It’s been six months since most of us have been to our offices. The stress and uncertainty remain, even if it feels “normalized” at times.
During the pandemic, we have been conducting numerous Wisnik Well-being webinars for law firm professionals. We have covered topics including Maintaining Your Well-Being During Challenging Times, Virtual Communication Skills, and Thriving While Working From Home. If your professionals and attorneys need this kind of training now, please contact me and I will work with you on the pricing.
Below are five tips that workshop attendees have found particularly valuable. They are aimed at helping your team members to stay positive and productive during these challenging times. Please feel free to share them with your colleagues!
1. Establish a Morning Routine
Set yourself up for a productive day by establishing a daily practice that may include taking a walk or stretching to start the day. You can also begin the workday by identifying key projects or tasks you want to accomplish. Another decision you have control over is choosing to abstain from watching the morning news. By limiting negative news you could choose to start the day off in a more positive state.
2. Focus on What You Can Control
Although there are many things we cannot control today, including when our kids will resume full-time school, there are still things that are within our control. The most important one, I believe, is how we manage our state of mind. For example, we have a choice as to how we react to other people’s negativity. If you have someone on your team or in your life who projects their fears on to you, you don’t have to absorb their negative energy. In our webinars I teach participants how to be empathetic listeners, but still guard themselves against absorbing other’s negativity or fear (which is difficult because others’ negative emotions can be contagious). For example, after I hang up the phone with a family member who is triggered by the fact that we don’t know when a vaccine will be readily available and is in a fear-filled state, I take a moment to say to myself: “Their energy is not my energy.” By consciously distinguishing between their emotions and mine, I take control and responsibility for my state.
3. Connect with Others
Midday, when you need an energy boost, consider sending an email or text to someone on your team who has been extremely helpful on a project or to someone in your life who needs your positive energy. Letting others know how much you value them is not just a nice thing to do for them, it will help you have a more productive day. The biggest challenge I hear from law firm professionals is that they miss the day-to-day contact and sense of belonging they experienced when we were working face to face. Taking a few minutes to connect and check in reminds us that we may be working from different spaces but we are still working on the same team.
4. Express Gratitude
The reason expressing gratitude is so powerful is because fear and gratitude cannot coexist. If you ever feel fear or negativity come on, and we are all susceptible to these emotions when uncertainty is prevalent, expressing gratitude is the solution.
I highly recommend ending each night acknowledging two things that went right that day. Make a conscious effort to really notice the good things that happen every day. Our minds naturally default to seeing what is not working, but by recognizing what did go right, we can override this default and begin to train our minds to see the good things that also happen each day, even during a pandemic.
5. Make Time for Self-Care
It is so easy to feel depleted these days. Even people who are healthy and still have meaningful work are experiencing what I describe as a “big suck” on their energy. In order to show up in the way we want to for our work, family and clients we must make time to engage in activities that refuel us. Please take a moment each day to ask yourself: What will I do to fill my tank and show care for myself today?
Since most of us have gained at least 30 minutes each morning and afternoon from not commuting, this newfound hour can be time you can now devote to walking, reading things that recharge you, making a healthy meal, or doing yoga during your lunch break.
If you need inspiration for where to start, we recommend checking out some of these links:
- Gabrielle Bernstein’s Free Guided Meditations
- Marie Forleo’s interview with Dr. Edith Eger
- Brene Brown’s The Call to Courage on Netflix
- Tony Robbins’ I Am Not Your Guru on Netflix
- Michael Singer’s video course Living From a Place of Surrender: The Untethered Soul in Action
- Melissa Woods Health – low impact workouts with no equipment needed
- Peleton App workouts – no bike required!
- On-demand workouts and live-streamed classes from Physique 57
These self-care actions are no longer luxuries, but necessities!
I hope some of these tools are helpful to you and your team members.