In my earlier post about origami money envelopes, I mentioned I bought gradient origami paper.
Origami Day Started with Money Envelope / ポチ袋から始まった折り紙デー
To my surprise, I’ve become more captivated by the beauty and modern look of this origami paper than I expected. Now, I find myself folding cranes not only with my daughter but also alone. The process of carefully folding sharp edges and precise corners during small breaks between tasks feels almost meditative. Completing a crane gives me a sense of clarity and satisfaction.
As I folded cranes again after a while, I remembered how I used to do the same during my university entrance exam prep, more than 25 years ago. Back then, I wasn’t intentionally meditating, but maybe I instinctively felt it helped me focus. Another similar habit I had was sharpening pencils with a knife by hands—a peculiar thing for a high school girl to do ... 😅
In Japan, most people can fold a paper crane, so it’s not exactly rare (or is it still so these days?). However, in Germany, if you add a gold thread to hang them as decorations for the Christmas season, people are delighted to receive them. I plan to keep a small box of finished cranes ready for gifting as needed.
If I waited until Christmas to fold them, it would feel like a kind of time consuming "task". Instead, making them throughout the year as a meditative practice—and turning them into small, appreciated gifts — can be a wonderful idea.
So, how about doing meditative origami that serves two purposes? I’m now thinking about other things I could fold that might be helpful.
Have a nice weekend, everyone!
年初に書いた折り紙で作るポチ袋の投稿の中で、グラデーションの折り紙を買ったことを書きました。
Origami Day Started with Money Envelope / ポチ袋から始まった折り紙デー
子供だけでなく、思っていた以上に私自身がこの折り紙の美しさというか、モダンな仕上がりにはまってしまい、子供と一緒に折るだけでなく、一人でも鶴を折るようになりました。作業と作業の合間のちょっとした時間に、集中して角をピシッと折って仕上げていく一連の作業は瞑想のようでもあり、折終えるとスッキリします。
久しぶりに鶴を折りながら、大学受験の時にも勉強の合間に鶴を折っていたことを思い出しました。当時はまだ瞑想しようと考える年でもなかったのですが、集中するのによいと思っていたのかもしれません。もう一つ似たような行為として、鉛筆を手で削っていました。今思ってみると変な女子高生 w
日本では誰でも鶴を折れるので、折鶴は珍しくないかもしれないのですが（今でもそうなのかな？）、ドイツではクリスマスシーズンなどに、吊り下げられるように金色の紐をつけてデコレーションとして渡すと喜んでもらえるので、作ったものは箱にためておいて適宜使おうと思います。
クリスマスになって折ろうとするとわざわざ時間を使う作業になってしまうので、普段から瞑想的に作っておいて、さらにちょっとしたギフトとして喜んでももらえるなんて、いい案だなと我ながら。日本ではポチ袋が実用的かもしれません。
そんなこんなで、一石二鳥の折紙瞑想いかがでしょうか！他にも折って役立つものがあるか考えてみたいです。
それではみなさん、よい週末を！
Although I haven't worked out how to turn it into Christmas gifts (a lovely idea), I enjoy folding clothes and "tidying up" my underwear drawer. I agree, it feels meditative to be carefully folding garments and smoothing them so they maintain their best appearance until we want to wear them. I do small tasks like this in between computer/brain tasks as a break.
I had to bite my tongue from saying something here 🤣
😂
I like to fold garments too ☺️ You are right, it's meditative. I like to fold tea towels as I use a lot for my cooking hobby ... We can generalize it to small tasks as you wrote. I will be more aware of them and become witchy-guru some day 😉
😍
I think anything where we occupy our mind like this is an excellent thing. You nailed it with doing it little by little it is fun, but having to do a whole load all at once is not fun
Yes, it will be an origami factory and not fun at all ... 😁