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How to make a Lavender Elephant to help with Anxiety

Anxiety felt elephant

For centuries, people have used lavender in the belief that its distinctive smell is relaxing. Many people swear by lavender spray on the pillow to help them sleep.

While not many scientific studies have been conducted on humans to confirm this, it's a widely held belief that lavender has calming properties due to the chemical linalool, which is what causes the smell (see more about one of these studies here). 

As part of our Managing Anxiety Course, our Creative Team created this handy resource for those who want to use the calming effects of lavender to help with their anxiety. Follow the steps below to create your own Anxiety Elephant (featured in our Managing Anxiety Course), you will need to download the PDF below to print out the templates.

Making Your Anxiety Elephant

Materials Needed To Make A Lavender Bag:

  • Fabric Sewing thread
  • Scissors
  • Hand sewing needle
  • Ribbon for hanging
  • Paper for making templates
  • Lavender and funnel for filling

LET’S GET STARTED!

  1. Make a template
    Print the second page of this pdf to make a template for your lavender bag. You will need two elephants of fabric for every lavender bag you wish to make.
  2. Sewing
    Use a backstitch to embroider the elephant's face and hands. Hand stitch the two elephants together using a blanket stitch, leaving one side open. Remember to sew the loop of ribbon at the head to hang later.
  3. Fill the bags
    Now it’s time to fill your lavender bags with lots of lovely dried lavender seeds. Sew the open edge closed.

YOUR LAVENDER ELEPHANTS ARE FINISHED! Just making these lavender bags can be therapeutic in itself!

Download our Anxiety Elephant Step-by-Step here

What other things could I do to help me with anxiety?

We have a range of FAQs and Resources to help manage their mental health. And for employers, our range of Mental Health & Wellbeing Training Courses are the perfect way to provide employees with the tools and techniques to help them identify and deal with mental ill-health and stress in the workplace. 

Get started with a free no-obligation trial of any of these courses today...

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