For Individuals
Welcome! This page provides do-able ways to participate individually or with colleagues, friends, and family.
The Well-Being Week team has been working hard to make it easy for you to get involved.
Each of the 5 days in Well-Being Week is focused on one dimension of overall well-being. Below, you’ll find tips and downloadable activity guides to practice different dimensions of well-being.
If you decide to participate, we’d love to see you on social media. Please post about your experience, use the hashtag #WellBeingWeekInLaw, and follow along as the week unfolds!
Share Your Experience to Win Prizes!
Tell us how you will be participating in Well-Being Week in Law and be entered in a raffle for some fantastic prizes…including a 3-night, all-inclusive Pathway Experience at Canyon Ranch.
Well-Being Week Schedule
MONDAY: May 1, 2023
Stay Strong
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
Striving for regular activity, good diet and nutrition, enough sleep and recovery. Limit addictive substances and seek help for physical health when needed.
Read This
Watch This
Confessions of Bad Exerciser, TedX Marin
Carter, Christine (2020) – Christine Carter PhD is a writer, speaker, coach and sociologist, as well as a Senior Fellow at the Greater Good Science Center. In this talk, filmed for TedX Marin, she argues that in order to build a new habit, like exercising, we need to release our perfectionistic desires and let ourselves be bad at it (at least for a while).
Do This
More Movement While Working
Pick one activity from the “More Movement While Working” section of the Well-Being Week in Law Physical Health Activity Guide (appears on page 2) and implement that strategy today – maybe it’s a walking meeting, or setting a timer to remind yourself to stand and move during the work day. Pick something small, give yourself permission to do what you can (no perfectionism allowed!), and acknowledge your victories when you follow through.
Live Webinar
Time/Length: 1:30-2:30 p.m. EDT (30 min webinar immediately followed by 30 min breakout sessions of moving together)
Title: Moving Together: The science and experience of communal movement
We are kicking off Well-being Week in Law 2023 with a fun opportunity to learn and experience the benefits of moving with other people! Our panel of experts will delve into the science behind the power of moving with others – its positive effects on the body and mind, including motivation and positive emotion. We will also examine the social and cultural aspects of communal movement and how it fosters a sense of belonging and connectedness among participants. Our panel will explore the evidence-based reasons why exercising (or simply moving) in a group setting can be more effective, motivating, and enjoyable than the same activity performed in isolation. You’ll learn about the social and psychological benefits of group movement, including increased accountability, social support, and a sense of community.
Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn and participate.
Absolutely no experience necessary. Please join any movement program that you would like and participate to the extent you are comfortable. Feel free to turn your camera off.
Breakout Room: Yoga with Maria Bries mbrieslaw@gmail.com
Find your inner island of refuge with a calming and meditative yoga session with Maria Bries. Maria has over 20 years of training in combining mindfulness with movement. You will experience a deep sense of peace and well-being. Your session will include guided imagery for stillness, poses for strength, flexibility and for releasing tension as well as cultivating awareness of resources from within. Your session will leave you feeling relaxed, refreshed, and renewed!
Maria Bries is an Illinois-licensed attorney with McCauley Lyman LLC where she represents developers, investors and lenders in project development and finance in the renewable energy sector. Maria is also a certified yoga and meditation teacher, with a focus on mindful self-compassion. Maria is a recent graduate of the 2-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program with Tara Brach and Jack Kornfield through the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. She is also actively involved in Prairie State Legal Services, a legal aid organization servicing 36 counties in northern Illinois.
Breakout Room: Qigong with Stephanie Lewis
slewis@livewellflow.com, https://courses.livewellflow.com/
Qigong, pronounced “chi gong,” involves using exercises to optimize energy within the body, mind, and spirit, with the goal of improving and maintaining health and well-being. Qigong has both psychological and physical components and involves the regulation of the mind, breath, and body’s movement and posture. In most forms of qigong:
- Breath is slow, long, and deep. Breath patterns may switch from abdominal breathing to breathing combined with speech sounds.
- Movements are typically gentle and smooth, aimed for relaxation.
- Mind regulation includes focusing one’s attention and visualization.
