The body often needs exercise, and the same is true of the human brain, although this is not always addressed. For anyone, especially kids, stimulating the brain and challenging its faculties is essential for personal growth, most of all during a person’s younger, most formative years. All sorts of activities can boost mental awareness, and one of them is something very common and affordable: jigsaw puzzles. Moderately difficult puzzles, tough puzzles, or very easy puzzles for toddlers can all do some good for those who complete them, and very advanced, novelty puzzles are out there for teenagers and adults looking for a challenge to brag about completing. Puzzles are often measured by size, such as a 1000 pc puzzle, although the biggest ones may exceed even this size. What mental benefits can puzzles provide, and which the best puzzles for a person?

Puzzles

The very oldest toy categorized as a puzzle in the world is a dissection of a square that Archimedes mentioned around 250 BC, but in a more modern sense, the first true puzzle was a wooden cutout map of the British Empire made in the 1760s that children could assemble, but by the 1900s, puzzles became mainstream toys and activities in the United States and United Kingdom. Easy puzzles will probably have under 100 pieces and may have patterns making it easy to see what piece goes where, but tough puzzles, like a 1000 pc puzzle, represent the higher end of puzzle difficulty, and even 2000 piece puzzles are out there for those who need a real challenge.

Mental Power and Puzzles

Puzzles are not just toys or hobbies, but a great way to exercise and expand the mind. According to LinkedIn, the human right brain deals with emotions and creativity and expression, while the left brain is more linear and deals with math, language, and logic, but a puzzle can in fact stimulate both sides at the same time. Both sides of the brain are active while a person performs an activity such as solving a puzzle, and this continuous firing of neurons between different parts of the brain strengthens and exercises the connections between the brain’s two halves. In fact, dementia and other mental problems such Alzheimer’s can be resisted by means of doing puzzles, and people who often did puzzles were found to have longer lifespans. A 1000 pc puzzle is a good challenge, for example, and completing them could reap these benefits. Dopamine, which is involved in memory and learning, is release while a person solves a puzzle.

There are even more benefits to activities such as puzzles, whether a 1000 pc puzzle or smaller. Working on them helps boost a person’s alertness and concentration, and can expand creativity. Looking at the puzzles’ developing image and predicting the whole image can sharpen visualization skills and can lower heart rate and blood pressure, giving a physical calming effect. In fact, this is roughly analogous to meditation, which has often demonstrated great mental and physical benefits for relaxation and focus on a single image or concept. And for kids, exercising all of these faculties, from memory to concentration to image awareness can be crucial for development and can play a part in a child’s education. Puzzles and similar activities can be an effective companion to other educational routes such as learning to read, write, and draw.