Self-Compassion Amid Bad Habits

• Pages: 32-33
• Date: 01 October 2022
• Author: Joseph P. Beckman
• Subject Matter: Civil Law

MENTAL HEALTH & WELLNESS

By Joseph P. Beckman, Litigation News Ass ociate Ed itor

Self-Compassion Amid Bad Habits

uch is written in our profession about the

“unhealthy ways” lawyers deal with their stress.

A series of recent experiences and stressors pre-

sented a sobering reminder of how the very

traits that make us good at what we do are a

double-edged emotional sword. None of us is immune, a fact that

was recently driven home for me personally.

While we are smart enough to know which are our healthy

habits, during times of stress it is easy to surrender the time

we need to “sharpen the saw” in favor of quick xes or numb-

ing rather than treating the injury. When we take the latter

approach, we are more likely to deploy—as something akin to

emotional or physical bandages—behaviors that may tempo-

rarily provide stress relief but which we know to be unhealthy

or self-destructive in the longer term.

I suppose what drove me from good to bad habits is what

IT professionals like to call “scope creep.” At a high level,

this is a series of small changes or tweaks to a project, none

of which is material on its own. In the aggregate, however,

they can (and often do) radically change the original project.

“Stress creep” can radically alter one’s health, both physically

and mentally. We risk engaging response sets that we know

are unhealthy but are an easier short-term deployment than

healthier alternatives.

Reecting on a series of life changes over the past quar-

ter, I am bummed, but not shocked, that it was so easy to

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Published in Litigation News Volume 48, Number 1, Fall 2022 . © 2022 by the American B ar Association. Repr oduced with permis sion. All rights rese rved. This informa tion or any portion th ereof may not be cop ied or disseminated in any for m

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