Statistics show that attorneys are a high-risk group for burnout, depression, mid-life crisis, anxiety, and stress and they must find outlets to help them to maintain the rigorous demands required by their law practice.

 Lawyers Must Consider Themselves Athletes for the Law

A lawyer must think of himself or herself as an athlete. Consider how athletes such as football players, basketball players, even golf players consistently discipline themselves by monitoring their food and alcohol intake, weight training, jogging, Pilates and even Yoga to maintain the physical and mental demands required to remain on top of their game.

Likewise, smart lawyers must find ways also to maintain and build their endurance for the continuous mental and physical demands required to remain on top of their game when practicing law. These conscious attorneys continually seek disciplines and take actions to protect their mental, emotional and physical and health to enable them to remain effective over the long haul, which, like many golf professionals means for decades.

Phillip, an attorney, had suffered from a mid-life crisis due to his depression. He said to me during a session, “Pamela, I appreciate your gentle guidance. Whenever I listen to you and force myself to spend a little time helping others, or, when I can, provide services for a substantially reduced rate to the poor, this almost instantly improves the way I feel. Also, when I make time for some pro bono work here and there for a non-profit organization that serves my community, I always feel good.”

David A. Kutik, a partner in the Cleveland, Ohio, office of Jones Day who specializes in complex litigation, former president of the Cleveland Bar Association says it this way, “When I try to explain the feeling lawyers experience when doing pro bono, the most apt analogy I can use is Christmas morning.

I’m Jewish, married to a Catholic. We celebrate Christmas. I don’t think that I’ve ever experienced quite the feelings as I did while watching my daughters come downstairs when they were young to “see what Santa brought.” The unbridled glee in their faces and voices touched me deeply. It was the joy of giving. Giving feels good, and sometimes it feels very good.”

Stephen G. Post, the author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get us Through Hard Times, explained: “As the saying goes, ‘if you help someone up the hill, you get closer yourself.’ Whether the group is focused on weight loss, smoking cessation, substance abuse, alcoholism, mental illness and recovery, or countless other needs, a defining feature of the group is that people are deeply engaged in helping one another, and are in part motivated by an explicit interest in their own healing.”

Why Some Lawyers Believe They Can’t

Many attorneys might scoff at this suggestion because of various reasons. Here are a few of the most common excuses:

Reason No. 1: I don’t have time.

Response: There are volunteer opportunities that don’t require a lot of time, maybe a Saturday for four or five hours every four to six months.

Reason No. 2: I don’t have the expertise.

Response: There are clinics and other opportunities for referral clinics.

 Reason No. 3: I don’t know how to do volunteer work in my community.

Response: You can contact your local bar via telephone or email.

Benefits From Helping Others

When you volunteer, being of service to others without expecting anything in return, boosts your spirit and soul, not to mention building up good will.

Lawyers want to realize that these altruistic behaviors reward the giver with physical benefits too – making service to others a rehabilitative and health-boosting behavior.

Consider the findings of the 2010 Do Good Live Well Survey of 4,500 American adults.  You can protect yourself against depression

Five Benefits Lawyers Gain By Giving to Others:

1.  You can protect yourself against depression

When you volunteer, social connection, interaction, and cooperation are part of the deal. By working cooperatively with others, in this stress-free environment not only do you flex your mental muscles in a different way, but you also polish up your interpersonal skills. Many lawyers even expand their live social network — not just your virtual one.

This social growth helps reduce isolation, which in turn helps cut the risk for depression. In short, when a lawyer becomes more selfless through reaching out and connecting with others in need, they experience less depression.

2.  You’ll experience a drug-free high

With selfless service often comes the volunteer’s version of the runner’s high. Many people who perform charitable acts, volunteering or even simply writing a check to support a good cause can trigger the release of the feel-good hormone oxytocin into the bloodstream. Selfless contribution to others results in a reduction in anxiety levels, less stress-triggered cortisol circulating throughout your body and more positive feelings towards yourself and your fellow man. Volunteering is feel-good time for you and a helping hand to someone in need —everybody wins.

