Blog

I run a thought experiment in my law school class during which I have the students imagine a series of prompts, and in each instance, notice their physiological response. Feel free to play...

A bit more than a year ago, we were shutting down. Now we are sloooowly opening up. If like so many of us, you had to press pause this past year, is pause...

Last week I wrote about boundaries, and one might argue that I left out the most important aspect of boundary setting: communication. Of course, when boundaries are externally facing, they need to be...

“Your mind is the basis of everything you experience and of every contribution you make to the lives of others. Given this fact, it makes sense to train it.” Sam Harris, author of Waking Up I just...

This week I wrapped up my final law school class for the semester. Some of the things we did in class: Sang the chorus to a Backstreet Boys song released in 1999 Played...

This is a message for all of you cognitive athletes out there—thinking is hard work. But wait, you already knew that, because at the end of the day, you’re drained, and your mind...

Judith Gordon spends her days counseling lawyers on how to avoid burnout and how to be strong leaders—one of a growing number of attorneys focusing on mental health and wellness in the profession....

What does productivity mean to you? Hours billed? Work out the door? Number of matters resolved?  Is it enough that we’re meeting our deadlines, even if they’re taking a toll? One major benefit...

   You awake to a dozen or more new emails demanding immediate attention and you feel stressed before you’re even out of bed. That may translate into muscle tension, shallow breathing, a racing...

We are obsessed with happiness. We listen to songs about it. We read books about it. We long for it. We revel in happy endings. The U.S. Constitution even guarantees our right to...

For the past several years, our profession has seen a rise in attrition and a decline in satisfaction. Too many talented lawyers have walked away from the profession, believing it’s an all-or-nothing gig. Yet...

   “Get busy living or get busy dying.” This line was delivered by the character Andy Dufresne in the classic film, The Shawshank Redemption. The question I often hear, and that I remember...

We see and hear it often. Emails that begin with “Sorry for…”. Conversations peppered with “sorry, but …” I am very much in favor of a sincere apology when appropriate. I wrote one...

It’s Thursday! How has your week been? Mine has been full of feelings. And for lawyers, feelings can be tricky. One thing our legal forebears didn’t yet know, is that we humans don’t...

Our attention is being diverted in countless directions. Only it’s not the usual noise buzzing in the background. The issues are big and complicated and we’re feeling stuff.  The problem with attention fragmentation isn’t...

“Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.” Beyond finding it amusing, this quote by Elizabeth Cady Stanton is one of my favorite because it...

“Imposter!” Said no one to you ever …  Yet, we are plagued by nagging thoughts of self-doubt, inner criticism and imagined terrible possible outcomes. These unbidden thoughts are overprotective psychological constructs designed to...

I saw this comic recently: A couple is passing a man standing on a sidewalk holding up a sign that says: THE END IS NEAR, in response to which one partner in the...

Since Covid-19 restrictions were put into place last March, I’ve been beyond thankful for the tools and strategies at my disposal for coping with adversity and sustaining resilience. That wealth of resources was...

When was your last energy audit? Yesterday? Last week? Never? Doing an energy audit means that we pay attention to our energy levels throughout the day and identify those activities that boost or...

I lied. I said there would be no Thanksgiving Thursday Thrive Bite. But I couldn’t help myself. I love this interaction. My week just doesn’t feel the same without it. Still, I’m keeping...

I saw this meme the other day: Once you understand why pizza is baked round, packed in a square box, and eaten as a triangle, then you will understand 2020. I thought about...

There’s an inherent messiness in being alive, in being human, and in being in relationship with others and the world. Our life experience is a subjective journey into the unknown, riding on an...

“Kill it in the practice of law, without it killing you” This is the proposition that each episode of the Iron Advocate, a podcast created by lawyers Robert Levant and Jeff Riebel, strives...

Brene Brown said it best: 2020 was a year of FFTs (“effing first times”). If you haven’t heard her brief, yet insightful podcast episodes on FFTs, here are the links. Brene on FFTs...

2020 tested our limits in myriad ways. Each time we thought that we’d reached our maximum, we found out that we could stretch a little more. We adapted to uncertainty. We turned fear...

I saw this on Twitter yesterday: “This tweet is officially permission for you to be less productive than usual, and to not feel guilty about it, and to instead focus your energy on...

“For there is always light, if only we’re brave enough to see it, If only we’re brave enough to be it.” As many of you undoubtedly heard, this is the closing line of...

   I’m not saying ditch happiness. I’m suggesting that we ditch the pursuit of happiness, which I believe causes us distress for two reasons. First, being in pursuit means that we’re chasing something...

Oliver Wendall Holmes, and others of his era who regarded law as a science, would disagree with this post. Here’s why. I regard emotional intelligence skills training as essential training for lawyers. In...

Talk of gratitude and its benefits are everywhere these days. And we need it. There’s plenty of scientific evidence that gratitude enhances mood, reduces stress and depression, strengthens relationships, improves immunity and physical...

If you agree that we need more levity in law practice, raise your hand. No one I know went to law school to be unhappy in the legal profession. And research agrees. Students...

Next week will mark one year since we began living in a world under conditions we hadn’t experienced in our lifetimes. Many of us went from working in offices to working from home,...

   It’s been one year, and what a year it’s been. We’ve likely heard more about resilience in the past year than we imagined we’d hear in a lifetime. What is resilience, really?...

Who needs a productivity boost? Yesterday, I was alert and engaged. Today, my energy is lagging. Many of us continue to work from home, and are finding it extremely difficult to be productive;...

I came across this quote the other day: “I know I’m on the right path because things stopped being easy.” To say that 2020 “stopped being easy” is an understatement. In my view,...

Warning: this blog post has undertones of law school. Mnemonic ahead: B.R.E.A.T.H.E. Personally, I was never a huge fan of mnemonics. I felt they added more work than necessary to the already burdensome...

The competing demands for our attention continue to rise, and for most of us, that’s a stress factory. When we’re feeling fragmented, or our attention is divided, our stress levels rise. This can...

Have you noticed it, too? You’ve been working from home. No commute required. Casual Friday every day. More scheduling flexibility. Yet, you feel mentally drained, physically exhausted, and possibly even burned out. What’s...

This post is a little longer than usual, so hear me out (pun intended, groaning anticipated). Listening is fundamental to our personal health and wellbeing, integral to our relational human experience, and necessary...

I’ve benefited from the many voices sharing their thoughts and experiences, and it’s become clear that being in a new, never-before-experienced situation means bringing agile thinking to the circumstances. We are being forced...

To laugh during a pandemic is doubly important. Laughter not only relieves anxiety, it boosts immunity, big time. How do we know? We all love a good story, so here’s the story of a man...

We lawyers spend a good deal of our time in our heads, thinking–and worrying–about the work on our desks, and the time we don’t have, and the “what-ifs,” and the “if-onlys,” yet when...

What is THRIVING anyway? And why a Center for Thriving in Law? I’m going to take a circular path to answer those two questions. I don’t need to tell you that law is...

Law is a high-intensity, high-demand profession. If you’re a lawyer or legal professional, chances are high that you’re pretty stressed, often overwhelmed, and could use some tools and strategies to help you work...