Thirteen years ago, I had an injury that could have left me bedridden, but instead of just constant pain all over, I ended up numb on one side of my body, which turned out to be a much bigger problem. After my sacrum injury on the left hand side, I was feeling serious pain on the right side of my body. And while I could release that tension and the pain, it kept reoccurring.
Although the injury was on my left side, I could hardly feel anything on that side at all. So understandably, I was giving all my attention to the side where the pain was. Yet this cycle of treatment, pain, treatment, pain felt like it was never ending. And that’s because the issue was actually sitting in the left hand side of my body, masked by numbness. So if the problem I needed to address was on the left hand side, yet I was unable to feel the left hand side, it makes you ask the question, if you can’t feel it, how do you find it?
Welcome to the High Functioning Human Podcast. I’m Savannah Alalia, and today I want to talk about understanding the impact of lost sensation, the power that you can access in your body as you start to reconnect and how to understand your fascia is the key to all of that process.
In my case, the numbness of one entire side of my body was pretty extreme. However, as we age, each of us starts to lose a little bit of mobility. Sometimes through an injury, that’s noticeable, you’re probably aware of the difference. But most of the time, it happens without you noticing it. The movements outside of your usual routine, the directions you rarely explore, those are typically the first to go and the places you start to lose mobility first.
And because there’s no routine analysis happening, perhaps there’s no way of you even knowing that that range of motion has disappeared. For example, if you’re rarely in a position where you put your arms out above your head, that motion might be restricted in you without you even realising it. Over time, all of these little losses start to add up, and that’s when you might notice stiffness kicking in. Or you have mystery aches show up out of nowhere, and you might call it ageing. But what’s actually happening is that that stiffness is your fascia. Your web of connective tissue throughout your entire body is just getting gummed up, tangled, and eventually going numb. This is why I so often come back around to the question, is it ageing or is it stuck fascia?
When your fascia gets stuck, it’s like your body is putting certain parts of you into airplane mode. The signals are still being sent, but you’re no longer receiving them. Part of you has gone offline to protect itself. So how do you find that something needs your attention if you’re unable to even feel it?
Here’s where a lot of people go wrong. You might make the assumption that where you feel pain, that must be where the problem is. But usually that pain is just the first clue. It’s a great place for you to start. But the real work is about tracing things back. It’s about figuring out how your habits, your history, your movements patterns, any injuries or surgeries that you might have had, how they have led to that imbalance in the first place.
And then it’s about reconnecting with the parts of yourself that you’ve lost touch with. What I call Your Body’s History is so important. That is one of the main pieces of Your Face Symmetry 2. And I’ve even done whole podcast episodes on it so you can take a listen to that if you’re interested.
For me, as I mentioned earlier, that journey really started over a decade ago. I cracked my sacrum and what followed was years of chronic pain, misalignment, and a nervous system that just struggled to fire properly. And I was getting five migraines a week and my hips would pop out of place after I’d just been walking for five minutes. I’ll be honest with you, it was rough.
It would have been easy to let this become the new normal. And if you’ve ever experienced anything similar, you will know that pain and injury can take up so much, so much energy, that even adapting to life feels like it can be all that you can manage at the time. Especially when doctors or practitioners place limitations on your recovery, telling you to get used to a smaller life or to manage a life of pain. It can be really hard to hear, and I’m deeply, deeply grateful that my knowledge and connection with my fascia told me that there was a way through.
That knowing kicked off a really long healing journey and I threw everything at it but bodywork, movement, practices, Chinese herbs, even orthodontics. Yes, really. I was doing over 20 hours a week of this stuff, trying to untwist my body and get my nervous system back online. One of the hardest parts was that my left side felt totally disconnected, like a ghost. My nerves were misfiring and nothing seemed to reach that area. Some techniques helped a little and others did absolutely nothing. But what really started to change things was when I began doing nervous system work, bit by bit, the sensation started to come back. And as that happened, my body started to show me where to go next.
Eventually, I could actually feel the thickness of the adhesions and I could locate the matted fascia. And that’s when real change started to happen. It’s because stuck fascia can be unstuck. Movement, manipulation, hydration, these processes can rehydrate your fascia and those adhesions that were restricting your movement can be softened and unstuck. There is light at the end of the tunnel is what I’m here to say.
The biggest thing I found is that remembering that you’re in the journey with your pain is so important. For me, it came with the repeated phrase, “Create change one step at a time.” So if you’re currently dealing with chronic pain yourself, focusing on the small steps can be what helps your nervous system to allow things to change.
For me, one of the easiest ways to focus on small shifts and to notice what my body really needs was to spend time working on my face. So if you’re familiar with my Face Map already, then you’ll understand some of how this works. But if this idea is new to you, then you can grab the free Face Map on my website.
Your face holds so many clues about what’s happening inside of your body.
When you find a tender or gritty spot in your face, it often points to a deeper restriction elsewhere. It’s like your face gives you the shortcut to your body’s internal map and you can use that shortcut to point you in the right direction. That visual clue is one way to help you find it, the place that is asking for your attention. And if you want to go deeper, my program, Your Face Symmetry Level 1 is a seven day program with video guidance and digital resources and a lovely community where you can reach out and share your story and ask questions. It’s designed to help you create a customised facial fascia release routine and really tune into what your body is saying.
Because your body is always talking to you and understanding its messages is less about pushing through pain or trying to force things to change, and more about listening. And once you do that, you’re taking those small steps that we spoke about earlier, creating change one step at a time. So if you’re in a place of “I can’t feel it, how can I find it?” I want you to think about finding a way to stay curious, find a way to connect to your body and trust that the feelings will follow.
Use your face as a guide, because the information you have there is valuable. I’d love to see you in the program. And please let me know if you have any questions at all about it or any of what we’ve spoken about today.
Take care of yourself. Trust your instincts. Follow your intuition, because the world needs your voice and the magic it brings to us all.
And I will catch you next time on the High Functioning Human Podcast. Take care and talk soon.
As always, I remain a cheerleader for your inner self-worth,
