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International Awareness Day 12th May - Fibro Mask

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Category: Awareness

Published on Monday, 09 May 2016 11:58

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Make a Fibro Mask for Fibromyalgia Awareness Day and share it with the world! 

Our office admin Hazel is also taking part in #fibromask.  She explains.  I love colouring in and its one of my ways of relaxing and distracting myself from the pain, fatigue and other symptoms.   I downloaded the picture of 2 faces from the internet and tried to show one as being *the brave face I show the world* ... with the other showing the tears that I try to hide.   I love the idea of the #fibromask selfie and will be sharing mine far and wide.  

If you are sharing your mask on Thursday riemember to use the #fibromask hashtag with your photos - lets get fibro trending so we can make the invisible visible.

The idea is simple:
1) either download a mask template from FMA UK website or the internet (www.freefunfings.com/masks/plainmasks has a choice of shapes & styles) or you can get plastic masks to decorate from either your local £1 shop or craft shop.

2) Decorate it any way you like. You can use pens, pencils, crayons, paints, stickers, fabric...anything & you can make it as glamorous & happy or sad, plain & sore looking as you want.

It's up to you what face you want to show. PLEASE don't think it has to be a masterpiece... It's about having fun, getting in touch with your "inner child" & getting our fibro faces out there for the world to see! (you could even have fun & get together with your local support group or family & friends who want to show their support and make your masks together).

3) take a photo & upload it to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc.. before or on 12th May using ‪#‎fibromask‬ in your posts to get fibro trending all over social media. Put them on your own timelines & share them with FMA UK on Facebook (Fibromyalgia Action UK) or Twitter ( @fmauk ) - it gets awareness out there and let's other people with fibro know they're not facing it alone.

Amanda adds: "I've been keen on arts & crafts for years & I've been using creativity as a tool in managing my fibromyalgia pretty much since I was diagnosed. It's my means of escaping from the pain & frustrations this illness hits us with & ,after having to give up my career as a care assistant in an elderly care home, it became my new career path & my new passion.

I do a combination of hand-sewn/cross stitched pieces, some knitting & textile art work & when a friend asked me to do a craft workshop with the kids in her after school group that led to me doing art workshops. Seeing how therapeutic people found the workshops & knowing how crafting had helped me in my living with fibro I decided to do some study in art therapy.

I enrolled in a home study art therapy course which covered the history of art being used as a therapy tool covering various experts in psychology including Freud & also explored various tools & " tasks " used by therapists to help clients express & explore various experiences & events. One art therapy task the course mentioned was "the two sided mask" & it really struck a chord with me with regards to living with fibromyalgia.’’

Attachments:

blank face mask.pdf	[blank mask for #fibromask awareness event]	171 kB
Two-Women-Coloring-Page.pdf	[Two faces colouring page ]	872 kB