3.  Expect to live better, healthier and longer

Although the exact mechanisms aren’t fully understood, recent studies point to some very interesting, health-enhancing side-effects of giving to others. Topping the list: lower mortality rates and lower risk of blood-pressure problems. Researchers have also seen reductions in the symptoms of heart disease and chronic pain, as well as boosted immunoglobulin A levels (which enhances immune function).

4.  Benefits of moving and getting on your feet

While neighborly acts and volunteering is by no means a replacement for exercise, serving others will keep you up and moving around.   When you venture out into the world to volunteer this helps to put some distance between you and the computer/tablet/TV screens that can easily keep you dangerously inactive for hours at a time. The increased physical activity, subtle as it may seem, will give back to your body such benefits as better circulation, better cardiovascular health and reduced risk of premature death.

5.  You’ll feel good all over — and be healthier for it

When United Healthcare/ Volunteer Match did an online survey of more than 4,500 frequent, regular volunteers, the overwhelming majority reported significant positive impact on their mental, emotional and physical well-being. Feelings of happiness, less stress, better physical health, and hopefulness went hand-in-hand with volunteering, as did better sleep and reductions in chronic pain — making service to others a particularly healthful activity for seniors.

Of course, you must stay balanced.   Make time to volunteer and help others but when you take your efforts too far, you can become at risk for burnout.

Meet Tony Tolbert 

Tony Tolbert’s inspirational story has inspired others. Tony is a successful, California-based entertainment lawyer who made headlines after agreeing to lend his fully furnished vacated home to a poor family for one year. Tolbert’s gesture sparked a chain reaction of goodwill.

It all started after Tolbert reached out to Alexandria House, a shelter for homeless women and children, in search of a family he could help.

When he met Felicia Dukes, a mother of four who had been sharing a single room at the shelter with three of her young children; her older son was over 18 and not eligible to stay with his mom and siblings.

So Tolbert offered them an opportunity of a lifetime: one year rent-free at his home so that Dukes could get her life back on track.

Dukes wasn’t on drugs or looking to escape a checkered past; she just fell behind on bills after having her last child and found herself homeless and in need of assistance. “I got behind on my rent. After I had my daughter I wasn’t getting my regular paycheck,” Dukes said in an interview with Go Inspire Go, a charity organization. “I just couldn’t. My mom lived in a senior building. You can’t stay there.”

With few options, Tolbert’s offer was a godsend. In a blog post published on Huffington Post Go Inspire Go founder Toan Lam said Tolbert and Dukes have both grown as a result of the experience.

Dukes said that the experience of living in Tolbert’s home gave her both “freedom” and “stability,” calling it a “miracle.” “She was also able to save money so that she will no longer need to live paycheck to paycheck.

After staying in Tolbert’s home, Dukes and her children are now in an apartment, and she has rebuilt her life, others in the community have also been inspired by Tolbert’s example and provided coaching and money-management instruction during this year.   While this may be an extremely generous example, it shows the lengths some lawyers are going to help others.

Attorneys Who Love to Give to Others

Local bar associations all over the country sponsor events, schedule time at a legal aid office, provide pro bono services at a local hospital or at, non-profit organizations. Lawyers joyfully participate in providing these services regularly.

When Mahatma Gandhi said that “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” His statement coincides with new research. Lawyers must admit that making regular time to help others can help them to experience positive side effects, mental and physical health benefits. As an attorney when you keep your kindness within reason and make time to give regularly to others both you and the recipient win.

Attorney Balance Your Life Coach

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Links:

This Is the Surprise Story of a Calif. Lawyer Giving His House to a Homeless Family for One Year http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/02/10/how-one-lawyers-selfless-miracle-act-sparked-a-chain-reaction-of-goodwill/?

Pro Bono: Why Bother?http://www.americanbar.org/newsletter/publications/gp_solo_magazine_home/gp_solo_magazine_index/2005_oct_nov_probono.html

5 Health Benefits of Giving to Others http://www.drfranklipman.com/5-health-benefits-of-giving-to-others/