Why puzzling is your secret weapon against stress

Stress is like a noisy roommate who refuses to leave. Whether it’s from work, social obligations or digital overstimulation, we often feel tense rather than relaxed. Meditation apps, breathing exercises and relaxation techniques are popular, but they don’t work for everyone. Puzzling, on the other hand, is a surprisingly effective way to reduce stress. It provides focus, satisfaction and puts you in a state of relaxation without you even realizing it. No airy-fairy stuff, just pure brain gymnastics.

1. Worrying? Sorry, no time for that!

You know how it is: you’re lying in bed and your mind is racing like a Formula 1 car. Work emails, grocery lists, that awkward comment from a meeting three weeks ago, your brain just keeps going. What if you had a way to distract your brain without completely shutting it down? Enter puzzles.

Puzzling forces you to focus your full attention on one task: finding the right piece. This is very similar to 'flow', a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a mental state in which you are so absorbed in an activity that time and worries fade away. Research shows that people in flow experience less stress and even have lower heart rates and blood pressure. Just like a painter who is completely absorbed in mixing colours or a football player who forgets everything around him during a dribble, puzzling helps you let go of worrying thoughts.

2. Multitasking is passé, slow thinking is in

We live in a world where speed and efficiency are the norm. We answer emails while eating breakfast, scroll through social media while watching TV, and try to do everything at once. The problem? Our brains aren’t designed for it. Neuroscientists have shown that multitasking not only decreases our ability to concentrate, but also increases our stress levels. What we consider ‘efficient’ is actually taking a toll on our mental health.

Puzzling is a form of 'monotasking', in other words: you focus your attention entirely on one task. This may seem simple, but the effect on your brain is enormous. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman described in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow how our brain uses two thinking systems: fast, intuitive thinking and slow, deeper thinking. In a world that increasingly relies on fast thinking (fast decisions, short attention spans), puzzling offers the much-needed balance by stimulating slow thinking. This gives your brain the chance to recover from the daily overload.

3. From chaos to control (and that feels great)

A puzzle starts out as a collection of random pieces that don’t seem to make sense at first. But little by little, structure emerges until you see the bigger picture. It gives you a sense of control, something that is often lacking in a stressful life where unexpected events and deadlines dictate your day. Psychologists call this the ‘micro-master effect’: completing small, manageable tasks gives us a sense of achievement and control. This is the same reason why people like to tick off lists or organize a closet. The brain likes order and predictability, and a puzzle offers just that.

Think of major societal challenges such as climate change or political instability. We often feel overwhelmed by their complexity. But just like a puzzle, even the most complicated problems can be solved by working step by step. By doing a puzzle, you train your brain to search for a solution in a calm and structured way, a skill that is also useful in everyday life.

Letting go of stress is easier than you think. Puzzling helps you to calm your thoughts, to be more aware of your time and to experience a sense of satisfaction. So instead of letting your head run over, give yourself a moment of relaxation. Grab a puzzle, feel the peace and discover how your brain comes to life. View the most beautiful puzzles at www.puzzleinabag.com and experience it yourself.