Nato Lagidze
Do you remember the last time you stared out of the window without any particular intention?
I don’t.
What if I told you that the simple act of looking out the window is beneficial to your well-being? And if you make it a habit, the benefits increase even more.
Chances are high that this idea will make you laugh. At least, that was my first reaction when I found out about the importance of staring out of the window. “Waste of a time, that’s what it is”, I immediately thought.
In today’s fast-paced world, all we care about is productivity. We try to stick with our schedules and get things done on our to-do lists in order to feel satisfaction at the end of the day. But now it’s time to take a little break from your daily routine because we’re about to prove why looking out the window can be a great investment of your time.
8 reasons why you should look out the window
1) To take a break from your daily routine
Finishing one task after another, constantly checking emails, answering phone calls and messages, or wasting more time scrolling through social media than you care to admit. Does this sound familiar?
If yes, then you don’t want to take a break. You NEED to take a break.
You’re losing control of your life. You feel exhausted. You don’t know how to relax. That’s why you need to look out of the window.
Did you know that taking a break is crucial for recovering from stress? Now you may think: “What does it have to do with my window?”.
Surprisingly, there’s a direct connection between your window and taking a break. Just a single glance from your window can create a sensation of breaking from your daily routine. And this, in turn, can restore your energy and help you perform better.
2) To become more productive
What is the first thing that comes to your mind about the idea of staring out the window?
Before, I used to think about the school days when I looked out of the window because I couldn’t concentrate on boring lessons anymore. In this case, the reason was a lack of attention.
Since productivity is overrated today, we believe that no one has time to look out the window. It damages our performance. It’s a waste of time.
But isn’t constant procrastination about things that reduce our productivity a waste of time?
And actually, when it comes to a simple act of staring out the window, it’s otherwise. This “activity”, if we call it that way, helps us focus on our plans. As a result, instead of wasting time, thanks to this small break from reality, we save plenty of our time and energy and become more productive, however paradoxical it might seem.
3) To discover your emotions
What does your typical day look like? We wake up, have breakfast, work, study, work again, study again, meet people, feel exhausted, try to entertain ourselves but end up falling asleep, drained of energy at the end of the day.
At least, that’s what the typical day of a member of our high-speed globalized society looks like. If your routine is different, you’re lucky. If not, you should learn to take time and stare out of the window. Why?
It’s simple: you need to get in touch with your emotions. And looking out of the window will help you discover your emotions. Believe it or not, disconnecting from your tasks even for a minute will make you feel things. This one minute can be life-changing because you’ll eventually realize how you feel about yourself.
You’ll become more aware of yourself.
4) To listen to your deeper self
Do you try to connect with yourself? Usually, people tend to self-reflect for about 5 minutes at night before they fall asleep. But what if you’re so exhausted at the end of the day that you hardly manage to have a decent conversation with yourself?
You should stare out the window!
Looking out of the window gives us a chance to listen to our minds, to see what we want, what we think, and most importantly, who we are. We learn about aspects of our deeper selves that we might not have known about otherwise. But only if we do it the right way!
So, don’t just stare and wait when you’ll discover your inner self. Try to think about discovering your inner self!
5) To relax your body and mind
Staring out the window offers an opportunity to achieve a state of calm. It helps us to detach from reality and relaxes our bodies too.
Now you may ask: “It’s just a few minutes. Can a few minutes have so much impact on my body or mind?”
It can. How? We humans just need periods of purposeless calm. At least, that’s what the famous Athenian philosopher Plato believed.
Now let’s switch from philosophy to physiology. Imagine yourself trapped by evil hormones in your mind and blood called cortisol. It’s a stress hormone. You’re surrounded by tons of cortisols while working hard to get things done. But a sudden stare out the window will frighten these little hormones and leave you alone with your body and mind.
That’s how you relax. That’s why the state of purposeless calm is enough to help our body relax.
6) To boost our creative potential
Creativity is overrated.
We all want to produce original work and show others that we stand out. And we DO stand out. We’re unique individuals. We’re all creative in our own way. But sometimes, blending into society and its norms makes it hard to realize our creative potential.
While we hurry to cross the items in our everyday to-do lists, we’re getting further and further away from our creative abilities. We’re wasting our creative potential.
Did you know that great ideas come when you’re not trying? That’s why we need to take a break and look out of the window. If you take a break and allow your mind to wander, you automatically increase the chances of generating creative ideas.
And if you make staring out of the window a habit, at some point, you’ll notice that your creative potential is greater than it’s ever been.
7) To ease the decision-making process
Imagine a scenario. You have an important essay to write. You don’t know the topic well and search on the internet to generate ideas but nothing changes: you don’t know what to write. You’re disappointed. You give up and look out of the window.
You return, decide to watch TV instead, but suddenly, you realize you know what to do right. Your mind is full of inspiration.
That’s how staring out the window eases our decision-making process. In psychology, we call it ‘Insights”. Having an insight means that a solution to your problem appears unexpectedly and without any effort. You worked hard to make a decision a while ago, but time passed and a decision came to your mind, and you didn’t even realize it.
How does it happen?
Usually, we process our problems unconsciously. Surprisingly, purposeful thinking about solving a problem slows down the process of decision-making. But when we take a break and set aside our problems, insights come naturally.
It’s a bit weird, but it’s exactly how looking out the window helps.
8) To stay happy and healthy
And finally, staring out the window improves our mental health. How so?
Consider this simple act of looking out of the window a short form of mediation. Why do we meditate in general? To reduce stress and connect with ourselves. But meditation is a longer process. We don’t always have time for that.
But is it even possible not to find time to look out of the window?
Before you try to rationalize, trust me, it’s not possible. You can always find time to look out of the window. Regardless of what you’re doing or where you are. And if you look at it as a little substitute for meditation, you’ll quickly realize how beneficial it can be for your overall health.
So, try to make looking out of the window a habit if you want to stay happy and healthy at the same time.
Take a minute and stare out of the window
Why are you reading this article?
If you’re a part of our fast-paced world, then probably you’re supposed to be working, studying, or planning things for tomorrow right now. But if you have time to read this article (and hopefully, you find it productive), you can also take just one minute of your precious time and look out of the window.
Just take your time, look around, and feel the world around you. Try to make it a habit and you’ll soon notice that you’re getting more and more in touch with your inner world.
