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Pamela DeNeuve

Lawyer & Law Firm Peak Performance Strategist

5 Ways to Manage Your Stress

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2020 What a YEAR!

2020, a year of continued stress, anxiety, and frustration, is almost over. However, the factors that created these feelings are far from being over. The pandemic, political animosity, racial divisions, and economic downturn are just a few problems everyone faces. I have never seen such divisiveness in my life. Peace of mind and the feeling of security is a distant memory.

How does all of this affect us? Hearts are racing, panic attacks, heart attacks, anger, and yes, hatred are familiar feelings people experience. Lawyers find themselves caught up in ongoing conflicts, violence, and stress. 2020 is not business as usual.

Edmond’s Personal Problems

Because of these circumstances and also personal problems, it is easy to make mistakes or have oversights. Edmond, for example, was confronted by his employer.

“Do you realize, Edmond, that your oversight could have caused us to lose the case and probably the client? Thankfully, my paralegal caught your error just in time. If something like this happens again, you and I will be having a different kind of conversation. Close my door as you leave.”

Edmond softly shut the door and hung his head as he shuffled slowly back to his office. He couldn’t blame anyone else. It was his fault.

No one knows he is having crises in his personal life. In addition to the pandemic, his wife is still fighting cancer after she was diagnosed last year.

His father is in the advanced stage of Alzheimer’s, and his mother can no longer keep him in control. Edmond made a tough decision to put his dad in a facility. His mother can’t cope and is not taking this decision well, at all.

None of these personal difficulties matter because he must bill his required billable hours. Edmond took time off last year when his wife was first diagnosed with cancer. He feels like he is about to explode from the stress.

Stress in a Law Firm

The legal profession is a breeding ground for anxiety. Everyone is stressed. Stress is like a volleyball being tossed around from one member of the firm to another.

Lawyers, of course, face the same problems as everyone else; personal challenges at home, financial distress, marriage difficulties, illnesses, raising babies and young children, rebellious teens, or aging parents.

Stresses, anxiety, tension, trauma, feeling hassled, worried, and nervous are like a best friend you love to hate. While individuals may try their best to concentrate on the task at hand, there are constant distractions.

The news seems to scream DISASTER with headlines that make your heart leap. Constantly checking one’s devices, social media, and news stories keep you pumped up with adrenaline to exacerbate your stress.

Stress has become a way of life for attorneys. Each day he or she faces the question: Will it be a high-stress day, a low-stress day, or a chaotic day? The intensity varies. The biggest question is, how can stress be managed.

Avoid These 3 Stressful Habits

1. Stop testing yourself to see how long you can endure headaches, stomach cramps, indigestion, chest pains, depression, or anxiety before you crack.

2. Avoid pushing yourself to the limit. Enduring constant anxiety and fear can result in long-term or short-term psychosis, and a lawyer can become trapped in long-term depression.

3. Avoid arriving at home, drink as much alcohol as possible, stuff too much food into your body, or take extra prescription or nonprescription drugs to relax.

5 Ways to Manage Your Stress

There are 5 Habits that attorneys can develop to fight stress. They are very straightforward and easy.

1. Every 90 minutes, take a 5-minute break. Step away from your desk and walk around while taking three deep inhales and three long exhales to relieve stress in your body.

2. It’s a good idea to take a couple of stretches. Set a reminder if needed. My Apple watch reminds me to stand. If your shoulders are crunched around your neck, it means you are too intense.

3. Drink Water: Water can ease you out of stressful fight and flight mode. Remember, your fight and flight response is an ingrained, knee-jerk response that comes upon you.

4. Take news breaks. Read a book, go for a walk, or watch a movie. Don’t keep watching and reading the same news item over and over again.

5. Monitor your social media usage and watch humorous videos, movies, or read entertaining books or articles.

Overcoming Stress is Not Easy

With everything going on in the United States and around the world, stress is inevitable. It is natural to have anxiety about the state of the world. But you must MAKE yourself stop and do positive actions to manage your stress. Controlling yourself and managing your stress is not easy.

If you spend two weeks making these habits a part of your daily routine, you will focus better, make fewer mistakes, and be more productive. – Pamela DeNeuve

Yes, 2020 and 2021 have been stressful in every way. Yet, lawyers must still run their practice, conduct a reasonably sane family life and protect their mental, physical and emotional well-being. These 5 tips will help you maintain a healthy mindset.

Message me at: pamela@pameladeneuve.com

Please put “30 minutes” in the subject line and we can spend 30 minutes looking at how you can overcome your stress in your law practice.

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