Lawyer Jennifer Alvey writes, “I’d be willing to bet more than 80% of you live with a Happy Horizon in your head. The Happy Horizon is the fantasy you use to convince yourself that all your angst over your job is just a temporary blip, rather than the actual contours of your daily existence.” Read her Blog
The Happy Horizon Keeps Unhappy Lawyers Stuck
3 Lies Lawyers Should Stop Telling Themselves
Lawyer and author of the new book, “The Anxious Lawyer: An Eight-week Guide to a Happier, Saner Law Practice Using Mindfulness,” Jenna Cho writes that lawyers tell themselves three big lies: that they aren’t good enough, that more is better and that they must sacrifice themselves and their well-being for others. Read her Blog
Time to Talk, Depressed Lawyers. To Yourself
Jennifer Alvey writes, “Depression for lawyers is not solely due to external influences or chemical imbalances. A notable chunk of it also stems from our self-talk. Lawyers, as I’ve written about before, tend to be a pessimistic lot. Let your worst-case scenario work filter become your life filter, and you’ve got an inner life that leads straight to a lot of hopelessness. Living the ‘always look on the dark side’ kind of life means that you won’t see possibilities.” Read her Blog
How to Break that Vicious Cycle of Anxiety We Lawyers Suffer From
Casey Berman writes, “Now, we can’t blame the practice of law in general for every not-so-good emotion and thought we have, but it is safe to say that many of us lawyers who yearn to leave law behind suffer from a great deal of anxiety that is directly caused by our jobs. For many of us lawyers, our default position is to be stressed.” Read his Blog
The Legal Profession’s Drinking Problem
CNN reports the findings of a new study which found that approximately 15,000 currently employed attorneys reveals that between 21% and 36% drink at levels consistent with an alcohol use disorder. For comparison, those numbers are roughly 3-5 times higher than the government estimates for alcohol use disorders in the general population. The study also uncovered similarly alarming rates of depression and anxiety, while further identifying why it is that most lawyers don’t seek help: a pervasive fear of harming their reputation. Read the News
Creating Work-Life Balance as a Solo Attorney
As a solo attorney, you have a unique set of challenges that may not exist for an attorney who works as an employee of a law firm or for someone who works for any type of corporation or business. Because you are responsible for operating your own law firm, you are under a unique set of pressures that might well cause you to work more hours than you want (or should). Check out these great solutions to coping. Read the Blog
Why I’m Speaking Up About Lawyers and Depression
This is an article I wrote for The Mighty website. Read the Blog
Life Experience and Cognitive Science Deepen the Case for Mindfulness in Law
University of San Francisco Law Professor Rhonda Magee writes in the ABA Journal, “Few would disagree that if the purported benefits of mindfulness prove to be true, no profession is in greater need of them than ours. And indeed, the legal profession is responding. Law schools, lawyers and judges are reviewing the research detailing benefits: reduced stress, lower blood pressure, increased empathy, improved performance on exams and during arguments, more ethical decision-making, and more satisfying and effective client counseling conversations. And they are practicing mindfulness to assist in handling the stress of legal practice and to improve performance.” Read her Blog
Stop Living in Misery: You Deserve Better
From Above the Law, lawyer blogger Jenna Cho writes, “When you decided to go to law school, was it your aspiration to hate your job, hate your life, and live in misery? Of course not. Which begs the question: why are so many lawyers unhappy?” Read the Blog
6 Ways to Stress Less at Work
Some jobs can affect your mental health so much so that unemployed people seem to fare better. According to recent research, people in a bad job — defined as job insecurity, sky-high demands or heavy workload, little control over workload and unfair pay — had either the same or worse mental health than unemployed individuals. Read the News
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