How Meditating and An Acupressure Mat Healed Me
The Experts Said “Silence”, But I Needed Mindfulness.
It was a few episodes ago now, I wrote about my origin story, and how I was just a normal, average guy, having a lovely early morning cycle, when a sinister van decided to end that experience and crushed me, sending me into the Emergency Room and leaving with a gnarly concussion. Here was the unexpected benefit:
I started getting curious into my own health, and looking into ways I could heal myself. I poured through medical journals, blogs, books, podcasts, casting the net as far and wide and crazy — trying things that ranged from changing how I slept, how I awoke, what I ate, how long I spent in front of the screen, what supplements I took.
Getting healthy after a concussion is no light feat — I wanted to recover, because the look people give you when you can’t recall a REALLY IMPORTANT MEMORY is like trying to convince people, with an empty bottle in your hand, that you don’t have a drinking problem (it’s a true story — but a story for another time).
IT MAKES YOU SEEM INSANE. And so, yeah, people looking at me like I was crazy… made me feel the same way. I really didn’t want that life. It was chipping away at my confidence slowly, but consistently.
The traditional methods of recovery from a concussion include sleep, rest, and staying away from bright lights. It also includes pills, and silent times. Lots and lots of silent times. Every professional told me that quiet was key.
But that’s where the progress stopped — it seemed like being quiet all the time wasn’t going to solve my moving brain. I had to do something different.
So it was only fitting that when I went on a Yoga Bodywork training did I realise that meditation and mindfulness go hand in hand with silence.
Later, this was backed up by Tim Ferriss, an entrepreneur and guinea pig himself, when he interviewed the top people around the world and found 80–90% had a mindfulness routine.
So I started meditating. And combining meditation with my new self-healing tool, the Acupressure Mat, I was able to find my brain calming and resetting, in a way it wasn’t doing before.
Lying down on the acupressure mat while meditating is a special form of heaven.
Consistently meditating was hard — it was ‘difficult to find the time’ — but when I started to notice an actual difference between the days that I meditated and those I didn’t (more calm, restful, intuitive), I started making it a NECESSITY in my morning routine.
Over the next 18 months, my brain recovered, and with it, the stares that people gave me over my memory went away. I still meditate and still use my acupressure mat, to help me keep balance. It’s that important.
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I wanted to share this discovery with as many people as I can. So I created Yoke Wellness, an eco-friendly wellness products company, and the Acupressure Mat (currently in production), to help as many people as I can find their own wellness.
