A yoga prop that I love to utilize in Savasana (corpse pose) is an eye pillow. I started to use one regularly years ago after being introduced to them at a yoga studio. What an eye pillow is, is what it sounds like; a tiny little pillow to rest on top of your eyes. Usually they are made of a soft fabric like silk or cotton that feels comfortable on your face. The filling is made up of flax seeds coated in an essential oil- lavender being my favorite. Not only does the soft scent of the lavender calm you as you inhale in your Savasana, but the flax seeds make it impossible not to close the eyes and also block out any light in the environment.
Unfortunately, I lost my eye pillow months back while travelling and never replaced it. Instead I had a goal to teach myself how to make them and it turned out to be much easier than I might have imagined. I acquired a sewing machine, found a tutorial online, and cut apart an old pillow case to upcycle* into the eye pillow, and while I was at it I created half a dozen for the students of my classes to use. These lovelies were a long time in the making and even include hand-picked, dried lavender kindly sent from England, upon request, from my boyfriends mother.
The How To
What You’ll Need:
- Sewing Machine
- Cotton or silk upcycled fabric
- Flax Seeds 1-1 ½ C
- Lavender (to relax) or Mint (to revitalize) essential oil
- Measuring cup
- Funnel
- Cut your fabric to 25x25cm.
- Fold the fabric inside out (print on the inside) in half and sew to close two sides leaving an opening to fill the pillow.
- Scent the flax seeds to as strong as you like (careful not too much, I once re-scented mine more than I should have and the lavender oil burned my eyes!)
- Turn the pillow right side out. Fill the pillow with about 1 ½ C of the scented flax seeds depending on how dense you want your pillow.
- Sew the opening to close the pillow.
Follow this link to a blog where I found these directions as well as easy to follow directions to make the pillow cases.
*A note on upcyclying and why it’s great; this is when you give new life to an old, no longer used, soon to be discarded object. As this is a blog dedicated to both yoga and sustainability, I am glad to write this post about creating (DIY) rather than consuming with the added benefit of keeping some pillow cases out of a landfill.
karabemisyoga 
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Thanks for sharing step-by-step instructions! Do you have any ratios for the essential oil, like how much to put in ml for every cup of flax seeds? Is there any drying time for this once you soak the seeds? Also, have you had any experience using monggo beans or rice grains as alternative filling? Thanks in advance!
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Hi Abbey, I don’t have an exact amount of oil to use, not much though, it depends on how many pillows you make at once. For one, just a few drops (I once overdid it and the lavender was burning my eyes!) And I don’t exactly soak the seeds, just add 3-5 drops, or more if you think it’s too weak, and mix with a spoon before pouring into the pillow.
I haven’t used anything besides flax because I’ve read that they’re best to use since they have no scent. Let me know how it works. 🙂
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Eye pillows are great for deep relaxation. These eye pillows provides relief also for migraines, headaches and sinus pain. Thanks for describing each step briefly to make this eye pillow.
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