Are Puzzles & Brainteasers the Key to Happiness?


Jigsaw puzzle benefits, infographic

An "Out-Of-The-Box" Activity!

Jigsaw puzzles are excellent brain training and co-ordination improvement tools. In educational settings jigsaw puzzles are used extensively as learning aids. They are also big fun for the whole family—allowing for quality time, and providing a sense of accomplishment when they are complete!

Jigsaws develop your abilities to reason, analyze, sequence, deduce. They challenge your logical thought processes and problem solving skills. These types of puzzles also improve hand-eye co-ordination and develop a good working sense of spatial arrangements.

When you solve a jigsaw puzzle, you are engaging your brain to retain information about shapes and colors in order to choose pieces that will fit together properly. Your brain needs to memorize what each piece looks like (or should look like) and what kinds of pieces you are searching for in order to complete the picture. Doing this repeatedly reinforces short-term memory.

LINK: PICKING THE RIGHT JIGSAW PUZZLE FOR YOU

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Wiring Our Brains For The Better!

We can enhance our mental fitness by exposing the brain to puzzles that challenge our normal modes of thinking.

You know the phrase “use it or lose it?” It is true when it comes to the way our brains age. When we don’t actively seek experiences that expose our minds to new and challenging stimuli, our neuroreceptors die off.

TYPES OF PROBLEM SOLVING:

Lateral thinking utilizes a creative, less direct, approach. We aren’t given the opportunity to exercise lateral thinking often in our daily lives. Lateral thinking keeps us feeling fresh, creative, on our toes, so to speak, when tackling new problems.

Brainteasers can keep the mind stimulated by encouraging it to think and act in novel ways.

Vertical thinking involves an analytical, logical approach—we use this when dealing with math equations.

Brain puzzles are games that also challenge our thinking but may require logic or vertical analysis to solve. Brain puzzles can even be physical objects!

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Benefits of brain puzzles, infographic