Puzzling Our Way Through Life.

Every once in a while, I love to pull out a jigsaw puzzle and leave it sitting on a table where I have ready access to it; popping in a few pieces every once in a while whenever I walk by or have a few spare moments.

These age old games originated in the 1760s. Initially known as dissections, the puzzles were created by mounting maps onto sheets of hardwood and then cutting along boundary lines. These were then used for teaching geography.

In 1767, John Spilsbury was credited with commercializing the game.

But have you ever compared life to a jigsaw puzzle?

This is what crossed my mind the other day as I placed the last piece into one of the latest challenges I was working on... how close life sometimes emulates a jigsaw puzzle.

A whole box of tiny shapes with no clue how they go together. The bigger picture can’t be seen for the mound of pieces stacked on top of each other! Life is like that too…. sometimes we get a whole lot thrown at us, one thing piling upon another, but we don’t know how to deal with it all. Where do you start? How do you work through the maze of unknowns? What does it take to start putting all the pieces together?

Start with what you know

While everyone has their own way of working a puzzle, one thing we all know is the foundation of it is its boundary. We need to search out pieces that create the perimeter and which will confine all the other pieces before they go astray. This is just logical thinking.

In life, the foundation of most things is also logical thinking. Therefore, this is a great personal trait to try to foster and develop. In order to have the basic skills to be able to deal with many life situations and issues which are not straightforward, our best ammunition is to be able to think logically.

Having good logical skills will help you to gather up all the pieces you need to solve the problems at hand and help to contain them before the issue advances beyond your control.

Some things you can do is to take what you already know regarding the issue, and make a place for it in your mind, write it down on paper, or record it on your hand held device if you need to. This is akin to the pieces of the puzzle; the pieces you know without doubt that form the perimeter or boundary.

_{photo © Heather Johnsgaard}

Next, categorize all the pieces of the puzzle. In a jigsaw, you might organize all similar colours into one or more piles, separate out recognizable pieces into another, and perhaps odd shapes in the last. Storing them in containers will keep them from getting mixed up or lost.

In life, that might mean organizing anything which will help the issue you are facing to move forward to a successful conclusion.

An example could be something like getting finances in order or raising money. Perhaps you might pull out anything you can sell, then listing them for sale online, advertising on bulletin boards, or phoning up someone who had indicated an interest in a certain item. Keep track of what you have for sale and where you have it advertised. Once sold, tick it off the list and then you can put the money raised in a special account for its new intended purpose so it won't get spent or lost.

Once you have done all the groundwork, it is time to start putting the pieces together… one by one… step by step… until you can start seeing the bigger picture come together. Sometimes along the way you have to put some pieces aside until you can see where they will eventually fit in. With skill and patience, the whole picture will start coming together and the end view will appear less daunting.

_{photo © Heather Johnsgaard}

Garnering Benefit from Child's Play

Working on jigsaw puzzles has so many benefits that reach beyond the simplicity of its entertainment value and can enhance our lives in so many ways. Puzzling is not just a game for children, everyone can reap its rewards.

Here are some of the many benefits of immersing yourself into a jigsaw puzzle:

• Better Brain Function: Puzzling helps to improve short term memory and mental speed. It also helps to stimulate the left and right sides of our brain; the logical thinking of the left side and the creative, intuitive and emotional thinking of the right
• Improves Problem-Solving Skills:The act of taking unknown and unrecognizable shapes and formulating a method for linking them together takes concentration and focus, and forces us to think and to try different solutions until all the pieces fit together.
• Improves Visual-Spatial Processing: This is the ability to manipulate 2 and 3D figures; definitely beneficial for children, but it is also especially important for seniors as it helps delay Dementia and Alzheimer's.
• Improved Mood, Mental Health, and Lower Stress Levels: Puzzling is similar to meditation in that it presents and encourages a sense of calmness and peace. While focussed on a task, the time spent concentrating on it helps to release stress and anxiety from our lives.
• Improves Our Attention Span: This is especially beneficial for children who enjoy the various shapes, sizes and coloured pieces. A great activity for fostering calm and peace before bed time.
• Enhances Fine Motor Skills: These skills are improved from the effort of joining pieces together correctly. This is beneficial for both children as they are learning and growing, and for seniors who may lose some of this ability due to increased age, as an example, shaky hands.
• Builds Memory Improvement: Sharpens our memory through remembering pieces, colours and locations.
• Hand Eye Co-Ordination: Looking through all the pieces and recognizing shapes and colour then placing them in the correct location or general location as compared to the image on the box.
• Can Enhance Social Skills: When enjoyed with friends or family, team work becomes apparent and discussion and interaction the result.
• Can Foster Independence: Puzzles are a perfect hobby for solo play, it can while away the hours especially for those who live alone. The hobby is so absorbing that hours can whizz by without you realising!
• Problem Solving Skills: Figuring out what pieces go where, identifying colours, recognizing shapes, and even counting the "knobs" or "slots" are all the problems you will encounter.
• Time to Foster Play Without Technology: Jigsaw puzzles are a perfect past time when more modern computer-based games are not available. It forces us to slow down from the fast-paced online games and enjoy a more peaceful and relaxing past time. At first, children may find it boring, however, once the puzzle starts coming together it begins to be more challenging and fun. Finding subject matter which appeals to the puzzler is a must... if you hate the image, you will hate the process!

Any time a task offers us the chance to improve both our well-being and intelligence, be it hobby or life, those benefits can and will be carried through into many areas of our every day existence. Our lives will be enhanced because of them and we will be armoured with a toolbox of beneficial, essential and necessary skills both physically and mentally.

Get out a puzzle and improve your world!

_{photo © Heather Johnsgaard}

We are neither too young nor too old, and it doesn’t matter whether you are male or female, jigsaw puzzles are more than just a child’s past time. The selection available to us today are so varied there is something for everyone.

From small to large, easy to difficult, there are sceneries to action, animals to insects, gardening, sports, fantasy and more, it’s time you checked out puzzles for yourself and reap the rewards of this age old hobby.

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