The Psychology of Solving: How the Rubik’s Cube Can Boost Your Brainpower

     The Rubik’s Cube is more than just a toy – it’s a puzzle that offers a wide range of benefits for people of all ages. Even if you only solve it once a week and aren’t a speedsolver by any means, there are many advantages that you should know about. From improving cognitive skills to reducing stress levels, here are some of the benefits of solving the Rubik’s Cube. 

Improved Cognitive Skills

     The Rubik’s Cube is a challenging puzzle, it requires a lot of focus and concentration, paired with adequate memory skills to solve. Because of this, it is the ideal activity to boost skills like concentration and perseverance. A writer of a blog called Atila mentions that “Solving the cube requires a lot of concentration …and when your brain focuses on this one task it increases your concentration. Keeping your brain active and focused allows you to process information faster.” Not only this but solving this puzzle also can improve hand-eye coordination and motor skills as it requires a lot of precise finger movements and quick reaction times as you get faster and faster. 

Stress Relief

This graph is just a joke

     Solving the Rubik’s Cube can be a great way to relieve stress. Focusing on the cube and trying to solve it can help take your mind off of other things and provide a sense of accomplishment when you finally solve it. Additionally, solving the cube can help improve your patience and resilience as you work through many solves and learn new methods. Many people find that sitting down and solving the cube for a long time is actually quite calming. Most speedcubers will tell you that they love sitting down for a few hours and solving the Rubik’s cube hundreds of times as a pastime and hobby. 

Social Benefits

Image by Arun Joseph on flickr.com 

     Most people first learn how to solve the Rubik’s cube to impress their friends or family and then end up getting hooked. But the social interaction doesn’t stop there. Most people think that nerdy things like solving the Rubik’s Cube and other puzzles are anti-social activities but this just isn’t true. The Cubing community is one of the strongest and most welcoming communities in the world (in my opinion). You can connect with like-minded individuals either online through various platforms like Discord, public forums, and even race people on sites like cubedesk.io.  You can also go to some of the hundreds of physical competitions around the world hosted by the World Cube Association which are open to any and all skill levels and have loads of friendly competitors you can talk to. 

Sense of Accomplishment

     Solving the Rubik’s cube is not something anyone can do. It takes a good amount of practice and perseverance and that’s why less than 6% of the population can do it. Solving the Rubik’s Cube is extremely rewarding. I remember the first time I solved it. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. There are also many other rewarding things about cubing like beating your fastest times and doing good at competitions. Because of this, it’s very easy to get hooked onto cubing and stay with it for a long time. Once you start cubing, you will never be bored again as it’s a hobby with infinite possibilities and everlasting fun. 

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