Five Smart Ways Lawyers Can Rest Effectively

After a slow February, the first two weeks of March have been intense at work. This is a common situation for lawyers. Things escalate quickly and we can struggle to keep up. This happened to me this week, which ended with two consecutive twelve-hour days. By Friday, I desperately needed rest.

Luckily for me, I shifted into recovery mode immediately. Years of mindfulness practice and law practice have taught me how to do this. For many lawyers, though, it can be hard. We can struggle to turn off our minds and leave our cases behind.

In this post, I’ll explain why taking advantage of down time is essential and offer some ways to truly rest your body and mind.

Why Lawyers Need to Learn to Rest When We Can

Most people recognize that humans need rest to live happy and healthy lives. At the same time, most lawyers are also experts at setting their personal needs aside to address client needs first. For many lawyers, this can become a never-ending cycle that leaves little room for rest.

In reality, though, if you learn to rest efficiently, you may see that quality rest is not entirely dependent on gobs of free time. While our bodies certainly require a minimum number of hours of sleep, other forms of rest during our waking hours may be more flexible.

This means that we can learn to use found time or small windows of time for rest activities. Now, if my use of the word “rest activity” here sounds odd, I will explain why an activity done to aid rest makes sense below. Because lawyers often don’t have much free time or control our schedules, it makes sense for us to learn to rest when we can.

Lawyers May Need to Be Intentional about Rest

Here’s the problem though: lawyers are not always the best at going with the flow. Our cases and work matter to us. It can be hard for most of us to drop their thoughts about a tricky issue just because they have an hour to spare and could use a recharge.

It’s also true that other things may distract us from our need for recovery. Of course, I am talking here about our phones. But in some situations things like alcohol or shopping or even TV might serve the same function.

Even though these tendencies may be very human, they can do us a disservice because they can keep us from learning to truly rest. In this way, lawyers may have to be intentional about shifting into rest mode. We also may have to be intentional about identifying the activities that help us rest.

Image with quote that says "Lawyers can't just demand that our minds stop on a dime. Instead, the mind calms down a lot quicker if you relax the body first."

Lawyers May Do Best with Options for Rest

On this blog, I share a lot about meditation. For those with some experience with the practice, meditation absolutely can be a wonderful way to rest. Even better, meditation offers us the chance to rest their nervous system while cultivating mindfulness. This trait is essential for modulating and identifying the need to recharge.

But as I mentioned, many lawyers are not in the position where they can easily rest just by stopping everything. Instead, their minds may chatter on or replay scenes from their day or weak. This can be frustrating and escalate stress rather than reduce it.

After a decade of meditation practice, I have learned that you can’t just demand that your mind stop on a dime. Instead, for me, the mind calms down a lot quicker if I help my body relax. Here are the five most common activities, besides meditation, that can help you rest.

Option 1: Physical Activity

I know that physical activity may not be the first thing to come to mind when you think of rest. But it’s really a good choice when you think about it. Though rest often means a lack of activity, for lawyers physical movement may help us refresh ourselves.

Many lawyers sit in an office in front of a screen or on the phone much of the day. As a result, by the end of the day, our bodies may be screaming for movement rather than sleep. Physical activity is good for our bodies and minds. It also does not always have to be vigorous to be beneficial.

At the end of a long day or work week, some yoga or a light walk outside may be enough to regulate ourselves. In many situations, I find that some physical activity restores my energy rather than depleting it. In addition, it returns focus and attention to the body rather than to purely mental activity.

For all of these reasons, physical activity is a great option for lawyers who need to recover some energy.

Option 2: Get Outside

In the same way, getting outside is another important rest activity for lawyers. When the weather permits, this option can be paired with physical activity. But even without movement, just sitting outside is healing to us.

Even in small doses, nature regulates our nervous system and reduces the signs of stress. I also will say from experience that nature puts things in perspective. Sure, our worries about cases can feel really big and pervasive at times.

When we get outside, though, we instantly see that there is a much wider world outside of our minds. I often find that just being outside helps me create some space around my thoughts so they don’t feel so big. This helps me let go a little bit and find some rest and solace.

Image sharing the five restful activities for busy lawyers shared in this blog post

Option 3: Make Something

I know when you are low on energy, creativity may be the last thing on your mind. Even so, I often turn to it as a means of restoring my energy. Simple crafts, cooking, writing, and even a little bit of housework are restorative for me.

Sure, if I am really tired, I let myself rest up first. But what I love about creativity is that it demands my full attention. When I cook, for example, I am forced to pay attention to my sensory experience to ensure quality and safety. The same is true when I write, craft, or even trim the hedges.

Although this is a type of labor, it also means that I have no attention left to think about work. In this way, I get to rest my strategic mind for a little while and let the playful and creative side of my brain take the reins.

This is why making something, whether it is a craft or a meal, is an important rest activity.

Option 4: Social Connection

One thing about law practice that not enough people talk about: it can be lonely. Yes, lawyers deal with people all day but loneliness is possible in the midst of in person contact.

In fact, loneliness is prevalent in our culture and is higher among lawyers than most other professions. When you think about it, this actually makes sense. Law practice is rife with risk and stress. Lawyers often find themselves in pressure situations and may often feel compelled to hide their feelings.

In this way, social connection is an important rest activity for lawyers. Having some time to be with other people where you feel like the armor and mask can come off is essential when you carry so much at work.

Option 5: Do Something Light and Fun

Assuming this doesn’t come up in options 1 to 4 or those options are not available, you can always just rest by doing something easy, light, and fun. Turn on a stupid movie. Dance to silly music. Blow bubbles. Play with your dog. You can even scroll for a bit if you stick to cute animal videos or their intellectual equivalent.

Clearly this kind of activity is frivolous and it does not serve any useful purpose. That’s the point. I’m not telling you to devote large amounts of time to these kinds of activities. But sometimes short bursts of silliness can help us relax and let go of our troubles for a bit.

Lawyers often deal with serious matters and we usually at risk for taking ourselves too seriously. Sometimes we need to remember that everyone needs a little bit of time to play and joke around. This is one reason that fun is an important thing to remember when you need a rest.

