Day 161: Finding Happiness and Building Patience Through Puzzles

Today has been a day. I have never spent so much time working on a puzzle in one sitting. Sure, I ate lunch and took a couple of short breaks, but I have been working on this thing for about six hours total. And I’m not even done. I just took this short break to write a bit, share my experience, and get back to it. I’m swapping out the coffee for Turkey, though.

It probably comes with age and experience, but puzzles have always been a way for me to build my patience and find different ways to focus my mind. Any puzzle can be frustrating, depending on the difficulty. I’m talking about everything from jigsaw to box puzzles to riddles. It is fun to complete or solve the puzzle, but it becomes frustrating at some point when you can’t solve it. Most people, naturally, will give up. In the modern age of "There is an Infinite Amount of Other Things to Do", I’m going to make the assumption that people will give up on puzzles quicker now than they used to. And rightly so. We live busy lives in a busy world. When we have free time (and don’t have to worry about kids) we like to turn off our brain for a while. Puzzles will stimulate the brain. But now that most of us have extra time on our hands, I would highly suggest giving a jigsaw a try.

Jigsaws are fantastic because they give the user a sense of constant accomplishments. It will take a while for the whole picture to come to completion, but every piece is a little pat on the back. And when parts of the puzzle start coming together and fitting with other parts, you feel like the smartest person on Earth.

Of course, there are going to be times of weariness and/or frustration. I can’t tell you how many times I grumbled, “Why can’t I find this “fun-loving” piece? Mother “fun-lover!”. But eventually (most of the time, so far) I found what I was looking for. I usually had to take a step back, focus on another area, and then come back to it. The point of this inevitable issue that we find a way to overcome it. We find a way to regulate our emotions and push through.

I think jigsaw puzzles are good practice for life. There is always a problem that constantly keeps us focused. Sometimes we ignore one problem and focus on another one that we can solve easily. We swear at the problem. Sometimes we take a mental break. And when we finally solve a problem we do a little dance! Jigsaw puzzles help us train our mind and heart to be patient and to always be persistent in our goals. There are always going to be speed bumps, but we have to take them in stride and keep driving.

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Author's Note #1: Sometimes I wish life had borders. Then I'd know where to start.