Jigsaw Puzzles for Stress Relief and Mindfulness

Anyone who's pieced together a jigsaw puzzle knows how absorbing the hunt for the next piece can be. Notifications, deadlines, and the never-ending to-do list melt away, and you find your attention firmly anchored on the pieces in front of you.

Puzzles occupy the brain with the search for patterns, shapes, and colors, helping to reduce stress and calm the mind. They're a practical form of mindfulness - the practice of bringing your focus to the present moment, pausing stressful thought loops, and training your concentration on a single task.

So what does this actually look like, and what's going on in your brain while it happens? Here's how to build a mindful puzzling habit, and the science behind why it works so well.

How to be mindful

Being mindful is the practice of being fully present in the here and now.

It’s the opposite of half-watching TV, while replying to emails, while thinking about what’s for dinner.

When you learn to be mindful, you start noticing what's around you in more detail. Your internal voice gets turned down. Your brain realizes there's nothing actually wrong right now. And what's left is a sense of calm.

It sounds very straightforward, but the human brain is wired to look for problems. It evolved to help us survive by checking what’s next and what could go wrong. So it’s totally normal to find your mind drifting to unfinished tasks, to-do lists, or replaying the day. The key to a mindful practice is acknowledging the thought without reaction, and gently bringing your attention back to the here and now.

Mindful activities

Mindfulness isn't really about the activity itself, it's about how you do it. Any activity completed with your full attention, rather than on autopilot, can be mindful, from washing the dishes to making a coffee to folding the laundry. The trick is to notice everything as you do it. Paying attention to what you can see, hear, touch, and smell is a great way to anchor your attention on the activity you are completing. And when your mind inevitably wanders, just gently bring it back to the task at hand.

Why jigsaw puzzles are so good for mindfulness

Jigsaw puzzles make mindfulness easier because they naturally hold your attention. Unlike washing the dishes or folding the laundry, which most of us can do while thinking about something else entirely.

A puzzle gives your brain a specific problem to solve, revolving around sorting shapes, matching colors, and working out where the pieces fit. That's enough to occupy your mind without overwhelming it. Meaning there's less room to drift off into unresolved worries and less of the mental tug-of-war that can come with sitting down to meditate.

Puzzling is a great screen-free activity. Smartphones, computers, tablets, and laptops keep us constantly connected. We can answer emails when we walk the dog, watch a YouTube video while we cook dinner, or scroll through social media while we wait for the bus. Every notification, headline or scroll gives your brain something new to react to, so your mind never gets a moment to settle. Swapping for a jigsaw brings your focus firmly back to the offline world and allows you to focus on one thing at a time.

Are jigsaw puzzles good for your mind?

Jigsaw puzzles improve both how the brain works and your overall mental state and mood.

First up, puzzles help build what's known as cognitive reserve. This is your brain's ability to improvise, adapt, and find alternative ways to complete tasks. This naturally declines as we age, but regularly challenging your brain can slow down that process.

Puzzles are also one of the best-evidenced ways to sharpen visuospatial reasoning - your ability to judge shapes, distances, and how things fit together. They are just as good at challenging your working memory too. This cognitive function helps us to problem solve and link new information with what we already know. A good example of this is holding a mental image of the finished picture in your mind whilst your eyes scan the loose pieces. Like cognitive reserve, working memory naturally declines with age, but it responds well to regular training.

Puzzles are also the focus of a growing number of clinical trials. Researchers have found a link between engaging in intellectual activities, like puzzles, and a reduced risk of Alzheimer's and dementia. And for people who already have dementia, puzzles have shown promise in helping preserve the cognitive function they still have.

Puzzling doesn't just help your brain function better, it can improve how you feel too. Just 30 minutes of puzzling has been shown to lower the stress hormone cortisol. It also releases dopamine, a chemical in the brain often referred to as the happy hormone. Every time you click a piece together, the brain gets a small reward, which is part of what makes puzzling so satisfying.

How to build a mindful puzzling practice

Puzzling is mindful by nature, but there are a few things you can do to get even more out of it.

Puzzling on a cluttered table in a busy part of the house doesn't invite much calm, so if you can, find a dedicated space that’s quiet and free of distractions. If that's not possible, a tray or a puzzle storage solution, like a roll-up puzzle mat or puzzle carry case, means you can pack your puzzle away and bring it back out whenever the moment feels right.

It also helps to remove distractions before you start, like turning the TV off and putting your phone in another room. This keeps your attention firmly on the jigsaw, rather than it being pulled in different directions.

And finally, don’t put pressure on yourself. Rather than promising yourself an hour of puzzling every day, just ten or fifteen minutes done regularly gives you all the same benefits. There's no need to rush or hit a certain number of pieces either. Just work through it at a relaxed pace.

Mindfulness with Ravensburger

Of course, mindful puzzling starts with picking the right jigsaw. From fine art to animals, beaches to birds and landscapes to flowers, Ravensburger has hundreds of jigsaw puzzles for you to choose from. Browse our full range of puzzles to find your moment of calm.