Since I started working on my own brand of Jigsaw puzzle and began promoting the concept, I have been repetitively asked few questions.
- Jigsaw puzzles are for kids
Whenever I tell people that I am manufacturing Jigsaw puzzles, the first question is “aren’t they meant for kids? ” But oddly most of them are aware of the benefits of Jigsaw puzzle on a child. We fail to recognize that the benefits can be taken well into young adulthood, adulthood and old age. Jigsaw puzzles improves your dexterity, visual and spatial engagement, short term and long term memory. - Why would an adult who is otherwise very brain active, solves sudoku and does creative writing require to do a Jigsaw puzzle?
To begin with Jigsaw puzzles form a balance wherein they are not very difficult and not very easy. It can be finished by everyone, the only varying factor will be time.
To give you an analogy, if an individual is used to walking for 5 km every day, he cannot use 5 km walk for losing weight. The body is used to the activity that the individual has been doing for every day. The principle is same even for brain exercises. Your daily activities will not challenge your brain enough. Also, most of the times it is only few centres of brain that engage actively in doing a task, There are very few activities that fuel all the lobes at the same time. For e.g. Sudoku fuels the logical and numeric centre of your brain. Spatial recognition, long term memory, visual differentiation have no involvement in solving a Sudoku. - What to do with the Jigsaw puzzle when you finish doing it ?
Most people think that it is just once that a Jigsaw puzzle can be solved and beyond that it is of no use. To begin with each puzzle can be solved more than once. One can choose the time line of repeating a puzzle. It can either be immediately or it can picked up again after doing some other puzzles. The overall impact and the benefit of solving the same puzzle will not be very different from when you did it for the first time.
Once you have exhausted and feel bored with the same design you can pass it on to your friends, cousins or other relatives. You can find Jigsaw buddies around and exchange the Jigsaw puzzles with them. Or you can donate it off to people who cannot afford buying it. Subscription models where you can return the Jigsaw puzzles and get some refund or points to redeem later. - How will a Jigsaw Puzzle help in de-stressing?
Solving a Jigsaw puzzle is so engaging and enticing that the trail of thought is interrupted and hence the stressor is interrupted. This gives a breathing space to your brain, which after Jigsaw will in all probability have a different perception or a solution to the stressor.
To understand the process I would recommended you to pick up Jigsaw puzzle as a regular activity for a pre-decided time (90 days or more) and decide on, what it is certainly doing to your brain. - Only one person can do the Jigsaw puzzle at any given time
You can choose to solve the Jigsaw puzzle along, or with a group of friends or cousins or your close family. It doesn’t have to be an isolated activity always. The choice is yours.