Quiet Mind, Visible Celebration

What puzzling taught me about rest

Author

Erika Muralidhar
August 18, 2026

This week I spent a night listening to music and puzzling. And it was one of the best brainstorming sessions I've had in a long time and I didn't even intend for that to happen.

The next day I was talking to my husband (a huge history nerd). He said, "Did you know how Winston Churchill used to deal with his crippling anxiety?"

To my dismay, Churchill did not puzzle. But he did lay bricks. He said it helped him let go of all the pressure.

So I thought back to my puzzling evening.

It felt different from the times I do intention-setting, journaling, or meditating because I was still moving my hand and tapping into my creativity.

So how are brick building and puzzling different?

As I placed each piece, my mind wandered. It was subconsciously downloading the day I'd had and making connections for me, while my logical brain stayed busy with pattern recognition, colors, and celebrating every piece that fit.

What both of these things do is tap into a quiet mind, with a visible celebration. It's the same thing as knitting, painting, gardening, or folding laundry.

Tasks like these, once we've done them enough, start to feel brainless, which is exactly what lets our mind wander. At the same time, they're quietly training our brain to notice success and celebrate it. It's how we find connections we'd never spot in our logically focused, get-it-done state.

Here's where it gets tricky. If we treat these tasks as productivity, like another chore, another to-do, we still aren't letting them be rest for our brains. Because that just feeds the belief that we have to be busy to be valued.

Yet what if we looked at it as permission to think creatively instead? A shift from "this is another thing to do" to "this is the time my brain gets to reset." A chance to rest our brains and let them make connections freely. It’s an invitation to put on our favorite music and find joy in whatever we're doing, no matter how small.

The night I was puzzling, I wasn't there to finish it fast or solve a leftover problem from my workday. I was there to relax. And by the time I placed the last piece, I realized I could actually go on my work trip if I rearranged a few things.

So this week, find your puzzle, your bricks, or whatever your quiet mind, visible celebration. Not for productivity, just an opportunity to see what your mind hands you when you finally stop asking it to work so hard.

If you want to do this kind of work, the kind that actually looks at what is blocking you instead of just telling you to try harder, come find us inside the F the Hustle Collective.

Or if you are ready to go deeper one-on-one, book a discovery call and let's find your magic wand question together.

Also, a little news: I just got certified in vision boarding. If you've been thinking about hosting a vision board party or bringing something meaningful to a corporate event, I'd love to be your person. Drop me a message!

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