DIY Acupressure
Acupuncture has a wide range of benefits. I’ve seen first-hand what acupuncture can do at the vet clinic that I work at, Natural Healing Veterinary Care. It can treat many health conditions and vastly improve quality of life. Anyone can benefit from getting some acupuncture.
Acupuncturists can be expensive to visit, but now Heavenly Products has come out with a brand new product: an acupressure mat.
The one the company sent me is bright orange!
Heavenly Acupressure Mat is designed to activate acupuncture points when you lie down on it. You can now do acupressure on your own at home, without needing to go to an expensive acupuncturist on a regular basis! According to Heavenly Products, their acupressure mat may help alleviate:
- Stress
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- Neck and back pain
- Muscle tension
- Stiffness
- Inflammation
It is also supposed to improve blood circulation and promote deep relaxation, in addition to producing “feelings of euphoria, modulate appetite, trigger immune response, and produce a state of well being.” Especially since I have a background of working four days a week at a clinic devoted to acupuncture (as well as chiropractic and physiotherapy), I couldn’t wait to test the product out! But I was also interested to see what it could do for me. Primarily, I wanted to see if it would be able to help me with my sleeping problems and with modulating my appetite.
I first tried it lying on my back for 10 minutes. They instruct you to allow the mat to touch your skin, and I have to say that at first it felt quite uncomfortable against my bare skin. To be honest, it hurt! All the little pieces sticking up out of the mat were poking directly into my skin in order to access the acupressure points. But after about five minutes, the “pain” was vastly reduced, and while it didn’t necessarily feel good to have little poky bits driving into my back, it wasn’t an altogether unpleasant sensation.
I looked in the mirror after those 10 minutes and my back was covered in tiny little dots where the acupressure mat had been poking into it. I made a mental note to be careful of how I lie and when I use the mat (I think I’d look a little silly going into work with a bunch of red dots all along my arm from lying on my side!).
After that first day of 10 minutes, I made the commitment to use the acupressure mat several more times throughout the week, for at least 10 minutes (Heavenly Products recommends using the Heavenly Acupressure Mat for 30 to 40 minutes at a time). The second day, I used the mat in bed, right before falling asleep. It felt uncomfortable for the first five minutes, but by ten minutes it felt quite pleasant. And then I fell asleep (which is apparently quite safe to do when using the mat), and woke up an hour later. I was so sore! I managed to inch the mat out from underneath me, but my back was killing me.
Since I was out late doing a podcast interview on the third night, I opted to forgo using the acupressure mat – the likelihood of falling asleep on it again was just too strong. But the next night I used it again, for 30 minutes. When I got on it, I breathed this huge sigh of contentment. It just felt so good.
I’ve only being using the acupressure mat for a week, but I love it. I look forward to my nightly acupressure session. It feels amazing. Not only that, but I’ve also been sleeping really deeply.
Next week I’ll talk more about the acupressure mat and using it in conjunction with a raw diet and changing medication – but suffice it to say that this acupressure mat is by far one of the best freebies I’ve ever received as a blogger. It’s my newest addiction 😀
Giveaway!
Lucky for you, Heavenly Products has kindly offered to do a giveaway of one of their acupressure mats here at Living Healthy! To enter the giveaway, simply answer the questions below and tell me why you need to try this mat.
Do you use an acupressure mat? Have you tried acupuncture? What do you do to reduce stress?
Giveaway winner will be announced one week from today on Friday, April 22.
Disclaimer: I received the mat for free and did not receive any other compensation; the opinions expressed here are entirely my own.
Neat! acupressure for the parts you can’t reach! I’ve been devoted to acupressure since my Friend-the-Doctor came back from a conference and showed me the acupressure point for relieving sinus pain. (About thirty years?)
Awesome! It’s so cool how we can use acupressure on ourselves if we just know the right points.
My sister got me that mat and it is so interesting, and good! I go to weekly accupuncture for my back and use this when pain strikes in between. I don’t know if it actually works, or if its the fact that I’m actually taking the time to relax while lying on the mat that really helps. I asked my acupuncture doc about it and he kinda scoffed at it, but it can’t hurt (well, it does kinda hurt at first haha). I have yet to be able to stand bare feet on it – killer! You don’t have to enter me in the contest – just wanted to say hi 🙂
Hi! 😀
Different doctors have different attitudes, I think… the mother dear is an acupuncturist and she thinks that it could potentially be very beneficial. I think there’s definitely something to the relaxation part – but personally I think it’s more than that, too.
I have never tried either acupressure or acupuncture, but am interested in doing so. I also have trouble with sleep and struggle with staying injury-free from running. To reduce stress, I have been watching a lot of movies…running is a big one when I’m not hurting.
Boooo to running injuries! Bet acupressure would help with that 😉
Wow, that sounds so unpleasant.
Best. thing. ever.
Hope Toronto is treating you well!
I’ve never tried acupuncture but how intriguing! To reduce stress I usually go for a run or take a nap…or let’s be honest, bake cookies. 🙂
Mmmmm cookies! I do love cookies.
I’ve never even heard of an acupuncture mat – let alone tried one. I’ve also never tried acupuncture! I’d love to try it for my migraines, but they’re infrequent and the cost out-of-pocket is quite high. 🙁
To reduce stress, I find a quiet corner of the house and read a good book 🙂
Books work great for that!
I’d be really interested to see what even just three or four acupuncture treatments could do for your migraines. If you ever decide to get a few treatments done, let me know if they help!
ohhhhh that does sound good! I’ve had acupuncture done, but never tried a mat. I reduce stress by walking, eating chips (i know, tisk tisk) and horseback riding 🙂
I miss horseback riding!
Chips are, admittedly, very delicious.
Very cool! Allison just e-mailed a link to that mat asking if I’d ever tried it and I had to tell her no but I’ll send her your link! So glad you liked it!
Timely! Feel free to pass on my email address to Allison if she has any other questions about it; I’d be happy to talk to her about the mat 🙂
My son needs this desperately. He has terrible insomnia and has tried most every traditional and natural/holisitc remedy short of a prescription (which he wants to avoid, if possible). I would love to be able to send him this at college. It’s funny, but we were just talking about acupressure a few weeks ago.
I bet this would really help – the acupressure mat hasn’t entirely gotten rid of my nightmares, but it’s done wonders for helping me to sleep DEEPLY. So I bet it would be great for serious cases of insomnia.
I’ve never had acu-anything, but it really helped my Dachshund when she had neck problems.
Haha, that mat looks super cool, but I’m kinda worried about getting bruised from it. I definitely see why it would feel good though. No implied creepiness, but I’ve never shied away from somewhat painful remedies like deep-tissue massage. To me, it feels good. Oh dear, all the sadists reading your blog will be stalking me now!
I have never used an acupressure mat and I have NEVER done acupuncture as I have a great fear of needles. I am still trying to figure out how to reduce stress. I used to smoke and/or eat. I quit smoking 2 years ago, gained 40 additional pounds. Hmmm, maybe the mat would work for me!
Pingback: Three lifestyle changes to drastically improve your health | Living Healthy in the Real World
Pingback: Happy Easter! | Living Healthy in the Real World
Pingback: Acupressure Mat Reviews | Acupressure Mats In The News | Heavenly Acupressure Mats
Acupressure therapy is a holistic approach to know the body condition and treat it systematically.If one realizes the initially symptoms of a disease like headache-migrane,indigestion etc easily can treated without going to see the doctors
Pingback: drupaleros.com