Conclusion: Rest Means More Than Just Doing Nothing

Many lawyers are told that they need to take time for themselves and make time for rest. But not all of us really know what that means. Even though I am a meditation teacher, I think rest can mean more than just doing nothing. instead, lawyers with active minds may have to get intentional about the activities that truly help them recharge. In this post, I shared some activities that renew my energy and I hope they help you renew yours.

Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children’s book, Mommy Needs a Minute.

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The Power of Small Joys for Busy Lawyers

My habits and routines have suffered a bit as the holidays approach. By Friday last week, I felt the prickly tingle on my skin that I have come to recognize as a physical sign of stress. I knew that I needed to prioritize rest over the weekend.

Fortunately, Saturday morning brought sunshine and higher temperatures. It was a lovely respite from the extreme cold and snow that had been common in recent weeks. You better believe that I took advantage of the situation by taking a long walk outside.

That’s why this post is about making small joys like these priorities in a busy life.

Small Joys Can Be Significant

I write a lot about dealing with negative thoughts, situations, and emotions on this blog. That’s not because I enjoy being negative. Instead, it’s because a huge piece of mindfulness practice is cultivating skill in the face of difficulty.

But if you focus your entire mindfulness practice on difficulty, it’s likely that you won’t want to practice very long. As I have written before, mindfulness practice can be enjoyable. In fact, it’s better when we enjoy practice because it helps us feel safe and relaxed. That’s when the mind and heart can open.

This is why I recommend orienting to joy and other positive emotions as much as possible. This is true in meditation practice, but it is even more important in life. Our brains are wired to be negative by nature, but we can train ourselves to reorient towards the joyful moments that happen every day.

We can learn to look for the ordinary and small joys that arise in life and notice how good they feel. If this seems too small, remember that life is a collection of moments. Our brains naturally notice and remember the dark moments. We can create balance and equanimity in life by intentionally noticing and savoring the small joys that arise too.

Small Joys Are Important for Lawyers

Now, busy lawyers are bound to object, saying that they don’t have time for things like this. One of the best things about prioritizing small joys is that it doesn’t have to take any extra time. In the example above, the walk outside did not cost me any extra time. I was already going to exercise. I just made the decision to increase my enjoyment by exercising outside in the sunshine.

These small shifts have big consequences for lawyers. Yes, we are often busy and our minds are often devoted to very important things. But this is an argument in favor of prioritizing small joys instead of against it.

If you are often busy and dealing with stressful things, as lawyers often are, doesn’t it make sense to have some small moments for lighter things? We lawyers often defer gratification for our own needs to support others. It is just common sense that, some of the time, we can please ourselves.

And for busy people like lawyers, it makes even more sense to start with small joys that arise in everyday life. We may not always have time for a vacation or the money to treat ourselves with a gift. In most cases, we can afford a few minutes for a small pastime or indulgence we really like.

Image sharing the 3 steps to lawyers can use to savor small joys as shared in the blog post.

How Lawyers Can Stop and Smell the Roses

If you are anything like me, you may be worrying that you don’t know how to recognize joy, let alone prioritize it. Many of us lawyers get out of the habit of checking in with our own needs and wants. This may happen for a variety of reasons, so if possible avoid judging yourself.

If this sounds like you, a simple way to make joy a priority in your life is to start to notice the things you really like. An easy way to do this is to slow down and pay extra attention to daily routines. What foods do you like the most? What counts as an ideal shower or bath for you? How exactly do you like your bedroom to be at night for sleep? What makes a conversation with someone else really good?

These are just a few examples, but the common theme for them is that they are focused on how you care for your body. As I have written before, emotions are often bodily experiences. So if we want to know what small things bring us joy, it helps to pay attention to our bodies and what helps us care for and soothe them.

How to Make the Most of Small Joys

Once you have started to identify and look for small joys, the next step of course is to prioritize them. In my view, lawyers can prioritize small joys by learning to savor. The word “savoring” is often used with regard to food and our sense of taste, but it can be broader.

In fact, positive psychologist, Rick Hanson, says that we can savor an experience by bringing full attention to it in our minds and bodies. Hanson’s process for savoring joys is one I now use frequently. It includes the following three steps:

Notice and define the thing that is bringing you joy. Using the example from above, I really loved the walk outside because the sunshine was energizing. My body felt light and free being outside and I felt how warming and invigorating the sunshine was during my walk.
Savor it and allow it to last 20 to 30 seconds. Again, using the example from above, every time on my walk I noticed something pleasant, such as the feeling of the sunshine, I let it be there. I kept my attention with it for as long as it remained.
Allow the positive feelings to expand or permeate your body and soak them in. Continuing with the example from above, as I walked I let the relaxation and the new energy spread through my body as I walked. Perhaps I felt the sun on my face, but I let the warmth and energy spread all the way down to my toes during the walk.

Conclusion

Life for most lawyers is not all about joy. It also includes difficulty, stress, and conflict. This is why making the most of small joys is not trivial or frivolous for lawyers. Instead, it is an important practice that can support mental health and lead to a richer, more vibrant life.

Even if savoring small joys is not a current habit, this post offers some small practices to help you make it a regular part of life. Hopefully that means you will take advantage the next time you are presented with a chance to take a walk outside on a nice day.

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Mindfulness and Your Top 5 Mental Patterns Revealed

Even if you aren’t a Spotify user, you probably heard about the Wrapped year-end reviews last week. Wrapped is a feature that summarizes the year in audio for Spotify users. It lists your top artists, top songs, and this year even provides a listening age.

As I heard friends and contacts share stories about this, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like if our minds had a similar feature. What would it be like if, each year, we got a list of our top 5 mental patterns?

What If You Got a Yearly Report of Your Mental Patterns?

What if our minds generated some kind of fun video for us to watch and play back our inner audio over the past year? I can’t decide if I would want to watch this video or not. When it comes to music, it can be fun to reflect on the albums and songs that made your year. Thoughts and emotions, though, can be another matter.

In truth, learning about your mental patterns and repetitious thoughts is one of the principal benefits of mindfulness practice. Once you practice meditation enough, you can generate your own mental version of the Spotify Wrapped.

