Anokhi Madhavji: Sleep your worries away…an interesting purchase in Birmingham.

So, I was in Birmingham this weekend and we went shopping (as you do) and one of my mates discovered a gift shop that was full of the coolest and strangest things – quite fabulous really.

Anyways, we came across this handmade product “worry dolls” that have been made by the Maya Indians who live in the highlands of Guatemala. If you are wondering who Maya Indians are, they were a civilisation of people living in Central America for several hundred years. The Maya Indians' culture reached its peak during the seventh and the eighth century.

These people make their living from agriculture in the rural areas of the country and are often dependent on alternative forms of income.

“An old story tells that when the Maya Indians of Guatemala had worries, they would tell them to the worry people. At night, they would place the worry people under their pillows and when they awoke, the worry people had taken their worries away.”

Legend has it the dolls were first made by two poor children when their mother got sick and the family was out of food. Using twigs and scraps of cloth, the children fashioned the little dolls along with sacks for the dolls to sleep in. The children hoped the dolls would have magical powers like the magical dolls in the stories their grandfather used to tell them. Before going to bed, one of the children asked the dolls for help, then placed them in a sack and put them under her pillow.

The next morning when she awoke, the dolls were out of the pouch and laid out in a circle on the table. Because she had slept through the night without worrying, the children believed this was a sign that the dolls were magical. They decided to take them to the local market where they sold their “magic dolls” for a hefty sum of money, which they took as even more evidence of the doll’s powers.

Later, when the children returned home, they found the magic dolls they thought they had sold back in their pocket with a tiny note that read: “Tell these dolls your secret wishes. Tell them your problems. Tell them your dreams. And when you awake, you may find the magic within you to make your dreams come true.”

“Worry dolls”, are very small and colourful dolls and a person (usually a child) who cannot sleep due to worrying can express their worries to a doll and place it under their pillow before going to sleep. Some medical centres use them in conjunction with treatment for disease in children. According to folklore, the doll is thought to worry in the person's place, thereby permitting the person to sleep peacefully.

The person will wake up without their worries, which have been taken away by the dolls during the night.

I am a little believer of things and actually quite superstitious in that sense and I love hearing about legends and old history.

Bit of a random post, I know…but whether you stopped reading after the first paragraph or not, just wanted to share this with you guys in case you found it as fascinating as I did.

I did indeed purchase one of these. If you would like to as well, visit the site below.

http://www.spectrumwellbeing.co.uk/acatalog/guatemalanworrydolls.html

They are really cute and are made as part of a fair-trade scheme - if anything they are environmentally friendly – thumbs up from yours truly.

Have a fabulous Christmas y’all.

Much love,

Anokhi x