Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024 - 5

YOUR VOICE
BETTER SLEEP FOR BETTER MIND
The January/February 2024 issue of Washington
Lawyer highlights the fact that judges feel intense
pressure regarding their decision making,
which leads to difficulty falling and staying
asleep. Exercising, like Judge Vijay Shanker does,
and sleeping in complete darkness, like Judge
Charmetra Jackson Parker recommends, are
practices that help to promote sleep. Nevertheless,
as a certified holistic health coach and practicing
attorney, I would like to offer an additional
recommendation: establishing a bedtime routine
to help support restful and replenishing
sleep.
A bedtime routine can incorporate several elements
that will help your body prepare for sleep.
Here are some suggestions to consider:
* Warm shower. This lowers your core body
temperature, signaling to the body that it's
sleeping time.
* Journaling. Quick journaling before bed, including
a mental download of everything on
your mind and making a short gratitude list,
can clear your mind so that you're not constantly
thinking while you're trying to go to
sleep.
* Putting down your devices. Turning on the
blue light filter on your devices, placing your
apps in sleep mode, and putting down your
phone at least 15 minutes before bed (ideally,
you'll build up to an hour or two) signal to your
body that it's time to sleep.
* Meditation. Listening to a sleep meditation or
story on a mindfulness app will encourage you
to focus on your breath or the story to gently
ease you into sleep.
As with computers, our minds take a while to
shut down. Actively taking the time to establish
a bedtime routine can yield significant rewards
in the form of sound sleep.
AmiCietta Duche Clarke
Clean Body Living, LLC
Columbia, Maryland
INVESTING IN OUR WELL-BEING
I read President Charles Lowery's January/February
2024 column, " A Healthy Lawyer Is a Good
Lawyer, " and it was so inspiring! I could relate to
his story about the importance of wellness, including
mental health.
Even though I came from a household where
both of my parents were family medicine doctors,
sometimes it was harder for my parents to
get checked. They were constantly busy and neglected
their own health just to give me and my
brother a better life.
To me, well-being is everything! You can't be a
good individual, friend, partner, and lawyer if
you are not feeling well physically and mentally.
I moved to the Washington, D.C., area from Puerto
Rico in 2017 and quickly found that the most
neglected communities in health care were the
Black and Latino communities. We have a lot of
challenges to overcome, including the language
barrier for the Latino community. That was the
main reason I became a health care attorney in
this country a while ago - to change the way
we think about health and overall well-being.
Even though our health care system is broken,
I still have faith in better access to health for all,
especially well-being tools for the underserved
communities.
I am transitioning from being an attorney to
a health and life coach. I want to help people
directly while I have a work-life balance. Like
Mr. Lowery, I'm a runner, and I want to inspire
people to take better care of themselves. I know
I will use my knowledge as a health care attorney
going in, even though some have demonized
our profession. And when I'm applying for
a health coach position, they won't see the connection
with my attorney background, but I do.
Francis J. Rentas Casiano
Health Coach Institute
Alexandria, Virginia
GET PUBLISHED
IN WASHINGTON LAWYER
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Washington Lawyer and at dcbar.org.
Articles must be original and previously
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To learn more about how to contribute, visit
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MAY/JUNE 2024 * WASHINGTON LAWYER 5
Washington Lawyer welcomes your letters. Submissions
should be directed to Washington
Lawyer, District of Columbia Bar, 901 4th Street
NW, Washington, DC 20001. Submissions are
also accepted by email at editorial@dcbar.org.
Letters may be edited for clarity and space.
THRILL OF A LIFETIME
I appreciated reading Judge Melissa Lin Jones's
remembrance of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in
Washington Lawyer. It reminded me of a similar
role model experience I had during my teenage
years when I greatly admired Justice William
O. Douglas. I began reading his books in junior
high school and developed correspondence
with him. He invited me to visit him if I was ever
in Washington (I am from New York). During a
school break in April 1967, I visited Washington
with a friend and spent almost an hour with the
justice in his chambers. It remains one of the
most thrilling experiences I've ever had. His work
continues to inspire me.
Although I did not make it to the bench, I became
a professor, at least following in Justice
Douglas's footsteps, as he taught at Yale before
his years in Washington. But the examples he set
for me, and that Justice O'Connor set for Judge
Jones, remain the same. And as a specialist in
election law, I teach many of Justice O'Connor's
case decisions in my classes (as recently as February).
Jeffrey
M. Wice
New York Law School
New York, New York
http://www.dcbar.org http://www.dcbar.org/editorial-guidelines
Washington Lawyer - May/June 2024

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