Mindfulness Can Help You Identify Your Top 5 Mental Patterns

Mindfulness practice may help you learn what your top 5 mental tendencies are. For instance, after more than 10 years of meditation, I know that my top 5 usually includes: (1) planning; (2) worrying; (3) wondering; (4) spacing out; and (5) writing. Seriously, my mind is often writing when I meditate whether I am trying to write something or not.

You start to catch repetitious nasty internal phrases. Again, mine include: (1) you aren’t good at this; (2) you will fail; (3) nobody likes you; (4) I’m so embarrassed; and (5) why doesn’t everyone recognize how amazing I am?

Meditation may even help you learn that emotional reactions are part of larger patterns. All my years meditating have helped me see that my top 5 challenging emotions are: (1) anxiety; (2) fear; (3) doubt; (4) anger (that’s hiding anxiety); and (5) loneliness/alienation.

On the flip side, mindfulness practices also helped me see that my top 5 positive emotions are: (1) generosity; (2) humor; (3) compassion; (4) courage; and (5) creativity. This means that sometimes meditation can help us see and embrace our wholesome qualities.

Image listing an example of top 5 mental patterns revealed by mindfulness practice as shared in the blog post

Seeing the Mental Patterns Is Hard but Worthwhile

Unlike the Spotify Wrapped, which usually may be fun or at least funny to see, reckoning with these inner mental and emotional patterns can more of a gut check. Even so, it is worth it because awareness that something has become a pattern provides important information.

1. You Can Take Them Less Personally.

First, seeing your patterns with mindfulness helps you to take things less personally. In the moment, our thoughts and feelings can seem to be really big and important. Mindfulness practice helps you see these incidents as part of a pattern. This helps you zoom out in terms of perspective. You can see an incident as a data point and watch for where your reaction leads instead of being mired in all the messy details.

2. You See How You Can Change the Pattern.

Second, this broader perspective produced in meditation can create the clarity needed to change the pattern. As I have written before, it is exceptionally hard to change habits and patterns. Yet, one of the things that can help us do so is by taking a good clear look at where they lead. Mindfulness can help us see this and it gives us the opportunity to take the steps to make a change.

3. You Gain Motivation to Change the Pattern.

Finally, seeing the reaction or behavior as a pattern helps you appreciate its impact. As I mentioned, changing habits is hard work. It takes discipline and thoughtfulness and a whole lot of self-compassion. In many cases, it can feel daunting even to try to make a change. But, when you see that something is part of a pattern, you can see that it’s not just a singular incident.

In this way, you can see the connection between your singular reaction and the broader state of your life. You can see how your behavior today leads to the circumstances you will face tomorrow and potentially for months and years to come.

Mindfulness Can Help You See Patterns and Change Your Life

As I shared above, I have always struggled with fear and anxiety. It arose in nearly every situation for me. To be honest, it still arises in many situations today. Mindfulness practice helped me see that my anxiety was not just the product of my immediate conditions, but was instead part of a bigger pattern.

Once I saw this, I was in a position to see how much anxiety detracted from my life and kept me from the things I wanted. This was a painful acknowledgement, but it is what motivated me, in very slow and small steps, to change.

For this reason, it is understandable why we all love to hear about our top song, artist, and album lists at the end of the year. Reflecting on our patterns can be a fun thing to do in the case of our music and media choices. It can remind us of the songs that made our years great or helped us cope with a challenging year.

Image that asks the sort of scary question "what would your top 5 mental patterns of the year be?"

At the Year End, Consider Noting Your Top 5 Mental Patterns Too

In the case our minds, taking stock of our patterns can be an interesting exercise too. When it comes to mental patterns and inner reactions, though, seeing things clearly can be a bit more complex. Unlike the Spotify Wrapped, noting the top thoughts or patterns that consume our mental energy can be a bit more challenging.

Even so, I think it is still worth it. Most of us will forget our Spotify Wrapped within a week after we see them each December. Once mindfulness practice helps you see your mental patterns, though, it is hard to forget what they are. It not only opens up new possibilities for change. It also creates a little more space for self-kindness.

At the end of the year, while you are compiling your top lists, it may be interesting to consider your top 5 mindfulness lists too. What occupied your mind most this year? What mental patterns were the most frequent for you? What common phrases played in your mind on a loop?

I don’t promise that reflecting in this way is as fun as seeing your Spotify Wrapped, but when viewed with mindfulness and self-compassion, it may open up fresh possibilities for the new year.

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Five Tips for Mindful Walking to Enhance Well-Being

Unintentionally over the last several months, I formed a nice self-care habit. Whenever I have time, I take a mindful walk after dinner. I wouldn’t call this walking meditation because it’s not quite so slow or focused. But I wouldn’t say it’s clearly outside of the realm of meditation either.

That’s because my mindful walking habit has become a real support for me. It helps me when my mind is busy, my spirits are low, or if I just need to move a little bit and enjoy a nice day.

If you want to try a making mindful walking part of your routine, this can tell you how. Here are the five key elements of a mindful walk.

1. Leave Your Phone at Home While Walking

This one is not a hard and fast rule. There’s no shame in using your phone for safety or to listen to a workout video or music to support your walk. Talking with a friend on your phone while you walk is also a great way to support a healthy habit.

If you don’t need it, though, I encourage you to leave your phone at home. One reason is that most of us are bombarded by screens in daily life. For that reason, taking a walk without your phone may feel really good. I leave my phone at home to avoid the temptation of looking at it and distracting myself from the walk.

In this way, the first way to to make your walk mindful is to leave your phone at home when you walk out the door.

2. Try Walking with No Destination

Another important thing to leave out of mindful walking is a destination. Sure, you can select a destination for a walk if you like, but it helps to leave the route open-ended.

Next time you walk somewhere, notice what happens when you walk with a destination. In my experience, having a set goal in mind means that the end location takes over. To really let the walk be about the journey, let the destination go.

If, like me, you don’t have the ability to walk “nowhere” easily, you can make this very simple. Pick the easiest two-way route you can and stick to that route. Over time, getting to your goal won’t be the thing; experiencing the walk will be the the most essential piece.

