Mental Health, Wellbeing Support, and Resources

1L of a Ride provides a candid, comprehensive roadmap to both academic and emotional success in law school's crucial first year.

The Anxious Lawyer is a straightforward introduction to meditation and mindfulness for those engaged in the practice of law. Readers will be guided through an eight week program, the aim of which is to assist in establishing an ongoing meditation practice. The book will: -Provide an overview of the history of meditation and the scientific evidence of its benefits -Introduce the reader to simple meditation techniques -Offer concrete guidance for establishing meditation practice

It's no secret that individual lawyers are under siege in a profession with a high incidence of stress, divorce, substance abuse, and suicide. In this groundbreaking multi-dimensional collection, you can find tools and information that enable you to have both a successful career and a happy, satisfied life. These tools will teach you how to harness the transformative power of being more relational and less transactional. The earmark of happy lawyers is the development of emotional intelligence, resilience, and mindfulness practice. The book provides the keys to the kingdom, what is essential to thrive in the competitive environment of lawyering. The material comes from recognized experts who provide step-by-step behavioral guidance of what you need to do. The material is easily accessible. Each chapter has a summary and conclusion. Follow the wisdom and it's guaranteed to change your life and career.

This groundbreaking book explains why women experience burnout differently than men--and provides a simple, science-based plan to help women minimize stress, manage emotions, and live a more joyful life. The gap between what it's really like to be a woman and what people expect women to be is a primary cause of burnout, because we exhaust ourselves trying to close the space between the two. How can you "love your body" when everything around you tells you you're inadequate? How do you "lean in" at work when you're already giving 110% and aren't recognized for it? How can you live happily and healthily in a world that is constantly telling you you're too fat, too needy, too noisy, and too selfish? Sisters Emily Nagoski, Ph.D., the bestselling author of Come as You Are, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, are here to help end the cycle of overwhelm and exhaustion, and confront the obstacles that stand between women and well-being. With insights from the latest science, prescriptive advice, and helpful worksheets and exercises, Burnout reveals: what you can do to complete the biological stress cycle--and return your body to a state of relaxation. How to manage the "monitor" in your brain that regulates the emotion of frustration. How the Bikini Industrial Complex makes it difficult for women to love their bodies--and how to fight back. Why rest, human connection, and befriending your inner critic are key to recovering from and preventing burnout. All women will find something transformative in these pages--and be empowered to create positive and lasting change.

The Flourishing Lawyer offers an empathetic guide for members of the legal profession to cultivate their personal and professional well-being, identify and develop their individual strengths, and define success on their own terms. Drawing from lessons and research from the fields of psychology, health care, sports, and medicine, this book is an affirming guide to becoming a better contributor to the profession while living a flourishing life.

"This book aims to be ambitious in its approach. Lawyers are leaders in our communities and I expect it to be no different in the realm of neurodiversity. Neurodiversity might be a relatively new concept for some readers, but we interface with people who think differently than us each day. It is neither better nor worse, just different, and different can be extraordinary. We can be extraordinary in how we work with our neurodiverse colleagues, friends, family members, and clients. My hope is that this book makes including neurodiverse populations in our profession and interacting with us within the legal system becomes more natural and equitable"--

Each year, over 40,000 new students enter America's law schools. Each new crop experiences startlingly high rates of depression, anxiety, fatigue, and dissatisfaction. Kathryne M. Young was one of those disgruntled law students. After finishing law school (and a PhD), she set out to learn more about the law school experience and how to improve it for future students. Young conducted one of the most ambitious studies of law students ever undertaken, charting the experiences of over 1000 law students from over 100 different law schools, along with hundreds of alumni, dropouts, law professors, and more. How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School is smart, compelling, and highly readable. Combining her own observations and experiences with the results of her study and the latest sociological research on law schools, Young offers a very different take from previous books about law school survival. Instead of assuming her readers should all aspire to law-review-and-big-firm notions of success, Young teaches students how to approach law school on their own terms: how to tune out the drumbeat of oppressive expectations and conventional wisdom to create a new breed of law school experience altogether. Young provides readers with practical tools for finding focus, happiness, and a sense of purpose while facing the seemingly endless onslaught of problems law school presents daily. This book is an indispensable companion for today's law students, prospective law students, and anyone who cares about making law students' lives better. Bursting with warmth, realism, and a touch of firebrand wit, How to Be Sort of Happy in Law School equips law students with much-needed wisdom for thriving during those three crucial years.

Jiu Jitsu Jurisprudence introduces something new into your life that will revolutionize every aspect of your being: your body, your mind, and your soul. It will help you find purpose outside of the office and beyond the courtroom. You will feel better, think clearer, be happier, and above all, find physical and emotional fulfillment that will positively affect your law practice and, perhaps more importantly, your life practice. This is the first book of its kind to discuss the martial art of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu within the context of the legal profession. It offers all attorneys (and other non-legal professionals) insight into one of the most complete--yet still relatively unknown--martial arts disciplines in the world. You will discover how to transition from the "Lawyers Mind" to the "Jiu Jitsu Mind" while learning about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu's rich history and culture, basic techniques and moves, diet, and its emphasis on camaraderie both on and off the mat, all of which will help you become a better, more focused, less ego-driven yet more self-esteemed lawyer, professional, and person overall.

