Lawyer Well-Being Week

For those of you not following us on Facebook or Twitter, we wanted to repost some of our Lawyer Well-Being Week messages here. This week is Lawyer Well-Being Week, with each day’s work week theme focusing on a different aspect of well-being. Our VBA COVID-19 Resource Page has a link to the full package of materials for the week. But through the week, we’ve been posting on Facebook and Twitter the abbreviated version of the materials, highlighting just one video, one article and one activity per day.

Monday was Stay Strong day, focusing on physical well-being. The materials emphasize getting enough sleep, eating well and staying active, even if it is just standing up once every zoom meeting. Tuesday’s theme was “Align” encouraging us to foster a sense of meaning and purpose in our work and life, with a call to engage in work that is meaningful. Today the focus is on engagement and growth. We do better when we continue to learn and develop both within our jobs and outside of the work environment. As the pinwheel suggests, the next two days will focus on social and emotional well-being. But you don’t have to wait to check out the materials available for those days. In fact, every day should be well-being day because maintaining well-being is a perpetual process, not an event. We owe it to ourselves and others to focus on our well-being whenever we can.

Every morning of this well-being week, Vermont Bar Counsel, Mike Kennedy, has posted short videos about each day’s theme. If you feel like you don’t have the time to check out the full materials for the week, or even time for the pared down version on our Facebook page, irony aside, you can certainly spare the 7 minutes or so every morning to watch Mike Kennedy’s video summaries! Here’s a link to today’s video, a favorite of the VBA for obvious reasons, and you can check out all of his videos from there.

This pandemic has undoubtedly caused us all to feel stress and anxiety, so Lawyer Well-Being Week could not have come at a better time. Remember there are resources out there including the Vermont Lawyers Assistance Program if the stress feels too overwhelming. The pandemic has also caused many of us to become more introspective and think about priorities, and perhaps have a little more time to spare. In that spare time, why not check out some of the resources put together by professionals to help us all focus on well-being. You might feel better for it!