In short, if you want to take a mindful walk, it helps to let the destination go and just walk.

3. Take Your Time as You Walk

It should come as no surprise that the next aspect of mindful walking is slowing down. Most people these days rush through life. Most lawyers and professionals feel a constant state of time urgency.

One of the simplest things you can do to manage stress is to start to notice this tendency to rush. An easy way to do that is to start slowing down routine activities when you have the time. Most often, we walk for functional reasons and we forget how good it can feel to get outside and move.

It’s not necessary to move at a snail’s pace to make space for mindful awareness with walking. But it helps if you can move slowly enough that you feel like you are savoring the experience of walking. Next time you take a walk, try to consciously take your time and notice what a difference it makes.

Image of person walking in woods with overly of listing of five tips for mindful walking as shared in the blog post

4. Mindfully Observe Your Surroundings

I know that we all don’t live or work close to what most of us would call nature. We may live near busy streets or urban areas with lots of activity. Though natural spaces are ideal for mindful walking, they are not necessarily essential.

Mindfulness isn’t just about trying to achieve a peak state or perfectly calm state. Instead, it’s about awareness with things as they are. As you walk, pay attention to your surroundings. Notice all the sensations. If you can walk near a natural setting, take full advantage of it.

Sounds like water rushing and bird song are shown to lower stress levels because they signify safety. Whether I have nature sounds or not, paying attention to surroundings is great for mindful walking because it helps me reconnect with my body and get out of my thoughts.

5. Let the Thoughts Come and Go

Speaking of thoughts, my last tip is that you don’t have to fight them off during mindful walking. Inevitably as you walk, thoughts will arise. That’s no problem. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed at mindful walking. It just means you are human.

The good thing about thoughts when I am walking, though, is that it’s a bit harder to get sucked into them. When I walk, I am more in touch with my body because it is moving. There’s also a big wide world of space that makes any thoughts in my mind feel a little bit smaller.

Just as in meditation, you don’t have to clear your mind to take a mindful walk. Instead, with some time and patience, you can learn to let the thoughts come and go.

Give Mindful Walking a Try

Mindful walking can be a supportive way to get some movement, enjoy outdoors, reduce stress, and cultivate mindfulness. If you want to make mindful walking a habit, give these five tips a try.

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Four Easy Ways to Add Movement to Meditation

I have been traveling a lot this summer, so movement is on my mind. One of the common issues many people new to meditation ask me about is moving. Some people worry that they can’t meditate because they can’t sit still. One easy answer to this question is the reminder that you don’t have to sit still to meditate.

Though movement is discouraged during sitting meditation, it’s not because movement is bad. Instead, movement is discouraged to encourage its opposite: stillness. In this way, it is sometimes wise to move a bit to scratch an itch or adjust your posture.

In addition, mindfulness can be cultivated with intentional movement practices too. Anyone who does yoga, tai chi, or qigong regularly knows that movement can support a calming of the mind. The same is true for movement during sitting meditation itself. Here are five simple ways to incorporate movement into your meditation practice.

1. Use an Object to Track Breath

Breath focus is one of the most common and practical styles of meditation. Though this style is seemingly simple, there are many ways to follow the breath. Many people count the breaths or cycles of breath internally by, for instance, counting on each inhale.

A. Breathing with Beads

Some of us, myself included, tend to get lost in all the counting and may have an easier time tracking a physical object. I do this with a string of beads. There are traditional and formal ways to use beads for meditation but I am more flexible. I let each bead represent a full cycle and advance to the next bead on the space between breaths.

B. Pop It Practice

After I started using beads in this way, I realized that I could do the same thing with one of my kid’s Pop It toys. I inhale, exhale, and pop one of the buttons. When one side is fully popped, I flip to the next side and start again. Now I keep a Pop It on my keychain so that I can meditate for a minute or two whenever and wherever I need it.

2. Sync Hand Movement with Breath

If you don’t have beads or another object, you can still bring some small movements into practice with your hands. As I have shared before, syncing breath and movement is a great way to calm the mind and cultivate mindful presence.

A. Finger Practice

One practice I really like is finger meditation. With this practice, you run your finger along the edge of your opposite hand while breathing. Starting with your thumb, run your finger up to the tip while inhaling, and then run your finger down the inside of your thumb while exhaling. Continue with this pattern until you get to your pinky as shown in the image. Then you can switch to the other hand.

Image demonstrating flow of finger meditation as explained in the blog post

B. Breathing with Hand Movement

Another similar option is to raise and lower your hands or extend and clench your fists while you breathe. I prefer to inhale and raise or extend my hands and exhale and lower or clench my palms. You can try this practice out for a few rounds of breath and see what feels most supportive to you.

While these aren’t practices I use every day, they come in handy during times when my mind is very active or strong emotions are present.

3. Walking Meditation

As I have written before, walking meditation is always an option. It’s a good option to explore, too, if you ever plan on trying a retreat. Walking meditation is often used during retreats as a break from sitting meditation. Thus, if you want some movement while cultivating mindfulness, walking meditation can be supportive.

Another great advantage of walking meditation is that it helps you bring mindfulness into your life. Because the practice is done during movement, it helps you strengthen the trait of mindfulness during your normal daily activities.

4. Standing Figure 8 Movement Practice

Even if you have an established sitting meditation practice, you may eventually need to try standing meditation. If you practice sitting meditation long enough, you will eventually encounter sleepiness or mental dullness. Standing meditation is a practical way to wake up and energize yourself while continuing mindfulness practice.

Figure 8 meditation is a wonderful way to add some movement to your standing practice. With this practice, as indicated in the image, you move in a figure 8 motion while standing by subtly shifting your weight along the borders of your feet in a swaying motion.

Image showing figure 8 standing meditation as explained in blog post

Anyone who has rocked a baby or a small pet understands why this practice is great. Rocking and swaying are soothing to our nervous systems. This gentle motion can help us to soothe ourselves and help us relax quickly. The good news is that this practice can be done however you like. Add a bit more movement of the hips and hands if you wish to dance. Keep it small if you are waiting in line at the grocery store and don’t want to be noticed.

