Puzzles: How They Improve Your Mental Health

February 4, 2020

Do not disturb, I’m finishing this puzzle today. This is what I told my kids as I sat at the dining room table in complete concentration.

When was the last time you did something as thought provoking as a puzzle? The last time I sat and did a puzzle was last Christmas when the kids got several for presents.

As nerdy as it sounds, I love sitting down with a 500 or even 1000 piece puzzle and bang it out.

It allows my brain to work a little bit harder during the day. Since going on my social media detox, there is a lot of extra time to do things I enjoy.

Reading is always on top of my list and I’ve already finished three books this week, but doing puzzles is something different I can do to stimulate my brain.

I like how all these pieces come together to make a picture. On a side note I don’t like the mess they make. Actually, it’s the amount of space they take up on my table.

I like to keep my house tidy and messes can sometimes overwhelm me. Instead of putting the puzzle away, it forces me to complete it faster.

So I made a game out of it. At this point in the puzzle I was getting down to the pieces that look almost identical in color, so it was a matter of fitting the pieces in the right spaces.

I put 10 pieces in and then do the dishes. Put 10 more pieces in and then run a load of laundry. Do another set of 10 then pick up my kid from school and so on and so forth.

In retrospect, those 10 pieces represented my time I normally would be on my phone scrolling through Instagram.

It was ironic that instead of doing something that didn’t serve me, I enhanced my day and brain power.

It’s bittersweet because the puzzle is complete. Who knows if I will go out and get another one right now. I’ve always been a lover of puzzles. Maybe I’ll go out and get myself a big book of logic puzzles. Whatever I find, it’s definitely taking the place of the time I spent scrolling.

What was the last puzzle you did?