1. Distribute five sheets of paper to each person, leaving extras in a location for your group to grab if needed.
2. Using one sheet at a time, invite each person to write one hope or dream on their paper.
3. When ready, ask each person to crumple these sheets tightly into a ‘stone.’
4. Create five stones from all five sheets of paper.
5. Instruct each person to attempt to stack and balance all five stones on top of each other.
6. Consider inviting your group to reflect on the value of this exercise.

This is a great mindfulness activity and a very adaptable exercise depending on your programming needs.

Stacking stones into cairns is a mindfulness practice that encourages slowing down. As we slow down our rhythms, we can often find out what makes each part of our lives unique. Like stacking stones in nature, we can stack stones made of paper to practice balance, mindfulness, and perseverance.

Start by distributing five pieces of paper to each person in your group. Having some extra sheets on hand is always useful, as some members of your group will often request more after they rip one or lose another.

Instruct each person to take one of the sheets of paper and write a hope or dream they have on it.

There is no shortage of topics or themes you could focus on to prompt the writing process. For example, you could ask your group to think of ‘things’ they want to let go of, people they admire, things they want to build their foundation upon, etc.

Once they have written their statement or thought onto the paper, instruct them to crumple it tightly into a ball, to create what we will call a ‘stone’ for the purposes of this exercise. You could also think of it like a stress ball.

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

Now that they have created their five stones, challenge everyone to gather all five of their stones and attempt to stack them 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.

When ready, now that these stone stacks exist, you may refer back to them later in your program.

Or, for example, invite your group to reflect on the value and/or process of this exercise. Take a look at the suggestions in the Reflection Tips tab for discussion starters.

Some folks may want to move on quickly from this activity. Therein lies the value. This activity teaches patience and diligence. Keep going. If the tower falls, try again.

Some people may try to find a trick or loophole to this activity. There are none. The value is in the journey, not the destination.

If you have to finish the activity before some people have successfully completed their stack, encourage them to finish on their own, or offer a time for them to come back.

There is no magic in the number of paper ‘stones’ (5) you create. That said, two would be too easy, but six or more could prove too difficult to achieve.

You could integrate Paper Stone Stacking as part of a well-designed SEL program to develop your group’s ability to understand their emotions, thoughts and values and how these influence behaviour in different situations.

Specifically, this activity ample offers opportunities to explore and practice the following social & interpersonal skills:

Self-Awareness

• Identifying Emotions
• Linking Feelings, Values & Thoughts
• Demonstrating Self-Confidence, Honesty & Integrity
• Experiencing Self-Efficacy
• Having A Growth Mindset

Self-Management

• Demonstrating Self-Discipline & Self-Motivation
• Setting Personal & Group Goals
• Use Planning & Organisational Skills

Social Awareness

• Taking Other’s Perspectives
• Demonstrating Empathy & Compassion
• Appreciating Diversity
• Respecting Others

Responsible Decision-Making

• Demonstrating Curiosity & Open-Mindedness
• Anticipating & Evaluating the Consequences of One’s Actions
• Promoting Personal & Collective Well-Being

You can learn more about SEL and how it can support character education here.

This exercise is a very explicit tool you can use to invite your group to explore goal setting. The task of discussing and then writing their different hopes, dreams and aspirations on paper will keep these ideas in existence for your group to refer to long after the activity is complete.

Also, depending on how you frame this exercise, you could invite your group to focus on the development of their emotional literacy skills. For example, the paper stone stack could represent thoughts about resilience-building strategies and mindfulness. To this end, you could consider building a strong metaphor that connects the effort required and/or fragile nature of balancing one’s paper stone stack and managing their emotions in tricky times.

• Stone Column: Challenge your group to stack their stones on only one foundational stone. This adds challenge and potential frustration. This variation can also be used as a ‘Round 2.’
• Take a look at Ducks in a Row and Luminaria Circle to explore two more mindfulness exercises designed to focus on goal-setting.

• While, like most activities, this exercise is best experienced face-to-face, it can be presented in a virtual context. Obviously, you will need to ask each member of your online audience to grab their own sheets of paper before you get started.
• It also helps if each person is able to direct their webcam towards where they are building their stack, ie to show it off to others.

Has anyone seen a deliberate stack of stones located outdoors? These creations are called cairns, and the idea behind them is to practice mindfulness. They help people slow down and focus on the moment. Every stone is unique. Today, we are going to stack a different kind of stone. Let’s start by writing one of your hopes or dreams on your first piece of paper…

Stone stacking is a wonderful opportunity to indulge in some poignant self-reflection. In nature, this would involve finding stones around you and finding ways to stack them on top of each other. For our purposes today, we will use sheets of paper with which to make our stones…

Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after presenting this gentle mindfulness exercise:

• Who would like to show off their stack?
• 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?
• How did you/your activity influence the atmosphere?
• 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?