Conclusion: Add Some Movement to Your Meditation

Sitting in stillness during meditation is a wonderful way to cultivate patience, calm, and equanimity. But it isn’t the only way. Mindfulness can be cultivate with movement and meditation can be practiced in any posture. This posts offers just a few ideas for incorporating movement into your meditation practice. These practices can be incorporated into your regular meditation sessions or done quickly on the go.

To learn more about the movement practices discussed in this post, check out the Coping Strategies Ebook. This free download has more explanation and demonstration of several practices for finding steadiness in stressful times.

If you want to try a traditional meditation practice that incorporates a visualization of movement, check out my rocking chair meditation. This is a traditional breath focus practice but it uses the image of a rocking chair to help you rest and relax with the movements of the breath.

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Managing Sleepiness in Your Meditation Practice

Most people who meditate long enough will eventually face the problem of sleepiness. For those new to practice, it can actually be a good a sign. Sleepiness can signify that the body and mind are relaxing, which is a good thing.

Severe or persistent drowsiness, though, can create some problems. You can’t cultivate mindfulness or compassion in meditation if you can’t stay awake. I have been dealing with sleepiness a lot lately. In fact, I just went on a seven-day retreat and sleepiness was my biggest challenge.

Here are the things that I learned on retreat that helped me deal with sleepiness in meditation.

1. Identify the early signs of sleepiness.

Once full on sleepiness sets in, it can be nearly impossible to correct it. That’s why it helps to identify your early signs of sleepiness. These can be subtle, so it may take some trial and error. Even so, sleepiness happens at some point for all of us. This means that you are bound to get plenty of time to practice this.

The early signs of sleepiness may vary for us all. For me, though, I notice a lack of energy, tired eyes, and a general droopiness in my body. My shoulders might slump and my head might lean forward ever so slightly. If I am clear enough, I usually also notice mental haziness.

One of the clearest signs is a subtle ripple of energy that starts in my face and radiates down my body. When I notice this, it is like an alarm that tells me to immediately take some of the actions identified next to wake up.

2. Ways to Wake Yourself Up.

When you feel sleepiness come on, one or a combination of these steps may help you wake up.

1. Remove your sweater or blanket.

Temperature control is huge for meditation. To avoid sleepiness, a slightly cool room is ideal. Removing your sweater or blanket to cool your body down may help you wake up.

2. Sit or stand up.

It can be hard or even awkward at times to move during meditation. Sometimes it is the right call. If you are falling asleep when you practice, sitting or standing up can help. Walking meditation is always an option if you need movement to raise your energy levels.

3. Lift Your Head.

This one is subtle, but sometimes sleepiness happens because we unwittingly let our heads bow. This can block our airways slightly and may simulate our experience during sleep. Raising your head so your eyes are level with the horizon may clear your airway and wake you up.

4. Open Your Eyes

What do all sleeping people hate the most? They hate it when you turn on the lights. If sleepiness comes when you meditate, open your eyes. You may also consider practicing in a room with some light to keep yourself alert during practice.

5. Try breathwork

Many people think that the breath calms us down, but this isn’t totally true. It can also energize us. Focusing on the inhale during meditation may offer more energy. Using a pranayama technique briefly, like box breath, may force your mind to get active and wake you up.

6. Connect with Your Intention

Sleepiness in meditation is hard. It would feel so good to just succumb to the siren call of the impromptu power nap. Struggling through that temptation is rough. When this happens to me, I recall my intention for practice. I meditate daily precisely for moments like these. I want to build skills for navigating inner challenges with more grace and kindness. Remembering this usually helps me focus and wake up.

7. Shift to a more active style of practice.

I recommend keeping your daily meditation practice very simple, but it also helps to have a few options at your disposal. One reason is that some meditation styles are more active than others. Open awareness practice or even breath focus may induce relaxation and eventually sleepiness. Something more active, like body scan, noting practice, or even one of the heart practices may energize your mind and body.

Image listing 7 ways to handle sleepiness in meditation that were shared in the blog post

3. Be Sure that You Aren’t Unconsciously Causing or Just Ignoring Sleepiness.

If you have tried all the strategies above and sleepiness persists, you may need to dig dipper. Ask yourself the following questions if drowsiness continues when you meditate.

A. Are You Sleeping Enough?

Most Americans do not get enough sleep. This is specifically true for lawyers as well. There are many reasons for this but the pervasiveness of screens is a common culprit. If you can’t stay awake during meditation, it is worth asking yourself if you just need some rest. Focusing on quality sleep will improve your meditation practice and overall health.

B. Are You Trying too Hard?

Another common problem for many professionals, especially lawyers, is unconscious overwork. Some of us may habitually try hard. We may be so used to striving that we do it in meditation. This may be true even after years of practice and instruction that reminds us to avoid striving.

Trying too hard can induce sleepiness for the simple reason that it wears our minds out. While sleepiness may be a sign indicating a need for more focus, it can also indicate a need to relax too. You can do this by bringing in an attitude of play and lightness into practice. You can also try giving yourself breaks in practice by shifting the practice type or taking small breaks within your practice.

C. Is there an underlying medical condition you should explore?

Sometimes sleepiness can be a sign of an underlying medical or mental health condition. If the sleepiness persists despite interventions, it may be time to talk to your care provider. Meditation is just one means of taking care of ourselves. A doctor or mental health care provider can help you ensure that all of your needs are met.

4. Learn about Acceptance and Self-Compassion.

Even if you do all the things right, the odds are that sleepiness still may happen during meditation. Meditation is not about controlling your body or your mind. Instead, it’s about learning to work with your body and your mind better.

As discussed above, sleepiness in meditation gives you a chance to see what strategies energize and deplete you. When all those fail, though, sleepiness can give you a chance to practice something arguably more important. It can give you a reason to practice acceptance and self-compassion.

You can’t always be energized. You can’t always be “on.” Your mind does not always want to focus. Your body may not always want to sit. Practicing self-kindness in the midst of this lack of control is part of meditation. Though I know exactly how frustrating this can feel, I can also say that this life skill is very helpful to have.

