Puzzles for your brain

January 29 is/was National Puzzle Day.

I love puzzles. I love digital puzzle games, word puzzles, number puzzles, logic puzzles, but especially, I am a fan of jigsaw puzzles. For me, they are rewarding and relaxing. And it’s not just me. There’s some interesting neuroscience behind how puzzles might build resilience and lower stress.

Effort-driven rewards

Dr. Kelly Lambert, my first neuroscience professor and one of the most influential mentors of my career, wrote the book Lifting Depression. In it, she details how the reward pathways of the brain are activated by physical effort directed toward tangible outcomes, allowing us to gain pleasure from our own work at things like gardening, knitting, whittling, and so on. These activities then can help us build resilience.

When we can see the fruits of our labor, it feels real and gives us a sense of satisfaction and pleasure. For many of us, we rarely see real tangible outcomes of our work. Many workers sit in front of screens, creating digital work, receiving intermittent paychecks automatically deposited into accounts are access through plastic devices. It’s not nearly as satisfying as spending a weekend repainting a spare bedroom and seeing a transformation wrought from your own two hands.

Making things, like art -or jigsaw puzzles- can be hobbies that allow us to gain pleasure from our efforts and build resilience against the challenges we encounter in our lives.

Focused attention

I hear a lot of people complain about their own inability to pay attention or to stay on task. While some people have a harder time than others, it would be a mistake to consider focused attention a trait that you either have or don’t.

Focused attention is a skill that can be practiced and developed, like any other skill. Here’s a great article about Focused Attention: 5 Fun Ways To Experience It And Boost Your Memory.

Whether I think of puzzling as meditation or mindful rest or even just practice at single-tasking… it’s clear that it helps me tune out many interruptions and pay attention to fewer things at a deeper level.

A wall of memories.

We have a wall of the basement entirely covered with glued-together jigsaw puzzles. Before you start imagining anything formal, let me assure you that it is not. We use a peel-and-stick puzzle-saver backing, affix some command strips, and just slap them on the wall. I let the kids help hang them sometimes and the result is an informal, haphazard, slightly crooked, Tetris-style conglomeration of whimsical puzzles that range from 24-piece Disney princesses to 1000-piece landscapes… and lots of fun challenges in between.

One of the things I love best about working puzzles is the memories associated with them. What was going on when we were working this or that puzzle? We had relatives in town and we sat around visiting and laughing while puzzling. Another one was worked on vacation. A handful of 80s kids puzzles came out of my parents’ attic and my children had fun working them and asking about antiquated cartoon characters. If I’m puzzling alone, I often have an audiobook playing or reruns of an old show or movie I’ve seen.

Because a jigsaw puzzle requires a certain amount of focus, but actually seems to benefit from alternating attention away and back again, it’s a perfect task to do in conjunction with other things that require good listening skills. While attempting to multi-task usually disrupts memory processes, this is a great example of how different parts of your brain can be engaged alternately to enhance memory.

Not for everyone

Jigsaws don’t fit everyone’s lifestyle or personality. I love this article in which the author extolls the virtues of puzzling alongside her own very real challenges to make it part of her life.

For those who don’t particularly care for jigsaw puzzles, there’s a whole digital library of different kinds of puzzle games, from Sudoku to crosswords to Candy Crush. Each kind of puzzle provides different challenges and rewards for your brain.

While puzzles are great for your brain, they aren’t the only way to keep mentally fit and ward off cognitive decline. Don’t worry if they aren’t your favorite thing!

Whether you love them all or aren’t much of a puzzler yourself, there’s a perfect fit for puzzles in your life.

Happy National Puzzle Day!