June Wellness Tips: Adapting to Change

  • June 05, 2020
  • Julie A. Chapman, Member-at-Large

We are living in unprecedented and trying times.  Over the last few months, the pace of change in the legal industry has outpaced anything we expected and therefore hadn’t planned for.  Adaptation is never easy, but we’re trying.

For those of us who are also parents, it has added another layer of complications. Like many of you, I have been forced to quickly morph into a full-time work-from-home lawyer, part-time teacher and screen-time manager.  Although we started out with good intentions, most of our household plans, rules and schedules have gone out the window.  

I find myself getting antsy and excited for the daily government updates – how are the COVID-19 numbers trending, which businesses are allowed to reopen today and how?  Inevitably, the unanswerable questions follow: When can I see my parents and give them a hug? When will my kids go back to school? Am I ever going back to the office?  

The truth is no one knows where this pandemic will take us.  Given the lack of control or certainty over how it will end (and it eventually will), I have been thinking a lot about what I can do to make the best of this “in between” time.  Even better, are there ways to turn it into a growth opportunity? Can we channel this stress, anxiety and frustration in a meaningful way?