1000 JIGSAWS

Pieces to a Calmer You

While out shopping for Christmas presents in 2018, I bought myself a jigsaw puzzle on a whim. It was an unusual buy, one that I now recognise as an attempt at dealing with that particular stress many of us experience during the holidays. Don’t get me wrong – I love seeing my family. But holiday get-togethers have a way of putting

any personal shortcomings at centre stage. This cheery pink puzzle had everything I felt I needed to distract myself in one box. And at $20, the price was right. Why not?

As soon as I started on my puzzle, I knew I’d found exactly what I was looking for. Instead of my usual latenight Netflix binge, I was sorting its 1000 pieces well into the wee hours. I finished it in just a few days. I felt

possessed by the soothing, methodical action, almost like I’d been hypnotised or spent hours meditating.

Robyn Breen, a dance instructor, knows the feeling. At a family gathering years ago, Breen was reintroduced to puzzles and fell in love with their soothing effect. “I thought, Whoa, I feel really good when I’m doing this. I feel really chill,” she recalls. Breen suffers from anxiety, and when she was having too many worrisome thoughts about an upcoming trip, she turned to puzzling instead of prescription medication. It worked, and jigsaws have since become an essential part of her daily routine.

Clinical neuropsychologist Susan Vandermorris says that any type of puzzle is good for the brain and points to the stress-relieving benefits