I love to travel. There are so many places in this world that are amazing. Nature offers a look at different plants and animals, birds and landscapes. And there are so many people to connect with who are willing to share their lives and perspectives. I see the whole world as part of Ferida’s Backyard, a place to explore and enjoy.
Unfortunately, foreign travel is not an option right now. We are mostly staying at home, though we have discovered an interesting diversion; we occasionally drive around local areas that we haven’t been to. We stay in our car and explore housing developments, farmlands, small town centers. We often come upon nature paths that one day we will go back to.
Meanwhile, I am into jigsaw puzzles. This one keeps me hopeful that I will one day be able to travel again. It is called “Safe Travels” (Masterpieces Puzzle Co.) and it reminds me of what traveling is all about. It shows snippets of other countries and their residents, some foreign currency, photos that were taken, a journal, and other travel details. It isn’t an easy puzzle but its 1,000 pieces provide a meditative process that helps me focus on the now and not obsess on the “what’s next?”
I hope I get to travel soon again but meanwhile, I am peaceful where I am and hope you are, too.
Puzzles are beneficial for many things:
Editor's Note: We, too, are particularly fond of doing 1000 piece puzzles as a diversion from some current country and world-wide situations. Some of the companies and shops that we're particularly fond of:
Art Institute Chicago Shop,
Educa,
New York Puzzle Company,
Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Galison,
Pomegranate Artpiece Puzzles,
The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, Miller's Antiques, Editions Ricordi,
Springbok,
Eurographics
In addition, the following
National Institutes of Health article highlighted beneficial aspects to jigsaw puzzling:
"However, the cognitive benefits of many other frequently performed leisure activities have not been investigated so far. One example is jigsaw puzzling: alone in Germany, it is estimated that almost 7 million JPs were sold in 2016, resulting in a market of €75 million (Npdgroup Deutschland GmbH, 2016). The jigsaw puzzle (JP) market in Europe and the United States was in total more than €400 million in 2016 (The Npd Group, Inc, 2016; The Npd Group Inc, 2017)1, almost twice as much as the worldwide cognitive training market in 2013 (about $220 million; Simons et al., 2016)."
"Jigsaw puzzling may provide two active ingredients (i.e., effective features) that benefit cognition: first, process-specific cognitive demands of jigsaw puzzling could contribute to an increased brain reserve (Gelfo et al., 2018), and second, regulation of distressing emotions through jigsaw puzzling could prevent chronic stress states that can exert a negative impact on cognitive aging and dementia in the long term (Lupien et al., 2009; Wilson et al., 2011)."
