A message from your body

Fiona L Smith reflects on rest as wisdom, and how listening inward offers a gentler way to begin the year.

Images: StockSnap - Pixabay

Text: Fiona L Smith

What a pressure for the first month of the year! January has a reputation for demanding fresh starts, new intentions and routines, and SO many goals. The whole month is synonymous with resolutions, and culturally there’s a belief that we should start the year raring to go, back at full speed after the Christmas holidays.

The reality for many people is very different. January feels heavy rather than energising; there’s lingering fatigue and low motivation, and you might feel heavy, slow and foggy. It can feel as though you’ve failed before you’ve even begun.

But this isn’t due to a lack of discipline or willpower and is definitely not a personal failing. It’s your body giving you important information through the language of the nervous system. It’s asking for something very specific – rest and time.

Why January is harder for some

People who tend towards shut-down or withdrawal when under stress often experience January more intensely. In somatic terms, this pattern is known as dorsal vagal collapse, or ‘freeze’. When life is overwhelming, the system slows everything down to conserve energy and protect itself.

December is full of conditions that push the nervous system beyond its capacity. Too much socialising and sensory overload, too many obligations, heightened emotions, disrupted routines and financial pressure. For some, it’s simply too much, too fast, too soon, which is how Dr Peter Levine defines trauma.

Others arrive in January already depleted after months, or even years, of running on empty. There’s too little rest, too little support and too little time to recover, which can lead to fatigue and shutdown.

Rethinking trauma

Trauma is often misunderstood. It is commonly associated with extreme or catastrophic events, but this isn’t always the case. Dr Levine defines trauma as anything that overwhelms the nervous system’s capacity to cope. It’s not about events themselves, but about whether the system had enough time, support, and resources to process what happened. If your system didn’t have sufficient time or resources, it’s not a ‘failure’.

Trauma can arise from experiences that were ‘too much’; it can also come from situations where there was too little, for too long - emotional neglect or abuse or prolonged pressure without relief; all leading to chronic, stored stress. As physician and author Gabor Maté puts it, trauma is not what happened to you, but what happened inside you as a result of what happened.

“January fatigue isn’t something to fix - it’s something to listen to.”

Pushing through isn’t the answer

When you feel exhausted, foggy, flat, or unmotivated in January, your nervous system may be signalling a need for deep rest and integration because chances are, this isn’t just about what happened in December. Shut-down isn’t laziness – it’s a protective state that slows things down when pushing through would cause more harm. It’s the body saying, “I need time to process and integrate what has already happened.”

When we override signals and symptoms and force ourselves to keep going, we add more stress to a system that’s already overloaded. Over time, this pattern often leads to burnout. January resolution culture promotes willpower as the solution – stick to the resolution, go to the gym no matter how tired you feel; push through the resistance. For a nervous system already under strain, this approach reinforces the very stress pattern it is trying to resolve. Regulation needs to come before productivity, not the other way around.

Nurturing the nervous system

Rather than forcing change, January can be a time to offer the nervous system space, time and small signals of nourishment and ease that signal connection and settling; reminders to the body that life isn’t all effort, productivity, and responsibility. What matters most is choosing experiences that genuinely feel resourcing – moments of ease, pleasure, wonder, or beauty that soften or energise rather than over-stimulate.

American psychologist Deb Dana calls these moments glimmers. They are often simple and ordinary: a walk in winter light, a cup of tea with a friend, curling up by the fire with a book, dancing as though no one is watching, or creativity with no outcome in mind. In Denmark, the idea of hygge captures this beautifully – time alone or with others that feels cosy, warm, and unforced. No agenda, no productivity, just ease.

Ask yourself what brings you moments of quiet joy. Not what you think you should enjoy, but what genuinely softens something inside you. January fatigue isn’t something to fix; it’s something to listen to. When we meet the body with patience and compassion rather than pressure, energy returns in its own time.