BYOPuzzles — Mindful Creation

Create and solve your own kaleidoscope puzzles. Strengthens concentration, memory, and creative thinking — built on 40 years of clinical neuroscience.

A meditative, creative brain training app that lets you build and solve your own kaleidoscope puzzles. Strengthens concentration, working memory, and the kind of focused creative thinking that's increasingly rare in a world full of distraction.

Designed by Dr. Donalee Markus, a Northwestern-trained neuroscientist with 40 years of clinical practice.

WHAT IT TRAINS

• Sustained concentration and focused attention

• Working memory across complex visual patterns

• Creative thinking and aesthetic decision-making

• The cognitive pleasure of deliberate, slow practice

• A meditative quality of mind that translates beyond the app

WHO IT'S FOR

• Adults wanting a calm, restorative form of brain training

• People seeking an alternative to fast-paced puzzle apps

• Concussion patients sensitive to overstimulation

• Older adults building a daily cognitive habit

• Creative thinkers who want exercise that feels like art

THE SCIENCE

BYOPuzzles is built on the same three-pillar model — Attention, Intention, Rehearsal — that anchors all of Dr. Markus's work. The kaleidoscope format provides natural hierarchical difficulty: you set the complexity by your own creative choices, and the brain trains across exactly the variables you find engaging.

ABOUT THE DEVELOPER

Dr. Donalee Markus has practiced cognitive restructuring since 1983 and is featured in Clark Elliott's "The Ghost in My Brain."