Be Well

• Citation: Vol. 45 No. 2 Pg. 30
• Publication year: 2019
• Pages: 30

BE WELL Vol. 45 No. 2 Pg. 30 Vermont Bar Journal Summer, 2019

Stressed Much?

by Samara Anderson, Esq.

How does this stress affect your body and how can being mindful reduce these negative effects? Read below to find out...

The alarm goes off in the morning and despite feeling sheer exhaustion, you rise to quickly start your day so you can ft in a cardio workout before the rest of the house awakes and it is a furry of break-fast-eating-preparing-lunches-commuting-to-school/work. Of course, there was construction, which delayed your trip to work and caused you to be late for your first morning meeting with a demanding client, who is now even more upset and anxious about the status of their case with the late start to your meeting. This seemingly minor delay has now caused a waterfall of morning problems: this meeting runs late and now you are late for a status interview with a judge that has not been favorable to your cases and is a stickler for timeliness. Opposing counsel will use this to their advantage and you will continue to dig yourself out of the judicial hole that has been dug even deeper. All of this “stress” and you are only 3 hours into your day. Does any part of this schedule resonate for you as an attorney? If so, the negative effects of chronic stress may be occurring in your body and life…

I believe there is “Good Stress” and “Bad Stress”

• “Good Stress” is part of our fundamental survival system and is an automatic biological stress response that can save our lives. Your fight/fight/ freeze responses are for “acute” or “short-term” stress and last minutes to hours until you return to a resting or relaxed state. So, the norepinephrine, adrenalin and cortical stress hormone levels rise and then disappear.

• “Bad Stress” occurs when there is chronic or ongoing situations in your life that do not provide you with time to return to a resting or relaxing state. This chronic stress can be activated for days, weeks, months and even years. In this case, the norepinephrine and adrenalin levels may lower, but the levels of cortisol may remain in the body and start to wreak havoc, as outlined further below.

Both “Good Stress” and “Bad Stress” start with a stressful trigger (traffic, late for a meeting, upset client, deadlines, heavy workload, challenging judge or opposing counsel) and your body reacts as though you are being chased by a saber-toothed tiger, which means you need to activate your survival system and marshal the...