input season — with patience, steadiness, and respect.
January Self-Care: A Gentle Starting Point for Your Shoulders
January often arrives with a quiet invitation.
After the momentum of the holidays, the body frequently asks for something different — not more effort, not more doing, but more listening. Rather than approaching self-care as another task to complete, we invite you to begin this year with something slower, simpler, and deeply supportive.
One gentle starting point is a myofascial release practice for the posterior shoulder — the space between the shoulder blades.
This area contains a dense, interconnected fascial network that links the arms, neck, rib cage, spine, and breath. Over time, it can hold the effects of posture, repetitive movements, emotional stress, and past injuries, often without obvious symptoms. When this tissue is given the time it needs, profound change can occur.
How to Begin
Find a quiet, comfortable space where you can lie on your back. Place a soft ball (such as the FC therapy ball you all should have, or a tennis ball) between your shoulder blades. Let the ball rest gently into the tissue — there is no need to press or force.
Once you are positioned, allow your body to fully settle into the floor. This practice is not about creating sensation; it is about creating safety.
In the myofascial release approach, time is essential. The collagenous barrier within fascia does not respond immediately. It often takes 2–3 minutes simply to begin engaging, and deeper release occurs when the tissue is allowed to soften without interruption.
For this reason, we recommend staying with one placement for 3–5 minutes, allowing the real “magic” to unfold in its own time.
What to Notice
As you wait, you may notice warmth, softening, subtle movement, changes in breath, or a sense of spreading or unwinding beyond the ball itself. You may also notice very little at first — this is not a sign that nothing is happening.
Often, the nervous system is reorganizing quietly before the tissue follows.
If your body invites a small movement, a shift in breath, or a gentle repositioning of the ball, trust that impulse. This is the body’s innate intelligence guiding the process.
Exploring Other Positions
Once you become familiar with this practice lying down, you may eventually feel curious to explore it in other positions. Some people find that using the ball while seated in a chair or standing gently against a wall allows the tissue to respond in a different way.
As always, the same principles apply: minimal pressure, sustained time, and listening. Choose positions that feel supportive rather than effortful, and allow gravity and body weight — not force — to do the work. Each position offers the fascia a slightly different conversation, and your body will let you know which one feels most appropriate on any given day.
There is no need to explore all options at once. Let curiosity — not urgency — guide you.
A Gentle Reminder for January
This practice is not about pushing through discomfort or “fixing” anything. It is about meeting your body where it is and giving it enough time to respond.
Some days the tissue may soften easily. Other days it may feel guarded. Fascia holds our history, and it releases when it feels safe enough to do so.
January is not about forcing change — it is about allowing space for it.
If you have a history of shoulder injury, surgery, or ongoing pain, move slowly and respectfully, and consider reaching out to a trained myofascial release therapist for individualized support.
Small, patient moments like this can create meaningful shifts over time.
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