The statistics are grim. Lawyers are not a happy bunch. I believe that Marin Lawyers are a happier bunch than most but we are not immune to the pressures of the profession, not to mention of life in general. Everyone faces challenges and everyone deals with them in different ways. Some of those ways are more constructive than others and different ways appeal to, and work for, different people.

In the interest of promoting good health, both mental and physical, among our members and the profession in general, MCBA presents this special wellness issue of the Marin Lawyer, aptly timed for one of the more stressful times of year. Most of the content is a collection of past Marin Lawyer articles addressing various aspects of wellness, including information and advice you can use as you seek whatever formula works best for you to maintain wellness and cope with the stress of an often stressful profession.

I won’t do my usual cataloguing of every article but a few highlights are worth mentioning. While you can read some of those grim statistics in Andy Wolfe and Barbara Monty’s article, The Stressed-Out Lawyer: Finding Relief in Marin, more importantly, they point out some of the opportunities here in Marin for not becoming part of those statistics. In Meditation Made Easy in Marin, I discuss the type of meditation that I both practice and teach, iRest, headquartered right here in San Rafael. Some types of meditation are easier than others and while the “user-friendliness” of iRest attracted me to it, even more appealing was how effective it is when the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs use it to treat PTSD in soldiers. Something that feels great right away and can help even active-duty soldiers in Afghanistan? Sign me up. Maybe you’ll sign up too. And if meditation doesn’t sound like your thing, read Carolyn Rosenblatt’s, Workaholism and You: Is It Healthy? She draws on her years of experience as a public health nurse before she became a lawyer to make a convincing argument for taking care of yourself. She offers some helpful tips that may seem a little more ordinary than meditation (although she also points out that cardiac surgeons are just one type of doctor recommending meditation.)

And don’t miss our Judge’s Corner this month: Wellness Via Gift, where Judges Lichtblau and Chernus discuss their personal experiences donating kidneys. And if you are not getting your fix of politics now that the mid-term elections are over, check out our political columnist’s recap and observations of the November election.

Whether you read one article or all of them, I have a request of you: choose one appealing wellness activity suggested in an article and resolve to incorporate it into your life. If all of our readers did that, I’d consider this issue of the Marin Lawyer an enormous success.

Be kind to yourselves and others and have a happy holiday season!