Practicing Well-Being
What lawyers can do to take care of themselves during the coronavirus crisis.
By Chris Ritter
Being a lawyer in Texas was already difficult. We start our path to
become lawyers in the 96th percentile for anxiety. That is in law
school. That is 26% more stress than medical students have. That is
before we start handling dozens of our clients’ most important problems.
That is before we start seeing the trauma of clients losing their
children in custody battles, wrongful death cases, or because of a
murder. That is before being overwhelmed by endless emails and text
messages every day as practicing lawyers. Almost half of 13,000
attorneys have admitted to suffering from depression during their
practice. And that is all before the COVID-19 virus devastated our
world.
While sunshine pumping is not credible or tolerable right now, it is
important that we do the best we can to take care of our well-being.
Here are some suggestions:
Connect and Debrief. We are not alone. Everyone is struggling.
It is hard to know this if we isolate and do not connect. Likewise, if
we do not talk to anyone about what we are going through, we do not
process the anxiety and we continue to experience ruminating and stress
associated with the need to connect and get a healthier perspective.
Connecting with others who know firsthand what you are going through can
help reduce fear and hopelessness. Fortunately, there are many ways we
can connect online and, if you need to talk, check out the many online
connection resources on tlaphelps.org or texasbar.com/coronavirus
or call TLAP at 800-343-8527 (TLAP) or text TLAP to 555888.
Set Boundaries and Focus on What You Can Control.
Boundaries are important for a person practicing self-care. Do you
deserve 4% of your life? That is one hour per day of self-care. In order
to get any time, we have to calendar it. We also have to consider limits
to our work life and disconnect from the anchor of our emails and
smartphones. Likewise, our minds will scan to solve every problem if we
do not set a limit, such as this: Can I do anything about this issue
today? If not, think of something else that you have some control over
today. This can be very effective in avoiding anxiety when we have so
little control over the frightening developments all around us.
Learn to Relax. For attorneys dealing with practicing
during a world pandemic, relaxing can seem impossible. The mind is an
instrument, but sometimes the instrument has become the master.
Breathing practices have been effective for attorneys who need to relax
or “quiet the mind.” TLAP’s website has links to guided meditations and
other ways to relax. Whether it is meditation, running, playing an
instrument, cooking, yoga, golf, or something else, it is critical that
we do something physical after becoming stressed or we will remain in
our sympathetic nervous system and experience chronic stress, which
leads to depression.
Practice Gratitude. It can almost feel invalidating
to hear someone tell you to look at the bright side. That is not what I
am suggesting. I lost my wife to cancer last summer, and I cannot tell
you how irritating it was to hear from others about their ideas of what
I should think about. That said, I am certain that gratitude is an
effective tool, when self-initiated, for a person experiencing complete
chaos. It allows us to look at the things that we do have, that are
truly good things, and it prevents our positive mind from atrophying.
There are endless things wrong and endless things right in this world,
so we can exert some choice in what we focus upon, at least if we
practice gratitude. Science shows that thinking of three things each day
that you are glad to have in your life can increase your happiness by
25%.
Use Online Resources for Well-Being. Technology has
mostly been an obstacle to our well-being as we spend many hours each
day connected to devices. We check our phones 150 times per day and read
120 new emails and 94 text messages daily. This was overwhelming before
the virus hit. Now, aside from doing your essential work, try to limit
your use of technology to finding healthy resources. The State Bar and
TLAP have put a number of resources at texasbar.com/coronavirus
and tlaphelps.org to help you.
If you or someone you know needs resources for anxiety, depression, an
addiction, grief, or any mental health struggle, TLAP is available to
provide guidance and support at 800-343-8527 (TLAP) or text TLAP to
555888.TBJ
CHRIS RITTER
is the director of the Texas Lawyers’ Assistance Program.
