This is a Mental Health Day post. Even though it starts with a photo of a pile of puppies, one of which is in a bee costume.
Stay with me. This will all make sense in the end.
We’ve been talking this week about mental health. And while March 28 was the official date of Mental Health Day, our efforts certainly are not stopping there.
If you’re seeing this today, March 30, you can still sign up for our official Mental Health Day webinar, “Mindfulness Meditation: Managing Stress and Shifting from Surviving to Thriving as a Law Student or Lawyer.” Cory Muscara of the Long Island Center for Mindfulness in West Babylon, N.Y., will show you practical tools to begin a mindfulness meditation practice, manage stress in critical moments, and make the shift from surviving to thriving as a lawyer.
And if you happen to miss it, we’ll be posting it on YouTube later on so you can watch it at your leisure.
A second webinar, “Making The Grade With Growth Mindsets,” takes place April 14 at 5:30 CT. It’s another presentation of our fabulous partner, the Dave Nee Foundation, and will show law students how to enhance their resilience.
Also, don’t forget to take 3 to 5 minutes out of your life between now and April 11 and take a mental health screening with this tool provided by Screening for Mental Health and the Dave Nee Foundation.
But let’s not forget how you’ve been getting the word out about Mental Health Day.
The Yale News had a great article, “Law students assess mental health reforms,” on what’s going on at Yale Law School and in its student-run Mental Health Alliance:
As a result, the alliance gave the administration three overarching recommendations: improve access to and quality of mental health care, prioritize programming that reduces stigma and promotes wellness, and develop “demystifying” programming for common sources of stress at the Law School.
The University of Maine School of Law held a panel on mindfulness. I’m slightly envious of students at the University of Miami School of Law, who were treated to massages and waffles. And IU McKinney School of Law gave out information and offered “stress relief swag” and a trail mix bar.
But Widener Law Commonwealth may have had the best perks of the day:
We teamed up with Caring Hearts Pet Therapy to visit @widenerlawcw for #mentalhealthday! Photos: t.co/ntIHKqIwW2
— Susq Service Dogs (@SSDOGS) March 29, 2016
Yes, puppies. And they’re not the first to realize the power of the pup.
At ABA TECHSHOW earlier this month, the team from How To Manage a Small Law Firm partnered with a Chicago-area no-kill shelter to bring a litter of puppies to their booth to emphasize the company’s motto: “Happy Lawyers Make More Money.” They talked with me for a short video on their slogan, how it fits into the life of a lawyer, and allowed me to force them to hold one of the puppies while I interviewed them:
So watch the video – whether it’s to learn a little about how to be a happy lawyer, hear what the company does, or watch a puppy in a tutu romp over the carpeting.
Because, even if you can’t let one of these adorable guys fall asleep on your chest like this one did to me below, you deserve a puppy video today.
