By Hadley J. Jaskolski
Christmas puzzles with festive backgrounds are a good activity for families and friends to do together as they catch up on lost time. There is a size to suit each group, whether it be a large one that fills a whole table (so that everyone has a side to work on), or a small one with big pieces (so the kids can have a part too). The candy cane, nativity scenes, snowy landscapes, and other holiday scenes are some ideas of the festive images that are available. These types of puzzles are enjoyable and are good for the mind as well.
Expanding creativity, increasing attention to detail, and making players more alert are some of the benefits that puzzles provide. Some of the benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rates, improving memory, and developing and maintaining cognitive skills.
Puzzles can do all this because they make the left and right sides of the brain work together. Since the left brain is the logical, analytical, and objective side, it attacks the problem solving aspects of puzzles. The random details of a puzzle appeal to the creative right brain, which is intuitive and attracted to the conceptual. Since they make the two sides work together, they both retain information in the puzzle so that you can complete it as quickly and efficiently as possible. These details can include the shape, color, size, and pattern of one or more pieces that are required to fit in a section at any particular time. So, puzzles offer the best of both worlds when it comes to this type of brain hemisphere interaction.
With every part of the puzzle that a player puts down, the brain is therefore engaged and their memory improved. This happens because as the person starts to identify and isolate the first few pieces of the puzzle, their brain has to focus intently on the task at hand, but then as the image starts to form and there are fewer pieces it speeds up and finishes the process. This curve in attention is like the learning curve required to accomplish a variety of life tasks - which is where it helps people with their memory.
The person doing a puzzle has to focus on the same scene for a long period of time to be able to find and put together all the pieces required, which can have an extremely calming effect on them. At these times, the mind focuses on visualizing the image in front of it, and concentrates only on this, to the exclusion of everything else surrounding them.
Additionally, each triumph with 2012 Christmas puzzles (from putting the first piece to the very last one in place) encourages the production of dopamine, an important neurotransmitter in the brain that regulates mood, concentration and motivation. This is what makes putting a puzzle together a lot of fun for the whole family, no matter what age groups are involved in completing the process.
Expanding creativity, increasing attention to detail, and making players more alert are some of the benefits that puzzles provide. Some of the benefits include lowering blood pressure and heart rates, improving memory, and developing and maintaining cognitive skills.
Puzzles can do all this because they make the left and right sides of the brain work together. Since the left brain is the logical, analytical, and objective side, it attacks the problem solving aspects of puzzles. The random details of a puzzle appeal to the creative right brain, which is intuitive and attracted to the conceptual. Since they make the two sides work together, they both retain information in the puzzle so that you can complete it as quickly and efficiently as possible. These details can include the shape, color, size, and pattern of one or more pieces that are required to fit in a section at any particular time. So, puzzles offer the best of both worlds when it comes to this type of brain hemisphere interaction.
With every part of the puzzle that a player puts down, the brain is therefore engaged and their memory improved. This happens because as the person starts to identify and isolate the first few pieces of the puzzle, their brain has to focus intently on the task at hand, but then as the image starts to form and there are fewer pieces it speeds up and finishes the process. This curve in attention is like the learning curve required to accomplish a variety of life tasks - which is where it helps people with their memory.
The person doing a puzzle has to focus on the same scene for a long period of time to be able to find and put together all the pieces required, which can have an extremely calming effect on them. At these times, the mind focuses on visualizing the image in front of it, and concentrates only on this, to the exclusion of everything else surrounding them.
Additionally, each triumph with 2012 Christmas puzzles (from putting the first piece to the very last one in place) encourages the production of dopamine, an important neurotransmitter in the brain that regulates mood, concentration and motivation. This is what makes putting a puzzle together a lot of fun for the whole family, no matter what age groups are involved in completing the process.
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There is much more information available about 2012 Christmas puzzles and other types of puzzles. If you want to learn more, click on Christmas puzzles or Printable Christmas puzzles.