Law School Imposter Syndrome: Tips and Tricks

If you’ve read my previous post detailing my Law School Imposter Syndrome, you know that I constantly deal with a great deal of stress and anxiety from law school. You may have even had an “Aha!” moment while reading it and resonated with some of my thoughts. A bit of imposter syndrome in law school is completely normal and probably won’t hurt you, but at times it can seriously interfere with your goals. It can be distracting, but the good news is that there are plenty of ways to combat imposter syndrome, especially when it starts to feel overwhelming. I like to start with practicing self care. Here are some self care tips and other things to try when imposter syndrome is interfering with your life:

• How to be (Sorta) Happy in Law School.
  • I mentioned this book in my previous post. It was recommended by my law school’s psychologist and it has really helped me. Kathryne M. Young discusses imposter syndrome and details what she encountered while interviewing law students and attorneys on the subject. Young teaches students how to approach law school on their own terms: how to tune out the oppressive expectations and conventional “roadmap to big law firms” wisdom. I think reading it could be a really good start for someone with imposter syndrome looking for relief. Not only is it validating to know others feel the same way, but the advice is helpful too.
• Go outside.
  • Heading outside for a quick walk everyday can really improve your day. It gets fresh air into your body, increases concentration, and reduces stress. I try to get some steps in outside daily. If it’s a particularly long day of studying in the law library, some classmates and I take a break to go walk through the campus arboretum and grab coffee. Now with remote learning, I am constantly stuck in my apartment so I take walks at lunch to grab some groceries or a Starbucks. 
• Move your body. 
  • “Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy!” Take it from Elle Woods, exercise is good for you and can increase the positive feelings in your body while decreasing pain. It’s also just good for your overall wellbeing to get out and exercise (at least) a few times a week. I do youtube video ab workouts on the floor of my bedroom a few times a week in addition to the walks I mentioned above, and it makes me feel a lot better.
• Dance it out. 
  • (The same idea as exercising, but make it fun!) I made a playlist I use to dance out the stress and anxiety and it definitely makes me overall happier and pumps me up to start studying. Will be posting this fire playlist soon.
• Meditate.
  • Meditation can be a great way to clear your head and relieve any negativities in your mind that might be weighing on you. You can try The Calm App, for calming sounds and different meditation series. There is a limited free version, and a paid full version. There is a great review of this app on Medium if you want to learn more about it. There’s also the Aura App, which has free daily 3 minute meditations, and a paid version with more comprehensive meditation series. You can learn about Aura, and other apps on this post from Myles. If you’re not into the apps, you can find plenty of meditation series on youtube as well. And if none of that is your cup of tea, just sit and close your eyes. Listen to the stillness, and relax for a bit. Taking some time to unplug your mind and just breathe is always a good thing. 
• Writing in a journal.
  • Writing in a journal can be a cathartic valve to express your thoughts, feelings, and stresses (much like me writing this blog post!). It’s also a safe way to do so since no one has to read it. Journaling helps me get out all of my thoughts onto paper and feel like I’ve left them there, not weighing me down anymore. You could also try writing down things you are grateful for daily, a trend called “gratitude journaling”. Writing down things you are grateful for helps you to focus your attention on appreciation and positivity. It’s also something easy to accomplish daily that can be an easy check-off-your-list task and doesn’t require a ton of work, making you feel accomplished.
• CBD oil.
  • Recently, I joined the bandwagon for CBD oil. CBD oil has been shown, through research (and plenty of testimony from my friends) to reduce feelings of anxiety, stress and isolation. I can also help you if you have trouble sleeping. It might be something good to look into if you haven’t already. I purchased the Equilibria CBD 10 mg softgels and take them at night to mellow out and relax/sleep better (I’m planning on doing a full review of these in the future so stay tuned).
• Make sure to handle OTHER reasons for stress/anxiety in your life.