Conclusion

Fatigue or drowsiness during meditation is a very human thing. It does not mean that you are a bad meditator or the practice isn’t right for you. Instead, sleepiness is a normal challenge for most meditators. Learning to manage sleepiness in meditation can build skills and teach you about yourself.

To deal with problems in meditation practice, including sleepiness, check out the Pause and Begin Again ebook. This free resource offers tips for starting and restarting a meditation practice and facing common challenges.

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Enhance Your Workout: Syncing Breath and Movement

Over the last few months, I stumbled into a simple breath technique that has helped me enjoy exercise more. As a general matter, I usually enjoy exercise. I have written before about being a loyal Peloton user, especially the Power Zone rides.

The discovery I want to share here, though, relates to rowing. By accident, I started syncing my breath up to my movements during rows. I inhale slowly on the release and exhale when I push out with my legs. Despite being a meditation teacher, I have never been very good at syncing my breath during yoga.

To my surprise, all those yoga teachers turned out to be right. Syncing my breath to my movements really has made a big difference. In this post, I will share why and offer strategies that can help you explore this in your workouts.

How to Sync Your Breath During Exercise

Some activities lend themselves more easily to coupling breathing with movement. It came quite easily to me with rowing because the movement is segmented. In fact, when I got my Peloton rower, I spent time breaking my form down into pieces. This made it easy to inhale on the return, and exhale on the push.

Seeing the benefits of this approach, I also applied it to my strength workouts. I inhale on the release and exhale when I exert power to pull or push the weight.

For more complex or rhythmic activities, like cycling or walking, I focus instead on breathing deeply and maintaining steadiness. Focusing on the exhale during recovery periods is especially useful for this purpose.

Like with meditation, you likely won’t sync your breath perfectly or naturally at the beginning. That’s okay. You can always refocus and sync again when you notice you have strayed.

An image showing friends during exercise with smiles with a quote that says "Enjoying habits is the best way to make them stick."

The Benefits of Syncing Your Breath During Workouts

Some people argue that mindful breathing during exercise can enhance performance. This is believable since the respiratory and nervous systems are linked. Though I exercise in part for health, feeling good is my primary goal. As a result, the benefits I focus on here relate to maximizing enjoyment.

When I consciously align breathing and movement, I keep my attention focused on my workout. This is no small thing. Every time I walk in my gym, there are plenty of things in life to distract me. Keeping my breath synced to my movements keeps my mind with my body.

Over time, I have noticed myself more often in a flow state when I work out. This has enhanced the activities I enjoy, like cardio. On the other hand, it has also helped me get into the ones I enjoy less, like lifting.

This small amount of mindfulness helps make the most of my precious time in the gym. As a lawyer, I have only a few spaces in my day where I get to be with me. When I am working out, I want to experience it fully. Staying attentive for the experience helps me notice how good it feels to move.

Don’t Force It

Avoiding force is a standard instruction for meditation. I find that the same thing is true for syncing your breath during exercise. Much like pranayama, this involves some conscious breath control. But leaning too heavily on the control aspect will kill the enjoyment.

My advice to deal with this is like my advice for meditation: learn to play. Ideally, exercise is something that you do on a regular if not daily basis. This gives you time to explore new ways of doing it. Mixing things up can support your enthusiasm for the habit.

As you work out, play with ways to sync up the breath with your movements. Find what feels good. Start with the easiest modality for you. Once you have mastered one, you can always branch out.

Image showing a woman doing yoga and a list of the benefits of syncing breath during exercise

Conclusion: Sync Your Breath to Find Flow in Your Workouts

I firmly believe that enjoying habits is the best way to make them stick. Most of us want to make exercise a regular habit if it isn’t one already. Syncing breath with movement is a small thing you can do to cultivate mindfulness and enjoy exercise more.

Even better, it’s something you can play with over time to keep your exercise routine fresh. Next time you hit the gym, try syncing your breath and movements and notice how good it feels to move.

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What Is Body Scan Meditation and Why Should Lawyers Try It?

When people think of meditation, they typically think of the breath as the focal point. But in truth, meditation can use almost any focal point and the focal point doesn’t necessarily have to be a singular, stagnant object. One of the most beneficial practices that I incorporate in my routine is the body scan.

What Is Body Scan Meditation?

With this practice, the focus is on the sensations in the whole body, rather than exclusively focusing on the breath. Traditionally, this practice flows systemically through the body, flowing from one part or region of the body into the next.

Most commonly, body scan meditations start at the crown of the head and proceed down to other parts of the body until you reach the feet and toes. This is sometimes called a “top down” style of body scan.

There are a few reasons why teachers may commonly start the practice at the top of the head. It can be a trauma-informed risk mitigation strategy for those very new to practice, since trauma often affects the body. The theory here is that gradualism to cultivating body awareness is supportive to many students.

Similarly, starting at the top of the head may be a way to meet students where they are. This is because many of us new to mindfulness are accustomed to living life in our thoughts and brains.

Various Ways to Do a Body Scan.

There are, of course, many potential methods and starting points for body scans. For instance, you could start with the toes and work up or do a body scan that focuses on the chakras or plexuses along the spine.

Another way to start is by making a connection with your five senses and then branching out from there. Still other styles of practice, like yoga nidra, skip awareness from one body part to another rapidly. This can feel disorienting at first, but over time it may cause the mind to still and the body to relax.

Some body scan practices may also make use of progressive muscle relaxation, where one tenses the muscles and releases them. This is not required but can be a nice way to hasten relaxation or support the detection of body sensations if that is a challenge for you.

Regardless of the particular method you try, the object of a body scan meditation is to feel the sensations in the body and notice what you feel, rather than to think about the body.

Image of woman meditating with quote that says "body scan meditations typically start at the crown of the head and proceed down to other parts of the body"

Advantages of Body Scan Meditation.

Body scan meditation often feels more manageable to new meditators because the practice is more active than breath practice. Because the focus of body scan is to flow or cycle through sensations in the body, the mind has to work a bit more to stay focused on the sensations in the body. For this reason, it may not seem as hard to keep the mind engaged with the focal point as it does in the early phases of learning breath practice.

Even so, body scan builds focus, acceptance, and awareness like any other mindfulness practice. In this way, it can be a great alternative to breath-based practices if those present unique challenges for you.

