It’s no secret that the legal world is filled with uncertainty and stress. In this article, we’ll share our best self-care strategies and tips for wellness in three major aspects of life: professional, personal, and physical. Let’s get started!
Professional Wellness
After sitting in the same position for hours, juggling dozens of deadlines, and managing client mood swings, it’s no wonder that court reporters struggle to unwind! In fact, due to ‘hustle culture’, some reporters think that stepping away from work, even temporarily, could negatively impact their careers. The following strategies can positively contribute to your overall wellness while furthering your professional goals:
Keep Regular Hours
Routines are an extremely effective way to train your brain and body for a specific task. Keeping regular work hours is one of the most important boundaries you’ll create throughout your entire working life. You can be efficient and productive without putting in overtime! In fact, many people even notice improvements when they reduce hours.
Create Boundaries and Breaks
Once you’ve established your regular hours, there are a few other boundaries left to set! First, allow yourself some short breaks throughout the day. Of course, you certainly should not walk out on your client while taking a deposition, but you can find moments in between tasks to simply put down your work. When you jump back into things, you’ll feel very refreshed.
Personal Wellness
High-pressure environments, like those in the legal world, make it particularly difficult to complete daily tasks without neglecting wellness. To ensure long-term personal wellness, here are some steps you can take:
Create a Distraction-free Ritual
Most of us are guilty of occasionally bringing work home with us, but it’s important to keep it from becoming a habit. Whether you just need to turn off notifications from your work email or power down your mobile devices completely, take care that you’re not constantly bombarded with reminders of work. After you’ve removed potential distractions, find time to do something soothing and relaxing! Create a ritual for yourself like taking a long bath, curling up with a good book, or treating yourself to ice cream. You can complete this ritual as frequently as you’d like, but at a minimum, we suggest starting with a weekly schedule.
Make Time for Laughter
Work is important, but it’s not the only thing that matters. It may sound frivolous, but you need to make time for laughter! Why? Stress is both a physical and mental experience. When you’re anxious, your body releases stress-aggravating hormones including cortisol, adrenaline, and epinephrine. Connecting with the people that you love can have dramatic stress-reducing effects because laughter reduces the levels of stress hormones present in your body.
Physical Wellness
Last, but certainly not least, physical health creates the foundation for success in every facet of your life. When you invest time in your body, you’ll discover that it is a key component of stress management and mental health. Try out these tips and see for yourself:
Remember to Move
One of the best tools for stress relief is exercise. This is because your neurological response to exercise can naturally reduce the level of stress hormones present in your body. Unfortunately, busy court reporters often find themselves with very little sunlight left after the work is over, which makes it difficult to get exercise. Try to find an activity that you enjoy and that you can complete at home. For example, you could take an evening dance class, stop by a neighborhood gym, or take an online yoga class.
Make Time for Rest
Productive days start with a good night’s sleep! While sleep is critical to overall health and well-being, many people don’t make sleep a priority. You should be getting multiple cycles of deep sleep each night. Deep sleep helps regulate your hormones, delay the effects of aging, and allows your immune system to rest and recover.
Final Thoughts
Thanks for reading! We hope we’ve been able to provide some useful tips to help you thrive in the face of a thrilling, yet challenging career as a court reporter. If you enjoyed this article, feel free to share it on social media!
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