Mandatory Succession Planning Rule

So let’s build a toolbox of actions to support recovery from stress. If you fill the toolbox with these three, simple essentials, you may start feeling a little bit better.

1. Movement. Physical activity is the single best way to tell your body you have survived a stressor. Can you be physically active for just 20 minutes a day? This can be whatever works for you. Walk around the block. Dance in your kitchen. Pull some weeds. Heck, clean a toilet!

Just, move your muscles. 2. Sleep. In a world where obligations outpace time and energy, sleep might be the most important tool in the toolbox we are assembling.

Sleep is the cleaning company of your body. What if you got in bed just 15 minutes earlier tonight? See if you feel just a little bit better tomorrow. 3. Breathwork. “We are most effective at dealing with life’s challenges when we’re aware, observant, nonreactive and nonjudgmental.”

Enter: a breathing practice. Some of you may refer to it as meditation.

Breathwork does not have to be a spiritual practice, but rather, the practice of placing a “gap” or a “wedge” between your thoughts and your reactions. Think of it as a cognitive tool. The Navy SEALS use breathwork in high-stakes, tactical missions to calm their bodies and create a gap between the feeling in their body and the move they are about to make. What if you incorporated breathwork on a random

Tuesday?

Breathing, meditating, sitting, whatever you need to refer to it as, can neutralize a potential stress response and reprogram the brain. Studies show stress reduction with just five minutes a day6. Feel good? Keep Is there one small action–especially the ones listed–you can take to feel a little better? This isn’t about perfection. It’s about feeling 5% better. And better is better. Over time, tiny actions add up. These minor behaviors accumulate into massive benefits reflecting on work performance, emotional regulation and general happiness. Don’t change everything at once. Pick one. Start with an earlier bedtime. Turn your favorite song on loud for the drive home. Or, legitimately, take one long breath tomorrow at 9 a.m. If that feels good, incorporate something small next week. You want to keep going in your daily life. Assemble the toolbox that helps you do that.  ____________________________ Endnotes 1 Nagoski, Emily, and Amelia Nagoski. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. Ballantine Books, 2020. 2 Nagoski, Emily, and Amelia Nagoski. Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. Ballantine Books, 2020. 3 “Burnout an “Occupational Phenomenon: International Classification of Diseases,” World Health Organization, May 28, 2019, https://www.who. int/mental_health/evidence/burn-out/en/ 4 Kotler, Steven. The Art of Impossible: A Peak Performance Primer, HarperCollins, New York, 2021. 5 Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burn-out. Journal of Social Issues, 30, 159-165 6 Amy Lam, “Effects of Five-Minute Mindfulness Meditation on Mental Health Care Professionals,” Journal of Psychology and Clinical Psychology(March 26, 2015)

Mandatory Succession Planning Rule - effective October 1, 2022

• On the 2023 Annual Registration Statement, New Mexico Attorneys will be required to certify their compliance with Rule 16-119 NMRA. • Rule 16-119 requires every attorney practicing law in New Mexico to have a written succession plan. • Find out more regarding the Rule and its requirements by: • Listening to a succession planning podcast on SBNM is Hear • Attending a CLE webinar on Succession Planning on October 12, 2022 Contact the State Bar Professional Development Program at 505-797-6079 or the State Bar Regulatory Programs at 505-797-6059. Visit www.sbnm.org/successionplanning for sample plans and resources.

State Bar of

New Mexico

Est. 1886