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Being a busy college student, I feel like I either put a lot of focus on improving myself or very little focus on improving myself, it all just depends. Lately, I haven’t been putting any focus on bettering myself to be the best Morgan Stanley I can be, and I want to change that.

When looking up things to do to change myself and better my world people always go to extremes. When in reality just adding or subtracting the littlest things can make a huge difference in not only your life, but also the lives of people around you.

I used to love reading when I was little, I would try to read a book a week, and I would always read before bed. Now, I lie in bed scrolling through my phone for hours watching YouTube videos, looking at Instagram and posts on Facebook. This is what I thought was relaxing but what I realized was that it wasn’t. It was hindering me from getting a good night’s sleep. My phone buzzing or a YouTube video playing in the background while I sleep would constantly distract me.

A lot of different studies have come out saying “looking at your phone before bed is so bad for you, stop doing it!” but I never listen to those, I don’t see any effects right now, so I just keep doing it.  According to buisnessinsider.com, being exposed to the blue-and-white light given off by phones, laptops, and other electronic gadgets at night prevents our brains from releasing melatonin, a hormone that tells our bodies it’s nighttime. This is then why it is harder for people to fall asleep.

Blue lights are everywhere, they are on TVs, computers, tablets, and phones. Blue lights are the LED lighting that are on digital screens. Blue light is harmful, because it’s the highest energy wavelength of visible light.  Because it is such a strong energy, our eyes have a hard time blocking this light.

According to allaboutvision.com blue lights and the lights coming off of the screens cause eyestrain. Overtime, your eyes are being more strained because you stare at the screen for so long, you are not focusing on things farther away from you. For me personally this is true, I used to have perfect 20/20 vision and just recently I had to get glasses because of eye strain, and it is an obvious thing there, and I do believe its because of the time I spend on my phone.

It is important if you are on your screen to use the “20-20-20 rule”, which is every 20 minutes stare at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This gives your eyes a chance to relax from the blue lights and also helps you focus on things farther away from you.

I decided to start reading a book before bed to see if that made me sleep better, which then would lead to a much happier day when I wake up. I’ll be honest; it’s hard for me to want to read for fun because of all the books I have to read for classes. The first night I wasn’t a fan of it because I would rather be watching Netflix instead of using my brain.

It took a few nights to finally get into it, but once I did I started loving it. I was realizing I was sleeping much better at night. I wasn’t tossing and turning as much, I wasn’t having as weird of dreams either.

I liked what reading before bed was doing for me, so I decided I wanted to take it one step further and see what I could do to make for a happier Morgan throughout the day.

It has been proven that reading before bed does in fact help you sleep better. It is said that a relaxing reading ritual will help you wind down and relax, causing your brain to go into a place where you forget about the daily stressors of life, and you can just sit, relax and read. This causes you to fall asleep relaxed and also helps you stay asleep.

When you read before bed it is said that it improves your cognitive functions. People who read more are said to score better on tests. Another thing reading before bed does is it can mitigate some mental health concerns and problems. If you are suffering from anxiety or depression, sometimes just opening up a book can help make it not as bad. When you read, it takes you on a story plot line, and so when you read you literally can pretend you are in a different life, forgetting about yours for a while. Personally, I deal with both anxiety and depression, and so when I feel anxious its nice just to read to get my mind off whatever is going on at that moment.

When I get mad or upset I always go to my family or boyfriend and vent to them. If something happens that is irritating, the first thing I do is call up my boyfriend and vent to him about it, so I wanted to see what would happen if I kept a journal and wrote down everything that happened throughout my day – the good and the bad.

I liked doing this for many reasons. I realized that I was having much better days than I had thought, I would focus on the bad, but when I was writing down the good that happens I was focusing more on the good now. I also enjoyed doing this because when I was having a bad day, I could look back and see that two days ago I had the best day ever and think about how its different. It made me remember one bad day shouldn’t trump one good life.

After a week of doing this I felt better so I was curious on if my family and boyfriend had noticed a difference.  My boyfriend felt the biggest difference out of everyone. He told me that me always venting to him was causing him to stress and causing his anxiety to go higher, which then would make it so he was stressing throughout the day on petty stuff that didn’t apply to him. When I would journal the bad stuff down and then talk to him about the good stuff it made our relationship happier and healthier. It was taking all the negativity out and replacing it with positivity. This is important to me, because to keep a healthy relationship you don’t want to have negatives pulling at it.

Doing things for yourself and doing things for the people around you are so important. I am the type of person who likes helping the world around me. Whether it be volunteering at a retirement home, going on mission trips, or even just picking up garbage when I see it, I enjoy making sure the world is a better place for me and everyone else in it

I want to make sure Grand View is a better place just one little gesture at a time. Personally, I love when people hold open doors for me. It’s a gesture that takes no thought or effort, but personally makes my day, especially if my hands are full. I decided that I would make an effort to hold open the door for the people around me.

Holding the door isn’t going to end world hunger or help people afford their rent, but the quick five-second interaction of holding open the door is what someone may need. The random act of kindness is an important thing that I think everyone should do. It’s nice when I hold the door open for people and they act so gracious and happy. Seeing someone else happy immediately makes me happy.

When you do a random act of kindness for someone, chances are they will have a better chance of doing it for someone else. This is called “paying it forward.” Paying it forward, means someone does something nice for you, and then you do something nice for someone else. It’s a domino effect that can make the world a better place.

When holding the door open for people, some people were super gracious and then others acted weird and awkward. Both are okay responses because when doing something to brighten someone else’s day, you don’t need to focus on what others think around you.

I like knowing my actions, whether they are big are small have an impact on my friends and family, so doing everything to make sure my actions are not stressing them out or making them have bad days are important to me. I am glad this is something I have finally noticed. If I know I can make not only my day better but also someone I love and care about day better by doing something little, I am now making sure to always do that.

I have really enjoyed doing things to better my life and also challenge myself. I think it’s important to always be with the positive and not with the negative, and sometimes it’s easy to forget that and just focus on the bad stuff. Taking even just five minutes out of your day to brighten up your day or someone else’s day could really make a difference in the world around you. You don’t need to volunteer 100 hours a week to improve the world. Just smile at people, talk to people and learn their stories. Start focusing on what’s around you and you will be opened up to a whole new world.