The Five Paper Stones Exercise

Five Paper Stones is a creative activity that promotes mindfulness, focus, slowing down, and develops patience and perseverance.

Distribute five sheets of paper to each person, leaving extras in a location for your group to grab if needed. Instruct each person to take one of the sheets of paper and write a dream they have on it.

When ready, ask each person to crumple these sheets tightly into a ‘stone.’

For each of the four remaining sheets, ask everyone to repeat this writing process. Repeat until all five sheets of paper have been written on and turned into ‘stones.’

Instruct each person to attempt to stack and balance all five stones on top of each other. Encourage your group to keep at it until all five stones are balanced as one unit. Ideally, challenge each person not to use props or objects to balance their stack.

It may take many tries, but encourage your group to continue until they finish building their stack. Consider inviting your group to reflect on the value of this exercise.

Moment of Reflection

• What feelings did you experience during that activity?
• What did you observe about the atmosphere in the room?
• How did this atmosphere influence the way you participated?
• What did you realise or discover about yourself during the exercise?
• Can someone describe what balance is? Use examples.
• What is a practice you could use to find balance in your life, work, etc?

The topics of this publication: reflection, self, mindfulness, health, wellbeing, creativity, emotions, resilience, reduce anxiety