Making Meditation Yoga Eye Masks

How do you find calm? When you have busy mind and a busy life, it can often seem pretty distant. Relaxation and taking 'time away' can often feel a little naughty. The guilt that can creep in when you aren't addressing something in your infinite list of things to do - when you let purpose lie - can keep you 'doing', but rest is crazy important. Finding a way to restore and to reenergise so often leads to clarity and growth. Calm is a little harder - though there is calm in confidence and purpose and the belief you have in your direction (which is fostered by that clarity and growth). 

I have to say, I am a pessimist at heart - and the sermons at yoga (not dissimilar to the above) are more likely to have me rolling my eyes and giggling than being open to a better self - but craft and exercise do both give me moments of calm and of meditation, if they are going right. 

In August, I'll be holding a stall and hosting several workshops at the Exhale Festival in Sussex. An independent wellness festival on Fairoaks Farm for open hearted creative souls looking for new ideas good feelings and lasting community and as usual, I sought some products to sell and workshops to host in keeping with the theme and community attending. So, meditation masks!

These are masks that you can use during meditation, relaxation and Savasana. Filled with weighty natural delights, it rests heavy on the face and smells lovely, providing comfort and blocking out light to give the maximum chance of calm. 

For mine, I have put together an inner mask pouch and outer cover - to provide a little more flexibility for the cover and allow for workshops with embroidery, but you can make it as one if you prefer. The beans etc. have been measure in 1/2 cups, which is a touch American, but a mug would do as well. 

Inner Mask Pouch:

25 x 25cm calico square
1/2 cup linseeds
1/2 cup lentils
1/2 cup of either dried camomile or lavender

1. Overlock your edges
​2. Hem one side
3. Fold, press and sew the other two sides
4. Cut across the corners and invert
5. Fill with ingredients
6. Sew hemmed side closed

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Outer Cover:

This is similar, though you create a bigger fold on the hemmed side so that the cover will hold the inner pouch in neatly like a pillow. By making a case, you can be free to use whatever fabrics and decorations you like. Go wild. I have been using up some silk I splurged on in a Liberty sale a few years ago to make a few covers which are on sale below and over the weekend at Exhale.