We know that expressing gratitude is good for us in many ways. Receiving thanks has many of these same benefits. To extend your gratitude practice, share the benefit of your thanks. Make a practice of saying thank you regularly, deliberately, sincerely, and – even better – unexpectedly. Write a letter or an email to a person you are particularly grateful to have in your life. Tell them why you are grateful for them. Your note need not be long, or elaborate, or even be perfectly composed. It need only be concrete and sincere. Your level of gratitude will be multiplied as you see the happiness that you have given by simply saying thank you.

Gratitude practice is especially powerful when we take the time to write about it. Some swear by keeping a gratitude journal, others write lists or use a gratitude app or post to social media. However you choose to write about the things or persons or events for which you are thankful, the act of committing your gratitude to writing helps to make that gratitude more concrete, giving you a record that you can use for reflection.

Cultivating gratitude benefits all aspects of wellness: intellectual, spiritual, occupational, social, physical, and emotional. When we express and receive expressions of gratitude, our brain releases neurotransmitters responsible for positive emotions.  This in turn has positive effects on our metabolic and hormonal system. Gratitude helps us to reframe our negative thoughts, stay grounded in the present, focus on solutions, and connect us to others. 

Cultivating gratitude is as simple as taking some time each day to acknowledge the goodness in our life: from simple gifts of a deep breath and sustaining food to the miracles of beauty, joy, and love.

What are you grateful for today?

Endless hours at the computer are not good for us, but a virtual work environment makes it easy to move from one online meeting to the next without stop. One way to help stop this unhealthy habit it to adopt the “classroom hour.” In order to facilitate moving from one class to the next, most schools and colleges define a “classroom hour” as 50 minutes. If you develop the habit of thinking of hour-long meetings as 50 minutes or half-hour meetings as 20-minute meetings, you will more easily build in breaks for the eyes, body, and mind to refresh throughout the day. Some calendar programs, such as Outlook, even have pre-programmed settings so that an “hour” is scheduled in a way to build in this transition time. Set your clock, phone, or computer to “classroom time” and give yourself time to recharge throughout the day.

Science tells us that we need human touch. Hugs, handshakes, and other physical expressions of affection and connection are essential to our ability to thrive. As a year of isolation has left some of us with touch deprivation, it’s especially important that we don’t also deprive ourselves of the social connection associated with these physical displays of affection. Now more than ever it’s important that we take time each day to connect with people we love, even if it means elbow bumps, virtual hugs, or simply a phone call.

The findings of the 2017 National Taskforce on Lawyer Wellbeing continue to reverberate throughout the profession. The report’s most often-cited statistics highlight problem drinking and substance abuse. However, there is another addiction mentioned in the report about which the profession has studiously avoided discussion: work addiction. The report cites one study finding that 26% of lawyers were work addicted, a rate more than double that of the general public.

At the same time, the report comments that the profession’s high levels of depression, anxiety, and addiction are generally met with “a sense of acceptance rather than outrage.” When it comes to work addiction in particular, one might say the profession goes beyond “acceptance” to “denial and defense.” We don’t talk about overwork and, when we do, it is as often in admiration. For our law students, “gunners” may be teased but are not the subject of concern. Attorneys with astronomical billable hours are promoted and rewarded not encouraged to find greater balance. As the North Carolina Lawyers Assistance Program comments, work addiction is “socially sanctioned and all-but-required in some areas of law practice.”

The TaskForce report gives only one paragraph’s notice to the question of work-addiction, encouraging legal employers to “monitor for work addiction and avoid rewarding extreme behaviors” and provides no further guidance.

The solution begins with accepting that there is a problem and working to understand and address it. To build a healthier work culture, the profession must not sneer at concerns for work-life balance and self-care. We must recognize the real costs of obsessive work and extreme expectations. Hard work is not a bad thing in itself. But when we live to work rather than work to live, we need to step back and assess whether we have lost balance and help others to do the same.

In the midst of February, when we are weary of cold days and long nights and cloudy skies, a sunny day is a great gift. While doctors warn that too much sun can increase risks of skin cancer, at the same time, we need that sunshine for our mental and physical health. Like most things in life, it’s a matter of balance. Making space in your day to take advantage of a moment when the sun peaks out from the clouds is a simple way to let nature care for us.

Self-care requires social connection, but there are some times when what we need most is to maintain some separation. For helping professionals, healthy boundaries are critical for competent practice. For all of us in these challenging times, making space to refill our emotional reserves requires we need to give ourselves permission to step away. That might mean stepping away from too much distressing news or stepping away from the trauma or toxicity of others. Have you checked your boundaries today?

How many times a day do we hear that we need to socially distance? It’s an unfortunate choice of words. While physical distance is critical to protect our physical health during a pandemic, our mental health and wellness require social connection. One of the most important things we can do to take care of ourselves is to connect with others. We know from studies of helping professionals that regular opportunities to communicate with others who work in the field is a protective factor in avoiding burnout and vicarious trauma. Who will you connect with today?

Ah Saturday mornings! A time to sleep in, right? While it would seem that the indulgence of an hour or two of extra sleep on a weekend morning would be the essence of self-care, if your Saturday morning snooze is actually an attempt to catch up on sleep deprivation during the rest of the week or if the time shift on weekends leaves you with jet-lag on Monday mornings, disrupting your sleep-wake rhythm every weekend is simply adding stress. Especially in these times when so many of us are experiencing sleep difficulties, maintaining a regular routine for sleeping and waking will help us save our energies for other needs.