Origami for health and well-being

Positive, proactive and prevention-based

In Japanese the term 心のケア (kokoro no kea) translates to "care of the heart/mind", and is used to refer to the mental health support and services that is provided for dealing with the aftermath of traumatic or stressful events. But we should broaden our conversations about mental health and well-being by talking about the positive things that we can actively engage in daily.

Taking care of our heart and mind in a positive and proactive way can go a long way towards the prevention of long term mental health issues, and we are slowly seeing public health campaigns such as Dear Mind provide examples of how this can be done.

Everymind has also produced a Prevention First framework for strategic action to prevent mental ill-health and promote mental health and wellbeing. 5 Ways to Wellbeing is another initiative that introduces simple and effective ways to improve psychological and emotional health.

Principles common to physical and mental health

American non-fiction writer and photographer William Hayes offers an analogy in his book Sweat that draws parallels between creative practice and athletic training, in which he considers the six principles that sustain long-term personal fitness.

1. The Principle of Specificity is the idea that “what you train for is what you get”. “Be specific in your work goals as much as in your workouts,” Hayes writes. If your goal is endurance, train for endurance; if you aim to make your prose more musical, train your mind’s ear on musical writing. There is benefit in the action and process, but the maximum benefit comes from having a focus towards specific objectives.

2. The Overload Principle involves you to “train a part of the body above the level to which it is accustomed” — pushing yourself beyond your comfort zone and trying new things. This enables you to perform at a greater level under normal or typical conditions.

3. The Principle of Progression requires you to move on as soon as you have mastered a new task. Another way to think about this is to have visibility of what you have accomplished, and what you are aiming for next. 

4. The Principle of Accommodation goes hand-in-hand with the Progression Principle: Without challenge, the body — or the spirit — settles into stagnation or, worse, complacency. Inertia is a tendency to do nothing or to remain unchanged without a force being introduced. Momentum also doesn't last unless you continue to push something along.

5. The Principle of Reversibility is another way of saying "use it or lose it". Muscles atrophy when you stop using it, and neural connections weaken when you don't access it frequently. Strengthening your core muscle groups and exercising different muscles allow you to do more physically. Strengthening neural connections and making new ones allow you to do more mentally. 

6. The Principle of Rest is the final and one of the most foundational tenet of any sustained practice. Anyone who has suffered the aches and injuries of overtraining, or the emotional pain of burnout, knows the consequences of not taking time to recover from exertion. 

Workshops and classes

Like any physical activities people do to improve their fitness, the best way to boost and maintain your creative fitness is to do exercises regularly over a long period of time.

A typical exercise can be as little as five minutes to something that can take over an hour based on your level of skill and experience. A typical workshop or class combines a number of different exercises tailored for a specific audience.

An introductory session (1 hr) for beginners without no experience in origami will take you through some basic concepts about origami, and run through three exercises that cover a number of different concepts and techniques in one hour. 

• modular origami model folding

• miniature origami model folding

• blind folding exercises

You can do the introductory session as many times as you like, or continue to practice on your own.

Intermediate sessions (1 hr) are for people who have completed the introductory session and would like to work on a specific area of creative fitness in more depth, or to reinforce the skills and knowledge they have gained previously in one hour.

• dexterity

• resilience

• visualization

Advanced sessions (2 hr) are for people who have completed the intermediate session and would like to specialize in a specific area of creative fitness, and in doing so create their own concepts and techniques that they can develop further on their own.

For people who are arts and crafts instructors or practitioners, there is also a session that will help you understand how to teach in a way that can support the creative fitness of your students and help them get the most out of their lessons.