
“Mindful Origami is using the creative art of paper folding to help you relax and free your mind of stress, distracting thoughts and negative feelings. It is a merging of mindfulness and origami or as I like to call it “mindFOLDness”. Samuel Tsang
In my own practice and in my journey as a mindfulness coach I love to explore the different ways we can be mindful. Making origami is one of my absolute favourites. And here it is a short intro about how and why they are related:
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is commonly understood as being aware and deliberately paying attention to the experience of the present moment with kindness and without prejudice.
Activities like yoga, Pilates, tai chi, meditation, adult colouring books and origami can promote mindfulness. Practising mindfulness can help reduce stress, depression and anxiety and improve general mental wellbeing and happiness. In recent years mindfulness has been promoted by the NHS as an effective first step in helping people cope with stress and depression.
Origami + Mindfulness =#mindFOLDness
Origami is the Japanese art of paper folding and has been shown to promote relaxation, improve memory, patience and hand – eye coordination. It is also effective at promoting mindfulness and creative thinking.
Origami is referred to as ‘yoga for the mind’ as it allows you to stretch and exercise the creative and artistic areas of your brain that most of us don’t utilise on a day to day basis.
Origami is also a gender and age neutral activity and something that can be practised anywhere as long as you have a piece of paper.
In The Workshop
In the 90 minutes workshop you will typically learn 2 to 3 models. Each model is preceded by a short meditation and a story to help focus your mind on a positive or inspirational value.
You will find that origami is a fun and relaxing activity that allows you to quieten your mind and allows you to focus, concentrate and be in the present moment.
Origami is a relaxing and peaceful hobby, a beautiful art, a craft, a science and a meditation all in one. When you are folding paper, there is stillness, calm and an inner peace. There is something beautiful in turning a plain flat piece of paper into an amazing three dimensional object with just your own hands. It’s one of the simplest art forms in that it just requires a piece of paper and your hands – there’s no need for tools such as pens, brush, inks and paints.
If you are folding a paper plane, your thoughts might stray to your childhood days of playing in a playground or another happy memory of childhood play. If you are folding a heart you will naturally focus on the person you love. Each model has a symbolism to focus on.
BOOK MY ORIGAMI WORKSHOP
Acknowledgements
My sincere thanks go to Samuel Tsang, a London-based origami teacher. Sam introduced me to the art of Morigami – The Mindful Origami and inspired me to share it with others.
Source: The Magic of Mindful Origami by Samuel Tsang (2016) and http://www.mindfoldness.com