101 Ways to Improve Your Life

With the end of the semester coming up, a lot of students are letting the stress get to them as they push to meet their deadlines and study for their finals. Of course, this stress can be a bit alleviated by the excitement of the upcoming Winter Break, but overall, it is leading to headaches, a lack of sleep, and low energy. One California psychology teacher, Brett Phillips, is working to help eliminate the strain with a list of tips and tricks to beat stress that first went viral on Twitter last September.

Mr. Brett Phillips has been giving his list of “101 Ways to Cope with Stress” to his students for nearly a decade now, and last year, Alina Ramirez, one of his students, shared it with the world through social media. On the last count, her post on Twitter had been retweeted over 24,000 times and liked over 29,000 times, with many people also replying to the post with which tips were their favorites. When being interviewed by a Buzzfeed reporter, Ramirez stated that Phillips, “knows how stressed [students] are with school, sports, work, and life in general, so he gives [them] the paper to help.”

In his psychology class, Phillips makes sure to hand out copies and has his students pick five things from the list that could help lower their stress levels. After all, “while not every tip on the list is going to help everyone (some [people] are definitely not going to be getting up any earlier) there’s likely at least one or two things on the list that any person could find helpful,” wrote Hilary Hanson, a senior trends editor for the Huffington Post.

Mr. Phillips’s list includes tips about keeping a level-head, basic organization, staying positive, and looking out for one’s own well-being. He shared that he made the list by compiling notes from textbooks, articles, and even just “thinking of things that most people could do to live a less stressful life.” Sometimes everyone just needs to “take time to smell the flowers,” which is number 53 on the list, and maybe a quick read-through will help remind everyone about all the little things that can improve life.