Montana Lawyer February/March 2025

PRACTICING WELL Finding Significance in Insignificance: Micro-Actions to Take When Problems Feel Endless MERI ALTHAUSER

I’m guessing that many of you can relate to feeling overwhelmed these days. Overwhelmed by the state of politics, the state of the earth, the increasing scrutiny on lawyers, or by urgent client demands. If so, try this exercise to embrace your cosmic insignificance: Imagine a time when you felt like a tiny speck on planet earth. Perhaps you were fly ing in a plane and could see a vast mountain landscape and an endless horizon. Or maybe you climbed a mountain or rode a ski lift to the top of a peak to see mountain range after mountain range. Have you ever seen the curve of the earth from above the ocean? Can you even fathom how many millions of gal lons of water were beneath you at that point? Take a mental picture of this landscape. Imagine a time when you felt like a tiny speck on planet earth. Next, imagine all of the processes, ani mals, and people who are living within the edges of your snapshot. Are there bears in caves? Plants growing on the sides of cliffs? Families getting along with their days? Underwater creatures swimming, growing, and interacting? There are probably millions and billions of organisms and life processes taking place in the one second you hold this view. Next, for how long have those beings been doing their thing? For hundreds of mil lions of years, plant life has grown on planet earth. For millions of years, animal life has existed on planet earth. Perhaps bears today are having their babies in the same caves as the bears from the beginning of bears! (I love bears.) When you think of all the vibrant and long-lasting life out there, does it strike you as magical? All of this life has been going on for mil lions of years, and continues to go on in the minutes it takes you to read this article!

And here’s the awesome thing: all of those processes had nothing to do with you. The wild rabbits did not need you a mil lion years ago. Your input was not requested! The great artists and thinkers of our time emerged without your help! You are just not that important. What a relief. Dwelling on your cosmic insignificance, in the right light, can bring a sense of solace. But the same concept can be turned into a sense of doom. You can do nothing. Your actions are meaningless. There might be no hope. Dwelling on your cosmic insignifi cance, in the right light, can bring a sense of solace. But the same concept can be turned into a sense of doom. This stoic perspective can feel overwhelm ing, but it also illuminates the path forward when everything seems too much: the only power you have, or ever had, was the power to do what only one person can do. The mes sage of cosmic insignificance is not that you should give up because you are a tiny spec in the blip of mankind. The message is to own your small role in progress while relieving

Meri Althauser: After over a decade of practicing family law and mediation in Missoula, Meri Althauser stepped into the role of Admissions Director with the Alexander Blewett III School of Law in June 2023. Her approach to law focuses on collaboration and solution finding for her clients and their families, and now for mentor ing students. She also offers consulting services in workplace wellness, with a certification as a Workplace Wellness Specialist through the National Wellness Institute and as a Resilience and Thriving Facilitator through Organizational Wellness and Learning Systems.

This image was generated using AI and may not depict real people, places, or events. Any resemblance to actual individuals or situations is purely coincidental.

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