What Is Well-Being Week In Law?
The aim of Well-Being Week in Law (WWIL) is to raise awareness about mental health and encourage action and innovation across the profession all year-round to improve well-being.
Led by Dr. Anne Brafford, WWIL was launched in May 2020 with the support of multiple organizations and an enthusiastic team. WWIL is now organized annually by the Institute for Well-Being in Law (IWIL). It occurs the first week of May to align with Mental Health Awareness Month.
The event originally was named “Lawyer Well-Being Week.” In 2021, it was renamed “Well-Being Week in Law” to be more explicitly inclusive of all of the important contributors to the legal profession who are not lawyers.
2024 Theme: Well-Being Reboot
This year's overall theme is Well-Being Reboot: A Fresh Start for Positive Change. It embodies two key ideas: (1) a clean slate to start/restart our well-being action plans and (2) behavior change toward greater well-being.
Fresh Starts
The "fresh start" theme stems from research by Dr. Katy Milkman (author of How to Change) and other behavior change scholars. It shows that the psychological experience of a new beginning (e.g., New Year's, first of month, Mondays, birthdays) gives us extra motivation to make progress on our goals.
Fresh starts make us feel like we can turn the page on our past failures. They also give us a chance to diagnose the reasons why our new habits aren't sticking.
This research inspired our WWIL theme. Many of us make well-being resolutions in January. By May, if our busy lives have gotten in the way of our big intentions, we may benefit from a reboot.
We'd like to think of WWIL as a Well-Being New Year. We can put our failures behind us and celebrate a fresh start for building the healthy lives we really want.
Positive Change
The second part of the theme is positive change. Mental health education is helpful. Alone, though, it rarely causes people to make the real-life changes needed to improve their well-being.
So, although we'll still provide education, we're encouraging a focus on personal experiments and behavioral psychology tools to support change toward greater well-being.
What Are WWIL's Daily Themes?
Each day of WWIL focuses on a distinct dimension of holistic well-being for legal professionals:
Monday - 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.
Tuesday - ALIGN
Spiritual Well-Being
Cultivating a sense of meaning and purpose in work and life. Aligning our work and lives with our values, goals, and interests.
Wednesday - ENGAGE & GROW
Career & Intellectual Well-Being
Seeking personal satisfaction, continuous learning and growth in our professional and personal lives, and financial stability. Engaging in creative or intellectually challenging activities that foster ongoing development and monitoring cognitive wellness.
Thursday - CONNECT
Social Well-Being
Building connection, belonging, and a reliable support network. It is contributing to our groups and communities.
Friday - FEEL WELL
Emotional Well-Being
Valuing emotions. Developing an ability to identify and manage emotions for health, to achieve goals, and to inform decisions. Seeking help for mental health when needed.
