Through the practice of meditation, a person can become very relaxed and can also help to find inner peace. There are many ways to meditate and one of them is through the practice of simple origami. Due to the focus required to complete origami, it goes hand in hand with meditation as a way to relax the body and mind.
Throughout history there have been many ways to meditate; one of the most famous is to sit in the lotus position, that is, with the legs crossed, and sing the well-known “ohms”. While this has turned into many jokes and skits, it is a way to achieve a meditative state.
Origami and meditation have a few things in common that make them an ideal match:
1) Focus – To meditate or complete origami, you need to focus on one thing and let everything else slip away.
2) Quiet: Meditation and origami are best done in a quiet, relaxed area where there are few or no interruptions.
3) Practice – To do origami and meditate, you need to practice each art until you can easily complete the task at hand.
4) Less Can Be More: In meditation, a simple focus or thought can take you into a deep state of relaxation, just like working on a simple and easy to make origami like a rose.
Each of these is important to both meditation and origami and because of this, the two work very well together. Take an origami as simple as a rose and practice doing it until it becomes second nature to you, as if you could do it blindfolded. Now while doing this, you will be fully focused on the task at hand; that is, make the rose.
You will find yourself concentrating only on the folding of the rose and it will take an almost hypnotic form as your muscles move without thinking. As you do this, you clear your head and only think of the rose and each fold as you do so. This is the essence of meditation. Clearing your mind of all distractions, but a simple approach allows your body to release the stress of the day.
It takes time to master this type of practice as you practice folding the paper over and over. The more you do this, the better and deeper your meditation will become, which, in turn, will result in better origami and deeper relaxation. In time, making a frog or crane and watching it jump or fly will become another aspect of your meditation.
You will also find that your origami folding skills and techniques improve the more you can enter a meditative state while practicing origami. The better you become at origami, the deeper and more relaxing your meditations will be and you will find this continues to grow more and more over time.
