A Gentle Origami Box Practice: Using Art to Support Making Space for Healthy Holiday Boundaries
The holidays can be joyful- and heavy. Between travel, family expectations, gift pressure, and old patterns resurfacing, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. An accessible therapeutic art ritual like folding a simple origami box can help: it gives you a calming activity, a tactile symbol of healthy boundaries, and a practical tool for holding intentions or “permissions” you want to bring into the season.
This post walks you through a short origami therapeutic art process and shows how to use the finished box to support clear, compassionate boundaries — inspired by therapist and author Nedra Glover Tawwab’s boundary suggestions (taking space when needed, setting gift expectations early, creating new traditions, and more).
Here are some of my favorite tips from Tawwab for navigating a potentially difficult holiday season while retaining your wellbeing and healthy boundaries:
- Taking time and space away to be alone if you’re staying with family. Consider renting a hotel.
- Set expectations early about gift-giving. Consider picking names and not buying multiple gifts. My family uses Elfster to organize our gift exchanges.
- Celebrate with friends if your family isn’t an option.
- If cooking is stressful, consider catering or going out to a restaurant.
- Create new traditions.
- Change subjects away from heated topics ( consider agreeing ahead of time not to bring them up) so you can use the holiday season to focus on what brings you together, not what creates division.
Why an Origami Box?
Boxes are symbolic. Boundaries are containers — structures that make space for what matters and keep out what doesn’t. Folding a box is a gentle, embodied way to practice that containment. Touching and folding paper is tactile and grounding. The repetitive, mindful folds regulate the nervous system and reduce reactivity. And, it’s useful! Once folded, the box becomes a spot to keep short reminder notes, “permissions,” or emergency scripts to use during difficult moments. You might just find yourself making boxes for all sorts of things!
What You’ll Need
- 1 square sheet of paper (I recommend about 6-8 inches, but any size you can comfortably fold will do) for an open box, or 2 pieces for a box with a lid! You can use plain printer paper trimmed into a square, patterned origami paper, or festive stationery.
- Small slips of paper or sticky notes to write intentions.
- A pen.
- Optional: stickers, washi tape, sequins, or colored markers to decorate the outside
I suggest this simple video tutorial for making your origami box
https://youtu.be/miKVWRH6Jzc?si=xV5nwUHVFhEyiudV
After folding, write short notes tied to boundaries you want to practice:
- “I’ll take 30 minutes alone before dinner.”
- “We will exchange names for gifts only.”
- “I will say: ‘I’m choosing not to discuss that tonight’.”
Put those notes into your box. When the season feels intense, opening the box and re-reading one note can quickly re-center you.
More Prompt Ideas to Write on Your Notes (use inside the box)
- “I give myself permission to leave the room for 15 minutes.”
- “If gifts are discussed, we will stick to a $X limit.”
- “If family asks about X, I’ll say: ‘I would prefer not to talk about that.’”
- “I will eat when I need, even if the schedule is different.”
- “Plan B: I can rent a nearby hotel room if I need solitude.”
- “I will celebrate with friends if family isn’t an option.”
Short Scripts to Keep Handy (also good to write on slips)
- “Thank you for asking — I’m choosing not to discuss that today.”
- “I need a minute of quiet; I’ll be back soon.”
- “I appreciate the invite, but I’ll pass on that event.”
- “Let’s pick a different topic — what was the best part of your year?”
Get creative with it and find what works for you! I hope you enjoy this process and have a healthy, happy, and safe holiday season.