I recently learned that January is Jigsaw Puzzle Month. Or at least that is how Barnes and Noble is celebrating the month of January.
I have always had an affinity for doing jigsaw puzzles. At times, my family would not let me participate in completing a puzzle because I was “too good” at finding where the pieces belonged and I took the fun out of doing the puzzle together. I am no different now than I was then, and still complete puzzles at a quick pace. But what if we considered putting together a jigsaw puzzle as more than just a family fun activity?
Let’s consider it as a practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the activity of being fully focused on the present moment while letting go of judgment. When we are mindful, we are able to experience life as we live it and cultivate a deeper understanding of how our minds work in the process. The greatest benefit that we gain from being mindful is having a greater appreciation of how our invisible world creates our visible world, in that we are always living in the feeling of our thinking.
Focusing on completing a jigsaw puzzle provides a relaxing distraction away from screens and encourages us to concentrate our attention on the present moment. Seeing if a piece will fit based on size and color, and-reassessing where that piece may go is a good practice for evaluating our daily choices. In doing so, we allow ourselves to achieve a state of creative meditation as well as leveraging the left (logical) and right (creative) sides of the brain.
Sometimes we need to slow down, cut off distractions, and spend time being still. When we take the time to be mindful of our surroundings and our internal functioning, we allow our inner wisdom, inner messages, and creativity to rise from within and be externalized. Clarity and calmness often come from a mind that is still than one that is chaotically busy.
