How to Make Lavender Eye Pillows for Yoga and Meditation

An essential component of any prayer, meditation is rest and relaxation. And most all exercise regimes include or should include a cooling down period. After vigorous exercise or stretching, the heart rate is in a sort of turbo mode; this level can be maintained for short periods, but cannot remain at that level. Also in exercise higher levels of adrenalin are produced by glands. Muscles that are worked in exercise need to return to a maintenance level also. The purpose of cooling down is to bring the heart-rate to a sustainable level also.

Yoga incorporates a period of utter rest and stillness following vigorous stretching. The purpose of this time is to bring the mind and body into stillness. I have searched several websites of yoga terms and cannot find it listed in the term my yoga instructor referred to it. So I may be spelling it wrong. She called it 'Shavassnah'; I spell it the way it sounds. I cringe as I write this because I dislike spelling a word improperly, especially a term borrowed from another culture.
During the period of rest, we listened to soothing chant and her calming voice helping us to completely relax each muscle group and allow all negative energy to leave our souls.

We covered our eyes with a fragrant lavender eye pillow whose scent helped to cool down and relax. Lavender blossoms are known to have calming properties. The pillow was made of a cooling satin and weighted to put just enough pressure on the eyes to be actually soothing. I liked the sensation so much that I went home and made a lavender pillow for myself. I have given them as gifts to my women friends as well. Here's how to make one.

You will need:

one square foot of satin fabric ( any color)
one square foot muslin
one cup of flax seed
3 T. lavender

To make the pillow:

Fold the satin in half with wrong sides together.
Sew two of the sides together, the long side and one short side.
Turn the edges of the short side down and hem.
Turn right side out and you will have a small pillow case.
Repeat steps one and two with the muslin.
Turn the muslin bag right side out.
Fill the muslin bag with flax and lavender.
Sew the open side shut to make a pillow.
Slide the pillow into the satin case. (The case can be removed and washed gently by hand if necessary.)

Now You can place upon your eyes to rest or meditate. This little pillow makes an especially nice gift for a mother -to-be. It's restful and soothing and can help with those nasty pregnancy headaches that some women suffer from.