About a month ago, I struggled heavily with feeling numb, like time had somehow slowed down to a snail’s pace. I had obliterated my sleep schedule, too, going to bed at 6 AM and waking up well after dinner. And, being a student with lots of homework and also a gamer, I spend almost all of my time in my room, sitting at my computer. With all of my blinds closed, my room became a dark, dreary place where work, stress, and sleepless nights awaited me. Then, randomly, I decided that I should open all of my windows and see if it helped at all. So, here’s how it went.
The first day I had them open, I realized I could get a pretty good view of the clouds turning orange and red as the sun set, and I could see the stars at night when I laid on my bed. The next morning, I realized I naturally woke up earlier because of the light shining through the windows, something that ended up fixing my sleep schedule. Later that week, getting stressed out over math homework, I took a moment and just watched the clouds, which allowed me to calm down enough to continue working on the assignment. The week after, I pulled out some old round window prisms I used in my old home, and watched them reflect speckles of the rainbow across my walls. A few days after that, I came home and as I opened my door, I realized that it would be nice to have a clean space to go along with the brightness of my room now.
Funnily enough, I didn’t even realize the impact until a friend had mentioned it to me. They told me I looked less tired, and generally had more energy and was laughing more. I didn;t think much of it, other than being happy I was seemingly out of my slump, until I got home and looked, really looked, at my room. See, in my old house, I had a skylight. I couldn’t exactly close it, so during the day my room was always bright and sunny. I realized, finally, that the light leaking into my room was exactly what I had been missing in this new house.
Sometimes, It’s the small things that really, really matter. Whether it’s pulling up your blinds or whatever your solution may be, sometimes you have to consider an old problem from a new perspective. Sometimes, it’s as easy as opening the curtains. And yes, sometimes it isn’t. Sometimes, the issue is something massive, this big challenge that seems impossible to overcome. But slowly, step by step, day by day, you overcome it. For me, opening my curtains wasn’t the only thing I had to do. I had to get out more, see my friends, spend time with my family, and talk through my emotions. But something as simple as pulling my blinds up gave me a starting point- and sometimes, that’s all you need.
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