Simple Origami is a Great Way to Relax
Why not use simple origami to help you relax? Stress and anxiety are two major contributers to dysfunction in society. The signs are often missed and the results can be devastating. There are many factors which make people stressed.
The signs of stress to look out for are unexplained changes to routine or habits. These include heavy alcohol consumption, smoking more or lose of losing ones temper without just cause. Lack of sleep tends to set nerves on edge. This can develop if unchecked into stress as ones ability to manage situations is reduced.
The key to stress reduction is to find time to relax and unwind away from the strains of modern life. Regular exercise is important and often helps lower blood pressure. Eating correctly is a consideration as well. It's a case of you are what you eat. If you eat junk food often then your body is not getting the nutrition required for healthy living. Five portions of fresh fruit or vegetables daily is a good place to start. Even drinking enough water is essential as we are mainly water based organisms.
Simple origami is helpful in channeling that stress or anxiety into a creative energy. This results in lower levels of stress and more balanced individual. Simple origami is great at reducing stress as well. It requires the use of both mind and body to focus on the folding and creasing of paper to produce designs. As ones ability increases so the complexity of the designs does too. The importance thing to bare in mind is that the folding and creasing techniques used in the beginning stages are also employed in the more complex designs. So the folds themselves do not change, just how you apply them to different challenges.
In fact, origami as therapy has its proponents: in 1991, at the Conference on Origami in Education and Therapy, a mental-health professional presented a paper detailing her origami work with prisoners. “The most rewarding of experiences,” she wrote, “was that of observing the effect that Origami had on psychopathic killers.”
Naturally we are not all in this category. Day to day life is becoming ever more stressful, even children in primary schools in the UK are under excessive stress to produce academic results.
The charm of simple origami, is that with a little preparation, it is a hobby you can practice in a whole range of places. On the bus, train or plane. Or just spending an afternoon on the sofa with your favorite origami paper. Why not make your own simple origami butterfly by following the video below?
Check out the butterfly origami video
Animal Origami Adventure An Origami Safari in a Box
3 great how-to books by John Montroll including designs for Origami Wild Animals shows how to fold amazing likenesses of an elephant, kangaroo, and snake. Origami Sea Creatures offers basic folds for a walrus, starfish, and other creatures of the deep while Origami Birds and Insects includes instructions for making an ostrich, swan, and beetle. The kit also contains sheets of solid, multicolored, and patterned origami paper.
30 fun projects
Hundreds of simple illustrations
