Do you love doing jigsaw puzzles? They are such a great activity you can do as a family or you can get some real downtime and build a puzzle on your own. Selfcare has been such an important part of the last year and as a result people are re-discovering activities that they thought they didn’t have time for. Building puzzles is one of those activities.
Puzzles aren’t new activities, the jigsaw puzzle has been around since 1767. The best part about puzzles today is that you can get puzzles that can be turned into art work, framed and hung up on your wall.
But jigsaw puzzles also have many brain boosting benefits.
- Puzzles give both sides of your brain a workout. The left and right side of your brain, each have different functions. The left side controls your analytics and logic while the right side is all about creativity. Building puzzles works both hemispheres. You have to be both analytical and creative.
- Your memory will improve. Building puzzles is a great way to improve your short-term memory.When you build a puzzle you have to remember shapes, sizes and colours – all helping you to improve your memory skills.
- You will work on your problem solving skills. This is also one of the reasons why puzzles are so great for kids, they learn how to problem solve as they figure out which piece is the right piece.
- Visual and spatial reasoning is improved. When you are building a puzzle you have to look at the pieces to see how they fit together and this all helps to develop and improve your spatial and reasoning.
- Building a puzzle helps to life your mood. When you find the right piece, dopamine is released which makes you feel good, so the more pieces you get right, the better you feel.
- Puzzles are great stress relievers. Puzzles require you to concentrate so you have not time to worry or stress, your focus is completely on the puzzle and as a result it reduces your stress levels. This is one the reasons I love building puzzles – I completely zone out and totally relax.
- You might even find they improve your IQ score. Puzzle building involves memory, concentration, vocabulary and reasoning – improving all of these will naturally improve your IQ.
Finding the right puzzle
There are so many different designs in puzzles. Some people like to build and rebuild the same puzzle but others, like me, prefer to build the puzzle and then move on. Whether you are rebuilding the puzzle or just building it once, you still get all the benefits.
Framing a completed puzzle and using it as wall art speaks to me on so many levels. You get all the benefits of building the puzzles and then get to sit back and admire your handy work every day.
Pixels hashave a collection of the most amazing jigsaw puzzles for adults. Because the puzzle are made from such stunning prints, you can easily have then framed and hang them on your wall. Whatever style you want, you will find on Pixels -from bold wildlife landscape puzzles, to whimsical images to the more classical puzzles. Whatever vibe you are looking for you will find it at Pixels.
The best part about this site is that you can create your own puzzle easily and quickly. . If you have an image you took or designed, you simply upload it and they will create a puzzle for you. You can choose from a 500 or 1000 piece puzzle.
Isn’t this such a cool idea? It would make for such a stunning personalised gift for someone who loves building puzzles and then once they are done they have a stunning wall art.