In addition, in my experience, getting into the body is a great (perhaps the best) way to get out of your head. It is for this reason that resting in sensations during a body scan can be deeply relaxing even to new meditators and after relatively short periods of time.

Potential Challenges of Body Scan Meditation.

As mentioned above, body scan meditation can present some challenges. People with past trauma, whether diagnosed or not, should proceed gently and in small doses. Traumatic experiences can have lasting effects on the body even when we aren’t consciously aware of it. If you have concerns in this area, consult with a trauma-informed mindfulness teacher or your mental health support provider first.

Another challenge is that some people don’t feel much sensation when they do body scan. This can be normal for those new to the practice, since some of us may need some time to build awareness of bodily sensations. It also can be normal because there is a range of unique capacities when it comes to mindful awareness. If a lack of sensation is severe, chronic, or concerns you, though, you may talk to your doctor to ensure that your medical needs are being fully met.

Why Body Scan Meditation Is Great for Lawyers and Other Busy People

Body scan meditations are very useful for attorneys because they remind us to pay attention to and take care of our bodies. In law school, we learn to emphasize rationality in making decisions for our clients. While separating fact from emotion is critical, we lawyers are still human beings with human bodies.

To do our best for our clients, we need to understand and respect the limitations of our own bodies so we can fulfill our responsibility to our clients. As I’ve written before, emotions are sensations in the body, so body scan practices may also have the incidental benefit of building emotional intelligence and tolerance when powerful emotions arise.

Image of woman doing tree yoga pose on the beach with a quote that says "getting into the body is a great way to get out of your head"

Potential Benefits of Body Scan Meditation.

Even outside of emotions, however, the awareness that body scan practice engenders can have more fundamental benefits for lawyers and professionals. Some of the most common bodily issues that can impede us from doing our best work are represented in the acronym HALT, which stands for hungry, angry, lonely, tired. These symptoms are fundamental to the human condition, but in our fast-paced world it is easy to skip lunch, push our emotions to the side, miss out on social opportunities, and deprive ourselves of sleep.

Body scan meditations are excellent for lawyers because they remind us that we are not merely brains filled with legal strategy, but people who must be fed, rested, and cared for. If you practice body scan meditation, you will develop the skills to notice the symptoms of various conditions and emotions in your body in the early and more subtle stages before they get to the point where they affect your performance, outlook, or demeanor. These skills are not only necessary to performing our responsibilities as lawyers, but they are also beneficial for anyone who wants to be a top performer in a high-stakes environment.

Image with quote that says "emotions are feelings in the body" which you may experience if you do body scan meditation

Body Scan Meditation Can Be a Building Block for Mindfulness Cultivation.

Finally, body scan is building block to support further growth in your meditation practice or just when dealing with the difficulties of life. When you start a meditation practice, it can seem like the focal point is the object of practice. As your practice advances, you may learn, however, that the focal point is really a tool. In other words, the point of practice is not just to focus on the breath or the sensations of the body. It is, instead, to build the skill of resting with the breath or the body.

If you can learn to do this with body scan practice, then you have one more tool at your disposal when meditation or life throws you curveballs. For example, perhaps troubling thoughts or overwhelming emotions come up during your practice. A meditator proficient in body scan might be able to shift focus to a less reactive part of the body, such as the feet, to rest from the experience until they find enough stability and calm to proceed with normal practice. You could also do this in life, if for instance you have a tense meeting with opposing counsel and need to keep your cool.

Image with pictures of people meditating that has the quote "body scan is a building block to support further growth in your meditation practice"

Conclusion: Body Scan Meditation Is an Excellent Practice for Lawyers and Professionals to Try.

In short, body scan is a simple practice to learn and may be more accessible to new meditators than other styles of practice. It offers many benefits that support a meditation practice and build coping skills for life. Lawyers in particular could stand to benefit from the practice, so give it a try.

To understand more how important body-based practices are to lawyers and how to add them into your routine, check out the Personal Well-Being Worksheet, Stress Management Workbook, and Coping Strategies Ebook.

To try body scan practice, check out our meditations that incorporate body scan techniques.

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4 Key Traits of Effective Anchoring Practices

I have had a busy few months and it doesn’t look like things are going to slow down any time soon. When things get like this for me, I really appreciate the anchoring practices in my life to keep me steady. In case you don’t know what that means, this post will explain it and help you identify the practices that may serves as anchors for you.

What Is An Anchoring Practice?

Anchoring practices are the things we do in daily life that help us feel steady, nourished, focused, and in a state of flow. The practices that serve this purpose for me most frequently are meditation, exercise, writing, and cooking. You would think that in busy or turbulent times, these practices would be the first to go.

Over the years, though, I have noticed that the opposite is true. Rather than let these habits go when I am too busy, I rely on them even more. This is how the practices serve as anchors. They keep me grounded, steady, and calm enough to face life, busy and crazy as it is.

How to Identify Anchoring Practices for Your Life?

If you have practices in your life that serve the same purpose, you may be able to identify them very quickly. Many lawyers and professionals, though, don’t have time or reason to think this through. I find it helpful to have a framework for my well-being, though, because I can use it as a guide in times when I struggle or get stuck.

In case you need some help establishing or identifying potential anchoring practices for your own life, here are the four hallmark traits to consider.

1. You Genuinely Enjoy It.

For a practice to serve as an anchor for you, it needs to be something you will do consistently. To some degree, then, this means that you need to sincerely enjoy it. Does this mean that it will always be easy, risk free, or only feel good?

Not necessarily. When a practice becomes like that, you may get bored with it and it won’t keep your attention very well. A little bit of challenge and even some risk might be present in any good anchoring practice. But still there has to be something there that calls you back and draws you in again and again.

Crazy as it sounds, meditation serves this purpose for me. Yes, it is often boring and sometimes a struggle. But after years of practice I have come to enjoy it and generally like how it feels when I meditate. What practices are like this for you?

2. It Allows You to Be Yourself.

Another important thing about anchoring practices is that they allow you take your armor off. By this, I mean that you can really tell that something is an anchor for you if you feel like you can be yourself while doing it.