The ABA and most state bar associations have identified a wellness crisis in the legal profession, and called for educating students on how to better cope with the challenges of law school and practice. At the same time, students must learn how to maximize their brain health so that they perform well in law school and on behalf of their clients in practice. The same way musicians would tune their instruments, or chefs would sharpen their knives, law students must sharpen their minds. This book aims to help students "do well" in their ability to learn, and "be well" in the process, by exploring the deep connection between brain health and wellness. Specifically, the book discusses: How to cultivate the ability to deeply focus and deal with the challenges of the 24/7 digital age; How stress affects both brain and body; How increasing resilience helps deal with challenges and setbacks; Why we need exercise for mental, physical, and brain health; Why adequate sleep is important and how it can be improved; and How what we eat affects the brain and one's physical performance. Written in a witty, informative, and easy-to-read style, the book is full of suggestions to help students establish healthy and productive habits which will benefit both brain and body. Each chapter ends with a self-reflection exercise to help students take the material and consciously begin implementing its suggestions. This book could be used in orientation programs, academic support and wellness programming, professional development, mindfulness, and other "preparing for practice" courses. The Law Student's Guide to Doing Well and Being Well in the media Q&A: To Boost Productivity, Lawyers and Law Students Should 'Socially Distance' From Their Phones via law.com XL Legal podcast appearance: Mindful Lawyering with Shailini George

Stress is an inevitable part of being lawyer and it can even be a positive force - it can help you push through long hours or meet tough targets. However, when stress becomes excessive, it can be damaging to individuals and to firms, leading to mental and physical sickness, lack of morale or a desire to take on additional responsibility, and worse. The problem is widespread. According to a Law Society survey, 95% of lawyers have some negative stress in their jobs, and 17% say that this is extreme. Lawyers feel overloaded with work, unappreciated, isolated, and unsupported; many complain of unattainable targets, poor pay, and long hours. And while many firms say they have programmes in place that are geared towards improving the wellbeing of staff, 66% of lawyers say they would be concerned about reporting feelings of stress to their employer because of the stigma involved. Nobody wishes to be seen as a weak link in the chain of a professional practice. A solution won't be found overnight. This book is designed to encourage lawyers and firms to think more about the question of stress, how to recognise it in others and themselves, and how to take action before it becomes excessive. It is written for lawyers everywhere - regardless of location or career level. Key topics include: What is stress - how does it affect us? How can you prepare for inevitable stress and be better fitted to cope? How can you recognise the signs of stress in yourself and others? What are the particular characteristics of lawyers that make them more susceptible to negative stress? Mindfulness, mind-mindedness, and emotional intelligence (EI) - what they are and how they can help you to cope with stressful situations. Vicarious trauma - how you can be aware of and manage unavoidable emotional reactions to and/or involvement with clients' emotions. Looking after ourselves and our teams - what can (and can't) we do to make things better? The advice is informed by the author's practical experience as a lawyer and psychotherapist, and it is underpinned by recent statistical and research evidence, and illustrated by the personal experiences of lawyers whose stories have been anonymised, deconstructed, and re-arranged for confidentiality. The book also includes tips, exercises, and frameworks to think about in order to help you to tackle stress and promote mental wellbeing.

Mindfulness for Law Students is a one-of-a-kind book that is specifically designed to introduce law students to fundamental contemplative practices as well as the cutting-edge research that shows how incorporating mindfulness techniques can alter the physical structure and function of the brain to reflect decreased levels of stress, increased levels of productivity and improved mental health. This book is based on the Jurisight(R) program - which uses legal terms and concepts to teach lawyers what they need to know about mindfulness and neuroscience to lead more balanced and effective lives - and written with input from law students, law professors and recent law school graduates to ensure that the lessons are accessible to law students and can be easily integrated into their busy schedules. "As a first-year law student, I found that I didn't need another book on the law school experience, nor a bevy of outlines and advice. What I needed was a way to help myself focus in the midst of a very intense and sometimes chaotic experience. Mindfulness for Law Students introduces mindfulness concepts in a way that will help law students remain self-aware and keep the law school experience in its proper perspective. " -- Dale Dobuler, second-year law student

Lawyers are twice as likely to be alcoholics than the general population, and three times more likely to suffer a heart attack. Yoga for Lawyers is here to help Written by lawyers, for lawyers, this is a short, user-friendly yoga book focused on effective ways to de-stress every day, throughout the day, in very little time. The featured meditative yoga techniques and safe therapeutic yoga stretches are medically proven to be healthy ways to relieve stress.

A New York Times bestseller for 14 weeks in 1978, Running & Being became known as the philosophical bible for runners around the world. More than thirty years after its initial publication, it remains every bit as relevant today.