Hi Puzzlers,
Did you know making puzzles is not only fun and entertaining, but also good for your health? Making puzzles has several health benefits associated with it and as more research is being done, the more benefits are being discovered. Benefits like reducing or slowing the onset of dementia, memory loss and Alzheimer's-some reports say as much as up to a third in reduction.
Children benefit from puzzling at an early age. Puzzling helps with developing spatial skills, eye-hand coordination/fine motor skills, memory development, and even helps get them ready for reading. Please remember to have age appropriate puzzles for your kids and assist in the completion, as it takes time to develop the necessary skills so they can complete the puzzle on their own.
Puzzling requires use of both sides of your brain simultaneously. The left brain, which is our analytical side, sorts and separates the pieces. The right side of the brain, where creativity happens, allows us to see or imagine the end result before it is finished. Using both sides of the brain at the same time causes neuron connections to be made linking the left and right side, and the more of these we have the better. These connections will lessen our chances of developing brain illnesses later in life.
Every puzzler knows that feeling of Ah! I did it! My puzzle is finished! Or, the feeling you get when you finally have found the piece you've been looking for. You know the one - it took 2 hours to find, the one you thought MUST be missing, the dog ate it - yeah that one. Well, those feeling are produced by a chemical called dopamine, which your body releases when you are successful at something. Runners thought they were the only ones getting it after a five-mile jog. Dopamine is a feel-good drug that can increase learning and memory. It's your body's way of saying good job.
We thought we were just having fun making our puzzles but, as science is showing, it's good for us too!
Happy Puzzling!
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