Pushed Beyond Your Legal Limits
By Penya M. Moses, JD, LLM
Penya Moses is a licensed attorney in Louisiana and has had a successful career working in both traditional and non-traditional legal settings for over 25 years. She is currently the Chief Operating Officer for Grambling State University. Penya was a speaker at the LADB Free CLE programs in both New Orleans and Pineville and addressed the timely and important topic of wellness in the legal profession.
While legal work can be incredibly fulfilling, it can also by nature be stressful and overwhelming. Lawyers intellectually understand that sleep, diet, and exercise are the cornerstones of good health. But often attorneys sacrifice sleep and healthy habits to meet unrealistic expectations. It sometimes seems as if it doesn’t matter if a health or personal issue surfaces – the work must get done and billed day in and day out.
For attorneys, there seems to be a sense that the recipe for success is, no matter what the circumstance, to always appear strong, endlessly capable, and able to handle unusual amounts of pressure. This heightened sense of responsibility, carried over time, undoubtedly takes its toll on many of us.
I can personally and very directly relate to feeling stressed and overwhelmed at times by life’s surprises. In a short period of time, I suffered the loss of three nuclear family members, a marriage, and a job. I battled health issues and withstood the emotional toll of the pandemic. After surviving what seemed un-survivable, followed by a period of self-evaluation, I set wellness goals for myself and mapped out a plan. My goals included regular physical activity, consistent sleep patterns, healthy eating, meditating, and maintaining positive healthy relationships. To achieve my goals, I focused on healthy coping mechanisms, remaining grounded, reducing stress when possible, and incorporating healthy outlets for myself, including books, music, and the arts.
When you are feeling stressed, anxious, or upset, you may not take care of your health as well as you should. You may not feel like exercising, eating nutritious foods, or taking medicine that your doctor prescribes. You may turn to alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs to cope. All of these things can undermine competence, skill, and professionalism and expose a lawyer to malpractice liability and/or disciplinary problems. It’s a fact that untreated mental health and substance use disorders ruin lives and careers.
Regrettably, there are a number of factors at play which may hinder attorneys from seeking the help they need, including not wanting to appear weak or incapable, feelings of shame, fear that they won’t be understood, and concerns about confidentiality. As a result, unfortunately, these concerns may inhibit attorneys from seeking treatment until the symptoms are so severe that they interfere with daily functioning.
Research shows that a happy, healthy lawyer enjoys a more meaningful practice and personal life while better serving his or her clients. In support of your health, it's critical to find balance in your life and practice, begin to identify the warning signs of burnout in yourself and in others around you, and create a culture of wellness in your own life.
I firmly believe that making strides towards self-care - and prioritizing your own care above all other responsibilities - is the key to emotional health and is the first step towards managing life’s stressors in a healthy way. Preventing burnout on the front end is easier than treating the toll it takes on your physical and emotional self when ignored or not confronted. I recommend being pro-active in taking charge of your well-being and offer the following tips that have helped me in my own quest for health and balance.
Control workload and stress. Take a closer look at your work processes to determine if you can better use technology to simplify and organize your work day.
Set boundaries. Whether at work, at home, or with friends, setting healthy boundaries limits your exposure to stress and protects your mental well-being.
Use humor and grace to handle difficult people. For me, remembering God’s Grace, keeping a smile on my face, taking a long deep breath, and engaging in light humor, helps diffuse a negative encounter. Providing assistance to a difficult person by lowering their stress in turn helps you from becoming stressed! The goal is to ease anxiety and stress and not add to it.
Maintain reasonable expectations of yourself and others. Encourage yourself with positive self-talk. Practicing gratitude and letting go are some ways to improve life and well-being. Expectations must be realistic and focus-driven to achieve long-term goals to push you beyond a temporary situation.
Manage your finances. Much of the advice you receive in law school focuses on student debt, but remember, your student debt is just one part of your larger financial plan. Young lawyers need to learn about savings, retirement funds, investment portfolios, mortgages, and, if applicable, childcare costs and college tuition plans. All of these, and more, will play a crucial role in your lifetime financial picture.
See something say something. Be the person who reaches out to a colleague or friend who is showing signs of needing help. While some people cope by turning inward and withdrawing from friends and family, self-isolating doesn’t help. But human connection does.
Take compassionate action. Sympathy is feeling sorry for someone. Empathy means identifying with another’s feelings and emotions. Compassion involves ACTION. Compassion motivates you to recognize somebody is in pain or has a problem and in response, you take steps to help.
Maintain self-care during emergency, disaster or pandemic. It’s easy to neglect yourself when unexpected things happen. But ironically, self-care during a crisis is crucial in balancing life’s rollercoasters. Create a personal self-care care checklist to assist in prioritizing yourself and balancing daily activities.
Know your limitations. If you feel like you might be experiencing physical or mental health problems, it’s best to address these issues as early as you can. Namely, you should talk to a professional about your physical or mental health concerns. Never be ashamed to get help.