How Puzzle Solving Can Sharpen Your Focus

For many centuries, people believed that intelligence was something you were born with and couldn’t change. You live your whole life with the level of focus and intelligence you were born with. Modern science has denied these views. It is now proven that our brain works like a muscle. You can stretch and improve it by doing different mental exercises.

Playing puzzles is one of them.

Solving puzzles takes mental effort. You put pressure on your brain while solving problems and patterns, which directly impacts your focus.

In this blog post, I am going to discuss how puzzle-solving can sharpen your focus in detail.

Understanding Our Puzzle Culture

Puzzles have been a huge part of our daily lives. From a very young age, kids are handed different toys and brain games, so that they can play and figure things out on their own. The child tries to solve the problems and enjoys it.

In school, teachers play different puzzles with students and assign them different activities to solve from home. As we grow up, we start focusing on more complex puzzles, such as free jigsaw puzzle, Sudoku, and Kakuro, and learn to solve them in order to challenge our minds. Even when people get older, they love solving different puzzles.

Many scientific studies have now proven that this habit helps us sharpen our focus, memory, and problem-solving skills. It means they are more than just games that we play every now and then to entertain ourselves. They are proper mental exercises.

How does Puzzle Solving Sharpens Our Focus?

Puzzle-solving helps us sharpen our focus by making us concentrate on solving the problem. When we start solving a brain game, we block all distractions and focus on finding the right answer.

Both sides of our brain (left and right) start focusing on finding the solution. The left brain does all the analytics and logic, and the right one utilizes the creative and holistic thinking approach.

These activities stretch our brains in order to improve focus. So, people who play puzzles often develop stronger concentration skills.

The Scientific Explanation

In general, we put pressure on our brains while solving puzzles. It stretches the brain and improves its ability to process and retain information. From a scientific perspective, the brain goes through different phases while doing this type of focus-demanding activity.

Different organs of the brain, such as the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, are engaged. During the solving process, our brain creates new neural pathways, which is known as neuroplasticity. The generation of new neural pathways means our brain becomes more adaptable and better at maintaining concentration.

Besides this, our brain also releases dopamine. It is a neurotransmitter that is responsible for making us feel good, motivated, and ultimately more focused.

How Puzzle Solving Is Beneficial For Mental Health?

Puzzle-solving is beneficial for mental health in a number of different ways. I’ve discussed some of its main benefits below:

Improved Short-Term Memory

Engaging in brain games helps improve short-term memory. It trains the brain to retain information for a short period of time. Several games, such as card games and Sudoku, require players to remember certain clues and sequences for a short period of time.

These sequences are necessary to solve the puzzle. When a person keeps on engaging in such games for a long period of time, their overall short-term memory is improved.

Reduced Stress & Anxiety

Stress and anxiety are the byproducts of overthinking. Our brain engages in different scenarios, which make us feel stressed and anxious about things in our lives. When we play these games, our brain focuses on solving the puzzles and ignores all other information.

As a result, we stop focusing on things that make us stressed and anxious. As people keep on playing with puzzles, their ability to handle and ignore useless information becomes better, which helps with reduced anxiety and stress.

Improved Mood

Another benefit of playing brain games is improving mood. These games and activities are a challenge. Our brain puts in effort and tries hard to solve them. During this process, we engage completely with the challenge and forget about worries.

When a person solves the puzzle, dopamine is released in the brain because of the sense of achievement. It improves a person’s overall mood, which is super important for a healthy life.

Improved Problem-Solving Skills

Another benefit of engaging in puzzles is improved problem-solving skills. These games and activities are actually a form of the problem itself. People have to use their reasoning and logical thinking skills in order to solve these problems.

When they keep on doing this for a long time, they build and improve their problem-solving skills. They become able to handle real-life problems and issues in an efficient way.

Keeps the Brain Sharp With Age

Besides kids and adults, playing these games also helps the elderly. Many studies have shown that older people who regularly engage with puzzle games tend to stay mentally active and think more clearly.

They help the elderly fight cognitive decline and preserve their ability to focus and remember important information for longer. It works just like physical exercise. Physical workout helps fight muscle loss. On the other hand, playing these games helps fight cognitive decline.

Conclusion

Our brain works like a muscle. The more you use it, the better it becomes. Playing puzzle games is one of the best activities that helps you use your brain to a deeper level. It makes the brain think with complete concentration and blocks out all distractions.

Its multiple organs contribute to solving the problem. As a result, a person’s ability to focus is improved. Besides improved focus, playing these games also helps with reducing anxiety, improving short-term memory, and improving your overall mood.

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