Stephanie Lewis is a certified mindfulness meditation and qigong instructor, national board-certified health & wellness coach (NBC-HWC), and government attorney. She works with professionals in a variety of fields to skillfully manage stress and release the barriers to performing and achieving personal and professional goals. Mind-body practices such as mindfulness meditation, breathwork, and mindful movement are integral to all of her work. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Mindfulness in Law Society and the Maryland State Bar Association Lawyers Assistance Program Committee.
Stephanie holds a certificate in health and wellness coaching from the Maryland University of Integrative health (MUIH) along with several mindfulness and qigong teacher training program certifications. She holds a J.D. and LLM in tax (with a certificate in employee benefits law) from Georgetown University Law Center, a Masters in Health Services Administration from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Arts from Washington University in St. Louis.
Apart from mindfulness and the law, Stephanie loves spending time with loved ones, reading, walking, making jewelry and glass art, and taking pictures, especially abstracts.
Breakout Room: Peloton Ride with Jessie Spressart jessie@optiaconsulting.com
Peloton Riders, your peloton hashtag to find one another is #wellbeingweekinlaw and you will be joining a 30-minute Mental Health Awareness Ride with Camila Ramón on Monday, May 1 at 2pm. The link is below, but there will also be someone to direct you to the correct ride from the IWIL webinar.
Jessie is the Founder and Managing Director of Optia Consulting. She brings more than fifteen years of experience in talent management and law firm professional development to her coaching and consulting practice. Prior to founding Optia, Jessie worked in consulting and spent more than a decade building and leading the professional development department at a law firm in Washington DC. Jessie is an ICF-accredited executive coach and holds Master’s degrees from Fordham University and St. Andrews University. Jessie has coordinated this Well-being week in law Peloton ride.
Breakout Session: Sit Grit Seated Workout with Nora Minno Altchech
Created with the Spinal Cord Injury Transitions Group of Mount Sinai and powered by Social Creatures and Performance 360, SitGrit is a free, fully seated, home-based aerobic and strength training workout for the upper body. Classes are held fully remotely on Zoom, and led by high-performance and Olympic fitness trainers. SitGrit is open to everyone. No workout equipment is needed to participate. The classes are open for all ages, fitness levels, and mobility levels.
Nora is a Registered Dietitian, Certified Dietitian/Nutritionist, NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and behavior-change specialist based in New York City, NY. Nora’s work and advice has been featured in several national publications such as SHAPE, SELF, Women’s Health, Good Housekeeping, and Well + Good. Nora is also the Director of Well-being at O’Melveny.
Breakout Room: Soca Fusion (fusion dance) with Miss Ella socafusion@gmail.com
Ella has been a dancer all her life and is the founder of Soca Fusion LLC. She has studied under Martha Gray, Mariana Harkless, Judy Dworin, Lesley Farlow, and Marsha Parrilla and the Marcia Charles Dance Theatre Company. She has performed with artists including: Benjai, Voice, 5Star Akil, Olatunji, Lyrikal, Machel Montano, and Patrice Roberts. Aside from her own personal joy of training, creating, and performing, Ella loves to uplift youth through the performing arts as well. Ella has taught Hip Hop and other Afro Diasporic genres within Cambridge and Boston schools to bring joy and love into the hearts of young people. Ella strives for youth to feel confidence and determination in themselves so they can explore and feed their passions throughout their lives.
Scientific Background:
- Tarr, B., Launay, J., Cohen, E., & Dunbar, R. (2015). Synchrony and exertion during dance independently raise pain threshold and encourage social bonding. Biology letters, 11(10), 20150767. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0767
- Guo, S., Liu, F., Shen, J., Wei, M., & Yang, Y. (2020). Comparative efficacy of seven exercise interventions for symptoms of depression in college students: A network of meta-analysis. Medicine, 99(47), e23058. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000023058
- Sullivan P, Rickers K. 2013. The effect of behavioral synchrony in groups of teammates and strangers. Int. J. Sport Exerc. Psychol. 11, 1–6. ( 10.1080/1612197X.2013.750139)