Piecing it All Together: Finding Your Centre With Puzzles
Grounding yourself in the midst of a PTSD trigger isn’t always easy. Remembering affirming statement strategies, or staying focused on taking deep breaths and taking stock of your surroundings, are great pieces of advice when feeling clear-headed — but in extreme cases of anxiety and overwhelm, they can be difficult to rely on, when something more is needed to bring you back to your centre.
Mindful techniques in the form of “zen play” have gained massive popularity in recent years due to their low-stress nature. You may be familiar with video games with a soothing atmosphere, or mandala colouring books, that actively engage our focus.
Jigsaw puzzles are also a great option, and offer a surprising measure of benefits to managing stress.
It all starts with the picture on the front of the box — be it a replica of a famous Monet painting, or a pile of cats cozying up for one big sunlit nap. Images and works of art resonate with people on a deep level, especially when it comes to picking out the next puzzle you may wish to tackle.
Puzzles are not only a great way to spend a weekend afternoon, but they also provide a plethora of brain health benefits associated with other mind games — such as improving working memory and cognitive processing speed.
In 2018, a German study showed that jigsaw puzzles in particular are a great way to engage your focus in times of emotional dysregulation, and induce a state of relaxation.
This is because sitting down with a good puzzle can help cognitively distract us from a feeling of immediate distress thanks to the help of mindfulness, a practice of allowing ourselves to be present in the moment. It is in the complexity of matching tiny pieces together that encourages our cognitive focus to fall into a state of engagement, literally piecing together fragmented patterns to create one large picture, providing a sense of joy and accomplishment.
The brain naturally gets a lot of joy out of pattern recognition and matching things together. Piecing a good jigsaw puzzle together can help people set aside their worries, releasing endorphins into the bloodstream that promote relaxation and grounded focus.
Games by nature bring about a social aspect that encourages relationship building and teamwork. Jigsaw puzzles are no different in this respect, enjoyed by people all over the world who yearn to connect with each other over a passion for recreational problem-solving. You can find plenty of gaming and puzzler clubs, from Facebook groups, to local meetups! For a more competitive taste, some board game cafes even host jigsaw puzzle nights, where groups of people team up for a night of camaraderie to see whose table can piece their puzzle together the fastest.
Puzzles offer so many great mental health benefits that have proven effects on boosting mood, lowering stress levels, and encouraging mindful habits. Whether from the toy aisle or from an app on your phone, feel encouraged to sit down and give yourself permission to “play”, even just for five minutes. The way you feel afterwards just might surprise you.
The act of “play” is an important tool for healing. In times of extreme anxiety, when it’s difficult to make heads or tails of what’s real and what is simply a product of a trauma trigger, sitting down with a jigsaw puzzle can offer a unique solution to stress management over other well-known mindfulness and grounding techniques that might not work for you.