Lawyer Well-being Newsletter: Helping Lawyers Improve Brain Health & Mental Strength
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Prebiotic Supplements Improve Anxiety
Researchers are discovering that prebiotic and probiotic foods and supplements can improve some aspects of physical and mental health. The focus is on the relationship between bacteria in the gut, brain function, and behavior. There are neural, endocrine, and immune pathways that connect the gut and the brain, and these
Music Improves Sleep Quality
Poor sleep quality can cause stress, impaired cognitive capacity, and weakened physical health. A meta-analysis of five studies investigating the impact of music therapy on the sleep quality of 288 adults, age 60 years and older, revealed that older adults who listened to music experienced significantly better sleep quality than
Wisdom & Diet
Wisdom, also known as sapience or sagacity, is the capacity to think and act using knowledge, experience, insight, understanding, and common sense. Its characteristics include self-knowledge, compassion, and unbiased judgment. Wisdom is associated with self-awareness, reflective thinking, positive emotions, empathy, and prosocial behavior. Wisdom is also associated with good physical
Resilience & Worldview on Nature
Today is Earth Day. Feeling connected to nature is associated with resilience and happiness, as well as decreased anxiety. Researchers evaluated how human’s relationship with the natural world influences psychological well-being during the natural disaster pandemic. They explored two worldviews: harmony-with-nature (connectedness) and mastery-over-nature (the right to control and exploit
Reframe Stress
The fight-or-flight stress response is designed to help us survive threats. Our body automatically scans our environment for threat and when detected, it reacts by marshalling the right resources for a response to the challenge. Our attitude about this process can make us more resilient. Understanding the stress response, and
Impact of Pandemic Trauma
Trauma, like long-lasting chronic stress, can have long-term impacts. The pandemic has traumatized all of us, but we are likely to have different experiences depending on our environmental sensitivity. A study of 906 adults found that 31% were highly-sensitive, 40% were medium-sensitivity, and 29% were resilient to events within our
Exercise Improves Sleep
Exercise empowers your memory-processing hippocampus and sleep improves your capacity to make short term memory more stable in your brain, which is critical to developing expertise. When you exercise, you also improve your sleep quality. Researchers examined the impact of 60 minutes of vigorous exercise on sleep quality with delta
Negative Information & Well-being
Our brain’s panic button, the amygdala, ignites the fight-or-flight stress response. These almond shaped structures, one in each hemisphere (plural is amygdalae), evaluate our environment for potential threats. And people have different sensitivity to their environments. A study of 906 adults found that 31% were highly sensitive to environmental influences,
Therapeutic Landscapes
Saturday, March 20 is the first day of spring. Research shows that spending time in green spaces, natural outdoor settings, can improve mental health. Beneficial green spaces range from urban parks to the wildlife areas of state and national parks. Research also shows that exposure to blue spaces, bodies of
Sleep Consistency & Mood
On Sunday, we spring forward and advance our clocks one hour for Daylight Saving Time. Sleep consistency and sleep duration are both important to maintaining well-being. Prior research demonstrated that disruption to the circadian rhythm, the internal time-keeping system, was associated with poor mental health in a study of over
Improve Brain & Heart Health
Food can offer a neurocognitive benefit, and a means to improve heart health and reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. Prior research indicated that the Mediterranean-DASH diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet is associated with lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The MIND diet promotes consumption of plant-based
Exercise & Omega-3s
Sometimes we avoid exercise when we are sore from a prior workout. Recovery from exercise makes it easier to be active more regularly. Researchers gave 14 healthy males in their 20s an omega-3 supplement (7) or a placebo (7). After 4 weeks, all participants undertook a downhill running workout. Muscle
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