  • Law school stress is plenty, you don’t need more on top of it! It’s important to check in with yourself and see what other aspects of your life, aside from law school, might also be causing you anxiety or stress. Toxic relationships/friendships, issues with your roommates, family troubles, and anything else affecting you needs to be dealt with to the best of your ability in order to limit the amount of stress in your life. Personally, I’ve distanced myself from some social media, Twitter in particular, because the political tweets and news stories were just giving me a ton of emotions I didn’t need. Currently Twitter sits on the last page of apps on my phone, and I’ve muted plenty (at least a hundred) words, phrases, and accounts from popping up on my feed. Soon enough, I won’t be using Twitter at all and I’ll delete the app altogether. Ignorance is bliss, in my view.
• Catch up with people outside of law school.
  • Whenever I’m feeling particularly down, I always reach out to friends who aren’t in law school to hang out or FaceTime. They aren’t involved in any of the law school stress, so I can focus on catching up and life outside school. It’s easy to forget about your life outside of law school sometimes, and hearing what’s going on with friends is a great way to bring you out of that stressful bubble of hardcore academics (Not only is this a good stress reliever, its also just good to keep your connections strong. Law school is only three years, and you don’t want to come out of it having missed a large portion of your friends’ lives). 
• Talk to a friend in law school, who you trust.
  • Chances are, they probably feel the same way you do and it can be good to have someone in the same position validate your feelings. They might even have ways to cope that you haven’t even considered! Speaking to one of my very empathetic law school friends really brought me out of my stress-induced panic on a particularly bad night, and he encouraged me not to dwell too much on my law review rejection (s/o Marjan you’re a homie). When I mentioned by thoughts on imposter syndrome to a different friend, I found they had been dealing with it themselves and that many other classmates were also struggling with it.
• Get a hobby or spend more time doing one you already like.
  • Picking up a hobby or spending more time with one you already have is a good way to take your mind off school and do something you enjoy. I started blogging as a hobby during the summer after 1L year because I was feeling very stressed about a lot of things: the pandemic, law school, politics… the list goes on. It helps me to focus on something other than school that makes me feel accomplished. As Marie Kondo would say, it “brings me joy.” 
• Speak to a psychologist. 
  • If all that does not work or just doesn’t interest you, you could always speak to a psychologist. Your school likely has some sort of mental health resources you can access in order to speak to a counselor or psychologist. My law school has its own in-house psychologist, and there’s also wellness resources available on the main campus for all students. Even if they don’t have resources or you aren’t able to access them, the school should be able to point you in the right direction. You can also check out these instagram pages: selfcareisforeveryone, anxiety_wellbeing, and the.holistic.psychologist
• Remind yourself that this isn’t the end of the world. 
  • Almost everyone experiences some form of imposter syndrome when they get to law school. You aren’t alone, and most of the students around you are probably feeling it as well. No one wakes up one day and knows everything there is to know about the law, and interviewers certainly don’t expect you to. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, ask for help, and accept challenges.
  • Recently I was chatting with a career counselor at school about an upcoming interview I had, and discussing my previous work history honestly made me very proud in that moment. It’s easy to forget how much you’ve accomplished when you’re constantly dwelling on the losses.
  • When I got to my 1L summer internship, I looked at the diplomas of the attorneys proudly displayed on the wall and thought to myself, no one here cares what law school you went to, or what grade you got in Civil Procedure. Your grades and how well you perform in law school really doesn’t matter as much as you think it does. As long as you try your own personal best, you’re on the right track and doing great. Law school is just a small drop in the bucket of your legal career. If you’re stressed over your imperfect GPA or the fact that you didn’t make the law review, remind yourself why you came to law school in the first place, and work towards accomplishing that. 

I am constantly learning more about Imposter Syndrome and thinking of ways to practice self care and beat the stress of law school. I hope these tips on beating Imposter Syndrome help you in some way! Stay tuned for more posts on Law School Imposter Syndrome 🙂