When you do the practice, there is no pretending or putting on a happy face or trying to appear professional. Instead, there is just you and the practice. It’s you as you are doing something you love.

Cooking is an anchoring practice for me because it allows my creativity and resourcefulness to shine. What activity in your life makes you feel like your most authentic self?

Image with 4 key traits of effective anchoring practices as shared in the blog post

3. It Nourishes You.

Another reason that you may come back again and again to anchoring practices is that they always give you what you need. This is to say that they nourish you in some way.

In many cases, lawyers have most of our basic needs met. As people who tend to be time poor, however, some essential human needs may get neglected. For many lawyers, and professionals, then, the most beneficial daily habits may give us a chance to get what we don’t otherwise get at work.

The practice that showcases this best for me is exercise. I love my law practice but it involves a lot of sitting around at my computer or talking on the phone. My daily Peloton workouts give me a chance to move, relax, and release excess stress. What practice in your life nourishes you?

4. It Creates Connections.

A final feature about anchoring practices is that they create connections. As noted above, this may include a chance to get in touch with oneself. In general, though, practices that connect us to others or something bigger tend to be the ones that stick with us throughout our lives.

All of the practices I mentioned above have this connecting force too, but the one that exemplifies it most for me is writing. As I have shared before, I am an introvert and can easily get very lost in my own thoughts and experience. It has been hard for me over the years to share my ideas with others and it took me a long time to learn to be myself.

Writing helped me do that. Though I do most of my writing on my own, sharing my work helped me create a community and build confidence in myself in all other areas of my life. What regular practices in your life create connections for you?

Want to Explore Further?

Though anchoring practices are not one size fits all, they have some essential features. If you are trying to identify or establish anchoring practices in your own life, look for these four things: (1) enjoyment; (2) authenticity; (3) nourishment; and (4) connection.

To explore this idea more, check out the Personal Well-Being Worksheet. It will help you identify the practices that support all aspects of personal well-being by guiding you through an assessment of basic needs.

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10 Gift Ideas to Encourage a Loved One’s Mindfulness Habit

When I teach mindfulness, I always stress that you don’t need to buy anything when you start a meditation practice. With that said, some accessories can support a practice. Beyond that, around the holidays we always need some gift ideas for those in our lives. If you have someone in your life looking to create or establish a mindfulness habit, some of these ideas might help.

1. Meditation Cushion or Bench

A chair is perfectly sufficient to meditate, but if you do it regularly it can help to have a defined space for the practice. In addition, once you are able to sit for longer than 15 minutes, a cushion can help you maintain a good posture. You can find any number of meditation cushions or benches online, including on Amazon. I recommend a buckwheat fill for your cushion because it offers support and you can refill the cushion with more hulls over time.

2. Meditation App

A meditation app can help make a practice accessible because the world’s best teachers are always with you on your phone. Many apps also have courses available to teach the practice to you. Headspace, Calm, and Ten Percent Happier each have gift subscriptions available. In addition, fitness apps like Peloton has yoga classes and meditations as well and Peloton also has an introduction to meditation course.

3. Books

There are so many good books on mindfulness and meditation practice out there that you really can’t go wrong. Any of the books I have reviewed on this blog would make a fine gift.

If you want an easy and accessible introduction to meditation written with lawyers in mind, check out my book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer.

A few other books I have mentioned but not fully reviewed include the following:

Zen Habits

Mindfulness in Plain English

Radical Compassion

Ten Percent Happier

4. Courses

You may be able to find courses and retreats at your local yoga studio, dharma or zen center, or other public facilities. If you can’t, Sounds True has a number of self-paced audio or video courses available from the best teachers in the world. They also regularly have sales that make these courses really affordable. For those new to the practice, we recommend Tara Brach’s and Jack Kornfield’s Power of Awareness.

5. Blanket

It’s not unusual to get cold during meditation practice since you are sitting still for extended periods of time. In addition, a blanket can add a sense of comfort and even protection to help you calm during your practice. I recommend a blanket that is soft and comforting, but also light so that it doesn’t make you too hot as you sit.

6. Candle or Diffuser

The jar candle seems to be the ubiquitous holiday regift. But, on the bright side, nice smells can support a meditation practice. In the same way, an essential oil diffuser can do the same thing. If you are intending it to be used during meditation practice, pick something with a scent that is soothing so it doesn’t overpower or distract you while you sit.

7. Gift Card to Yoga Studio

Sitting isn’t the only way to learn mindfulness. You can also learn it from yoga and many yoga studios offer practices or courses on meditation. Many yoga studios offer holiday promotions for gift cards or class passes. In this way, you can support a local business while offering a friend a chance to establish or refresh their mindfulness or yoga practice.

8. Yoga Props

Restorative yoga is an excellent way to ease into meditation practice but this practice is not as prevalent at brick and mortar studios now due to the pandemic. You can solve this problem by offering the gift of yoga props. With a couple of blocks, a yoga blanket, and a bolster, your friend could easily start a restorative practice at home on their own. In fact, Amazon even has a restorative yoga starter kit and Judith Lasater has several great books that teach the practice for beginners.

9. Devices

Extra devices aren’t really necessary for a meditation practice, but some items can support it or solve a particular problem. A nice set of wireless earbuds can make your meditation practice mobile or help reduce distractions while you sit. If you are really into gadgets and have a larger budget, you could look into the Muse. By the time I tried the device, my practice was already established so I have not really used it much but it could be helpful to someone new to meditation. I also recently discovered Zenimals which offer a screen-free way of providing guided meditations to kids.

10. Time

The biggest impediment to a meditation practice is the lack of time. So, if you want to give the gift of mindfulness, you may not have to spend any money. You could offer to babysit, take care of pets, or water plants for a friend who wants to go on a retreat or take a meditation course.

As a caveat, don’t push any of these gift ideas on anyone. Meditation is a deeply personal practice and it may not be right for everyone. Thus, I wouldn’t give any of these gifts unless I knew that the person was interested in mindfulness, yoga, or looking for some help with their stress management strategies. For those friends or family members looking to develop or establish a meditation habit, however, any of these gifts can support their practice and help it grow.

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