An ode to my acupressure mat

I long for it every day – the moment when I get to go to bed and bring out my acupressure mat. It’s been sitting there patiently all day, just waiting for me to lie on top of it …

Wait, no, this is not supposed to be that kind of text. I planned more of an ode, not anything romantic or magical.

So, where was I? Yes – I do long for that moment of deep presence that lying on the acupressure mat gives me. Every little nail sends a sensation from the receptors underneath the skin on my back to the area of my brain that feels things. Let’s keep it this simple for now, I’m not aiming for any neuroscientific explanation. Remember - it’s an ode.

In 2007 I worked at a call center in the city where I grew up. I was 22 years old and that was my first fulltime job. At that time every employee received a Christmas gift, and the gift of 2007 was an acupressure mat. (Anyone remember?) People frowned upon receiving such a weird thing as a gift. Called the company cheap and whatnot because they wanted a food basket or a set of knives instead.

But I was instantly curious. I tried it with a T-shirt on the first times, moving on to shorter sessions without a shirt and over time worked up an endurance so I could spend around half an hour on the mat. I usually lay on it right before falling asleep and uncountable times I did fall asleep on the mat, only to wake up at 2 AM with a pounding heart and a pulsating back. But most time it just helped my insomnia. The acupressure made my body relax and calmed my mind down. Having suffered from insomnia since I was about 13 years old, this was a game changer.

For years my self care routine was to lie on the mat every night, and when I started going out with the guy who is now my husband—who had worked at the same company in 2007 and also had received the acupressure mat that Christmas—I found out he had the same routine.

When we moved in together and got ourselves a king size bed, we used to lie next to each other, chatting or reading – later on scrolling … We brought at least one of our mats everywhere we went, even on the train to Berlin and Prague one very hot summer. I couldn’t really fall asleep without first lying on the mat.

Until one day when I was about 4 months pregnant with our first child and felt so uncomfortable on the mat that I had to remove it from underneath my body and it couldn’t happen fast enough.

After giving birth I was right back on the mat as if we hadn’t been separated and fell asleep right away during every session. Sleep deprivation does that to a new mother, I guess. The infant was happily sleeping on her father’s chest in the next room, so no need to worry!

Through the years the mat has gotten torn and worn out. A few months ago I noticed that the fabric between the nails was down to only threads, and there was no way I would be able to use it without the nails turning in different directions and ultimately hurt me. They got to have it though, the acupressure mat producers, meaning that these mats last for almost 20 years even when they’re used daily and brought on several travels. And I did want to continue with my self care routine.

With that in mind I went online to see if you could still buy them and realized that the internet is full of acupressure mats of this kind and from the exact same brand. I guess that really was the Christmas gift of the year in 2007 but not everyone who received them had used them like I did. So I turned to an online market for used goods, and got myself a pre-owned but never used acupressure mat of the exact same brand as my first one. The nails are really sharp, which surprised me. It became clear, though, that I literally wore the old one down during the almost 20 years I had it.

So, why am I writing all this, one might think? I want to make a point of using things that last and sticking to them. If I could have mended the original mat I would have, but as i mentioned – it was down to only threads. Let this, my ode to my acupressure mat, remind you of taking care of the things you own and use them as long as they last.