Why Lawyers Can Benefit from Meditation
A lawyer’s professional life is often very difficult, and may involve moving between many different and sometimes conflicting roles. For example, after a lawyer masters a complex matter and counsels clients on the pros and cons of particular actions, the lawyer must defend clients even if they have ignored the lawyer’s recommendations. Moreover, lawyers are often required to work under great time pressure. The volume and time sensitivity of legal work often interferes with family life, pursuing self-care and other interests. And, of course, a lawyer must not run afoul of legal ethics and other professional responsibilities. In light of these pressures, it is not surprising that the 2017 Report of the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being (Report) concluded that lawyers are at increased risk for depression, anxiety, stress, and substance abuse issues. Moreover, it also found that, even attorneys not suffering from mental health or substance abuse problem, are not thriving. The absence of well-being adversely impacts the health, cognitive abilities, and competence of attorneys, which detracts from their ability to act in accordance with ethical and professional obligations, and also interferes with the proper functioning of legal organizations. The Report urged leaders of the legal profession to take action to improve lawyer well-being, and provided detailed recommendations for accomplishing this goal. Recommendations 8 and 20.3 provide that continuing education credit be given for well-being topics. Appendix B of the Report, which offers examples of appropriate well-being topics, specifically cites mindfulness meditation as a way to increase lawyer well-being: “A rapidly growing body of research on meditation has shown its potential for help in a variety of psychological and psychosomatic disorders, especially those in which stress plays a causal role. One type of meditative practice is mindfulness - a technique that cultivates the skill of being present by focusing attention on your breath and detaching from your thoughts or feelings. Research has found that mindfulness can reduce rumination, stress, depression, and anxiety. It can also enhance a host of competencies related to lawyer effectiveness, including increased focus and concentration, working memory, critical cognitive skills, reduced burnout, and ethical and rational decision-making. Multiple articles have advocated for mindfulness as an important practice for lawyers and law students. Evidence also suggests that mindfulness can enhance the sense of work-life balance by reducing workers’ preoccupation with work.” Report at pp. 52-53 (Footnotes Omitted). The Report is important. Those in the legal profession will clearly benefit from introducing mindfulness (or other contemplative practice) into their busy, stressful lives because mindfulness helps people thrive. Not only does meditation improve attention span and cognitive skills, it also has been shown to increase an individual’s sense of well-being as well as their ability to self-regulate, reduce stress, reduce unwanted habitual tendencies, and relate well to others. Moreover, when meditation becomes part of the culture of legal organizations, the organizations themselves benefit from the improved performance of their workers, increased employee engagement, and decreased employee burn-out and turnover intention. When the individuals who both lead and staff an organization are healthier, happier and easier to work with, the organization itself will be more successful in reaching its objectives.
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I have been interested in meditation since my undergraduate days when I was a philosophy major at the City College of New York. Because I lived in Brooklyn and CCNY was in the northern part of Manhattan, I spent a great deal of my life on the D train. During this trek, I tried to keep up with my schoolwork. Though not always able to concentrate, I still remember many trips in which I tried to make sense out of (or just commit to memory )Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico- Philosphicus. I also tried to understand, without great success, many other Western thinkers and several Asian spiritual traditions.
My original intention was to apply to graduate school in philosophy. I did not: probably because several graduate schools warned in their application materials that there was little paying work for philosophers. In any event, a short time later, I attended law school and ceased to pursue my interests in philosophy and meditation. For the next twenty years or so, I was a very busy litigator, legal advisor and then mediator. My life changed in the early 1990s when my beloved mother, a survivor of the Holocaust who had been widowed at a young age, became ill with an auto-immune disease. My husband Andy and I moved Mom from Brooklyn to DC to be closer to us, and I turned my attention to my mother. Soon thereafter, I stopped doing trial work and became much less busy as a lawyer while I became much busier looking after my mother. At this point, I had the time and the motivation to return my attention to my study of meditation But my perspective had changed. Now I was less interested in the philosophy of meditation, and more interested in meditation as a tool of what was then considered “Complementary and Alternative Medicine.” I wanted to understand the ways meditation could be used to help people who were unwell (as well as people who were well), the reasons that meditation worked, and the way in which one could prove to Western scientists that meditation is effective and safe. I also started a regular practice of meditative exercises from several different traditions. Since that time, I have continued to study, practice, and later, to teach. Along the way, I have read widely – from wisdom literature to scientific studies, and intend to share some of my experiences a well as what I have read on this blog. Stay tuned to this channel . . . Sometimes you just need to be more grounded. This practice should help.
Stop, Bring Your Mind to Your Belly (or Your Feet), and Breathe 1. Stop whatever you are doing. (This is the most important step.) 2. Now, bring your attention to your lower belly, a spot one inch below the belly button and one inch inside. Try and maintain your focus on this spot for three minutes. (If you have difficulty focusing on your lower belly, then do this practice by bringing your awareness to your feet.) 3. Do not try and stop your thoughts or awareness of other internal or external sensations. Instead, allow all of these sensations to come and go as you continue to focus on the belly. 4. Before too long, a thought (or other distraction) will interfere with your ability to focus on your lower belly. Do not be alarmed – this is part of the practice. You are learning how your mind works. And, you are building compassion for yourself. 5. Just try and notice that you have become distracted as soon as you are distracted. Then, name what has distracted you -- “thought,” or “noise” or “pain”-- and, when you are ready, gently bring your mind back to your belly, without self-criticism or judgment. 6. After three minutes, expand your awareness to include your breath. Put your palms on your belly, and do the following:
7. After five of the above-described breaths, return to your ordinary breath and open your eyes if they are closed. Notice how you feel as you return to your ordinary activities. Additional Suggestions: You might want to record these instructions and play the recording the next time you practice. You might also consider setting a three-minute timer so you don’t have to look at your watch. Finally, if you try this practice, please let me know how it goes. Research confirms that meditation is Good FOR Business. There is ample scientific evidence that meditation reverses the stress response and induces what Herbert Benson, MD, calls the "relaxation response." Thus, among other benefits, an organization with a workplace meditation program may reduce costs that would have been incurred if the organization had continued to employ chronically stressed workers. mindfulness enables individuals to be their best |
AuthorAs a lawyer, teacher and mediator with decades of experience, Linda understands the consequences of constant work pressures. She teaches individuals within organizations to use contemplative practices to counteract the negative effects of stress and enable them to perform at their peak , maximize the potential for happiness, and better serve their organizations. |