Back to School: Managing Stress, Controlling Anxiety, and Getting Enough Sleep
Focus and be well-rested? Every law student's elusive desire. For today's class on test taking strategies and test anxiety, I asked our new 1L students to read M.H. Sam Jacobson's article: Paying Attention or Fatally Distracted? Concentration, Memory, and Multi-Tasking in a Multi-Media World ( 2010). She skillfully digests the science behind her thesis that students cannot be successful in law school if they do not manage distractions. She also recommends getting plenty of sleep. Yesterday, as I was cleaning up my email box (and trying to avoid distractions), I found a web interview of Dr. Richard J. Davidson, co-author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain. The interview (53 minutes) talked about the plasticity of the brain and how mindfulness meditation can help people manage distractions and shape the brain in helpful ways. I knew some of this science from my own experience, training, and reading. But, in...