If you’re already a fan of jigsaw puzzles, you may have already noticed some of the benefits of solving them. Benefits include, for example, a more relaxed state of mind during and following the activity or a welcome distraction from pain. If you’re new to jigsaw puzzles, you may be surprised also to hear that they’re an excellent way to improve visual perception, fine motor skills, and analytical reasoning. There’s even evidence to suggest solving jigsaw puzzles can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and Dementia!
Here’s how jigsaw puzzles can better your overall health, explained one piece at a time:
How Jigsaw Puzzles Are More than a Hobby
According to one psychologist, the careful attention to detail and passive problem-solving skills used to complete a jigsaw puzzle are akin to focused meditation. According to Dr. Michelle McCoy Barrett, a licensed clinical psychologist with a PhD, “…becoming immersed in a puzzle can be like practicing a mindful meditation — relaxing your mind and body, decreasing stress, and even slowing your heart rate and lowering your blood pressure.”
Dr. Barrett is far from the only expert to hold this view. Some experts call it mindfulness, others emotional processing or meditation, and others still mix or use the terms interchangeably. Regardless of the wording, mental wellness and neuroscience professionals tend to agree that jigsaw puzzles are more than simple entertainment.
How Jigsaw Puzzles Keep Your Mind Sharp and Take Your Mind Off Suffering
It’s good to keep our minds idle and our hands busy. In the past, humans had plenty of opportunities throughout their day-to-day lives to do just that, performing activities that required focus but were otherwise lenient enough to allow our minds the freedom to wander. The effect was meditative and had all manner of benefits. Examples included time to decompress after emotional stress, muscle relaxation, and improved overall mental health.
Modern life has minimized the opportunities to engage in idle thinking. We’re constantly on our phones, pressured to work harder and faster, and frequently surrounded by stimulation from the moment we wake up.
Jigsaw puzzles restore the benefits of idle thinking to our lives and more:
They also improve our analytical skills, hand-eye coordination, and short-term memory and can distract us from physical pain and suffering.
Lowering the Risk of Alzheimer’s and Other Illness Through Puzzles
All of the benefits listed previously are beautiful examples of the way jigsaw puzzles can reduce symptoms of depression or anxiety disorders, and they accomplish this simply by giving us a safe way to process our thoughts. But those aren’t the only illnesses that puzzle solving can have a positive effect on:
Studies have indicated that jigsaw puzzles exercise our cognitive and visual-spatial reasoning abilities and short-term memory. This makes puzzle-solving effective at safeguarding against the effects of cognitive decline at any age, including against diseases like Dementia and Alzheimers. Exercising your brain through puzzling or similar activities is essential to your well-being, and it can delay or even outright prevent the onset of cognitive decline.
Doctors recommend keeping our brains active and engaged, encouraging us to exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet. Solving puzzles is merely one way to do that, but it’s also a method with a low barrier to entry. People can enjoy putting together jigsaw puzzles – and their unexpected health benefits – at any age or skill level.
Puzzles are a great hobby and a great way to better yourself and your health.
Author Brittany Cotton
Published by International Pain Foundation, Team iPain, iPain Blog
