Why puzzling is your secret weapon against stress

Stress is like a noisy roommate who refuses to leave. Whether due to work, social obligations or digital overstimulation, we feel tense more often than relaxed. Meditation apps, breathing exercises and relaxation techniques are popular, but they don't work for everyone. Puzzling, on the other hand, is a surprisingly effective way to reduce stress. It offers focus, provides satisfaction and puts you in a state of relaxation without you even realizing it. No floaty stuff, but pure brain gymnastics.

1. Mulling? Sorry, no time for that!

You know the drill: you're lying in bed and your mind is racing like a Formula 1 car. Work emails, shopping lists, that uncomfortable comment in a meeting three weeks ago, your brain keeps grinding. What if you had a way to distract your brain without turning it off completely? Enter puzzling.

Puzzling forces you to focus your full attention on one task: finding the right piece. This is very similar to "flow," a term introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Flow is a mental state in which you are so absorbed in an activity that time and worries fade away. Research shows that people in flow suffer less stress and even exhibit lower heart rate and blood pressure. Just as a painter becomes completely absorbed in mixing colors or a soccer player who forgets everything around him during a dribble, puzzling helps you let go of brooding thoughts.

2. Multitasking is passé, slow thinking is in

We live in a world where speed and efficiency are the norm. We answer emails during breakfast, scroll through social media while watching TV and try to do everything at once. The problem? Our brains weren't made for this. Neuroscientists have shown that multitasking not only deteriorates our ability to concentrate, but also increases our stress levels. What we consider "efficient" is actually a drain on our mental health.

Puzzling is a form of "monotasking," or in other words, you focus your attention entirely on one task. This may seem simple, but the effect on your brain is enormous. Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman, in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, described how our brains use two thinking systems: fast, intuitive thinking and slow, deeper thinking. In a world that increasingly leans on fast thinking (quick decisions, short attention spans), puzzling provides much-needed balance by stimulating slow thinking. This gives your brain a chance to recover from daily overload.

3. From chaos to control (and it feels HUGE)

A puzzle begins as a collection of random pieces that at first glance look like nothing. But little by little, structure emerges and eventually you see the full picture. It gives you a sense of control, something often lacking in a stressful life where unexpected events and deadlines define your day. Psychologists call this the "micro master effect": completing small, manageable tasks gives us a sense of success and control. This is the same reason why people like to check off lists or organize a closet neatly. The brain likes order and predictability, and a puzzle offers just that.

Consider major societal challenges such as climate change or political instability. We often feel overwhelmed by their complexity. But like a puzzle, even the most complicated problems can be solved by working step by step. By doing a puzzle, you train your brain to search for a solution in a calm and structured way, a skill that also comes in handy in everyday life.