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Lawyers in Fact and Fiction

I am a trial lawyer who writes but also a writer who tries cases. Which profession takes top billing turns on the day and hour. While law is my day job and literature my nighttime pursuit, the longer I toil at both jobs, the more I appreciate how they complement each other, rather than conflict.

My decades as a federal prosecutor and white-collar defense lawyer have made me a better writer. Likewise, the thousands of hours spent writing and rewriting have turned me into a better lawyer.

How Law Practice and Fiction Writing Came Together

The first hint of the synergy came in law school, when a professor noted that 99 percent of being a lawyer was picking the right word at the right time. That describes 100 percent of what makes a good writer.

Nowhere does my legal work lean more heavily on my writing style than in crafting a closing argument to a jury. The key is to remain clear, concise, and compelling.

Before every closing argument, I reread Elmore Leonard’s rules of writing, especially his golden rule: “When you write, try to leave out all the parts that readers skip.” In preparing a jury argument, I delete the parts that will cause a juror’s eyes to glaze over.

Jury argument mirrors the writing process. There is a sad but true saying that there are always three jury closings. There’s the argument a lawyer prepares; the one he delivers; and the one he wishes he had given.

About the New Novel

Chasing the Chameleon, which was published last week, is my third book in the Cash McCahill series and my fifth book to be published. By now, I have learned the hard lesson that each work is always three books: the novel I envisioned, the one I wrote, and the one I wished I had written.

Lawyers who write on the side are perhaps the fastest growing minority in the country. At any writers’ conference or book festival, a person can’t throw a hardback without hitting a writer-attorney. Every attorney I know is either writing a book or aspiring to do so, and there is no shame in that.

Inspiration for Lawyers Who Write

In my Mount Rushmore of attorney-authors are four titans who have scaled the heights of both professions: Sir John Mortimer, Scott Turow, John Grisham, and Erle Stanley Gardner.

Like barrister-author Sir John Mortimer and his enduring fictional creation Horace Rumpole, I was privileged to read law at Oxford. Mortimer enjoyed a distinguished career at the bar, occasionally defending authors and artists facing criminal charges of obscenity. He wrote more than fifty books and scripts but is remembered best for Rumpole, the rumpled, resilient barrister who practiced his trade at the Old Bailey in London.

The older I get, the fonder I grow of Rumpole the curmudgeon. His inner voice during witty but doomed arguments with his wife Hilda (“She Who Must Be Obeyed”) and pompous judges are priceless. There is nobility in his dogged efforts to defend the downtrodden.

Some Lawyers Truly Write What They Know

I later attended Harvard Law School during the tenure of Scott Turow, whose nonfiction book One L was published during my law school years. Turow went on to write thirteen fiction works, the most famous being his first novel: Presumed Innocent. No one is better at portraying the vicissitudes of a criminal trial and the tinderbox of emotions unleashed in the courthouse.

While I share no school ties with John Grisham, he graciously visited our home in Dallas to support a fundraiser for a charity for which his wife and mine serve on the board: Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry. His success as a novelist is unmatched. Thirty-seven consecutive number one fiction bestsellers. More than 300 million books worldwide.

During the visit, I asked Grisham whether in the wake of his great success he ever missed the courtroom. He stared at me as if I were a madman and said no.

Much like Rumpole, however, I would miss the courtroom. Perhaps that is easy for me to say because I haven’t racked up the sales of Grisham or Turow. But trial work by day and writing fiction at night gives my life balance. One pursuit is largely public and performative. The other, mostly private and contemplative.

How Writing Works with Law Practice

The allure of the courtroom helps me understand why so many actors on both sides of the pond return to the stage, though a theatre gig pays far less than they could command for film. In a criminal trial, the lawyers play to a live audience, and the feedback from closing arguments may come in hours or days.

That leads to the fourth giant on my personal Mount Rushmore of attorney-authors: Erle Stanley Gardner. If Grisham is prolific, Gardner was super prolific. More than 300 million books sold under more than a dozen pen names. Among his 131 works of fiction are the mother lode: 82 full-length Perry Mason novels.

Gardner was a lawyer’s lawyer, often representing the poor and powerless, including Chinese and Mexican immigrants. He founded the Court of Last Resort to advocate for the wrongly convicted.

Yet, he still found time to create the most popular lawyer in fiction: Perry Mason. Mason is to fictional lawyers what Sherlock Holmes is to detectives. Both are brilliant knights who fight like hell for their clients and to discover the truth. In Gardner’s world of fiction, the truth is what frees Mason’s clients.

In real life, not so much.

This Lawyer Will Keep on Writing

As a kid, I spent countless hours watching black-and-white reruns of Perry Mason and reading the source material: the Mason novels. The experience inspired me to plant one foot in the law and the other in literature.

Gardner’s long run with Mason also inspired me to launch my Cash McCahill series, the third entry of which (Chasing the Chameleon) which was published last week. With 82 Mason novels, that means only 79 more Cash books to match Gardner’s otherworldly output.

Author Bio: Paul Coggins is a nationally prominent criminal defense lawyer and the former United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. He has published two Cash McCahill novels (Sting Like a Butterfly and Eye of the Tigress), with a third entry in the series (Chasing the Chameleon) to be published in March 2026. A fourth Cash book (Canary in the Courthouse) is in the works. You can follow Paul on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

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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Five Ways Mindfulness Helped Me Write My First Novel

Image of typewriter generating letters on desk with notebook, pen, and glasses and title of blog post "Five Ways Mindfulness Helped Me Write My First Novel"

A funny thing happened over the last few years: I wrote a novel. This was never something I had intended to do. As a blogger, of course, I love writing. But as a lawyer, my focus is usually on the facts. I generally didn’t spend my time dreaming up stories.

But then one day, I noticed that I had dreamt up a story. I have a special place in my heart for A Christmas Carol. And I have attended a meditation retreat around the New Year several times. At some point, the two things merged a story about a lawyer who goes on retreat came to mind.

I didn’t quite know what to do with this idea at first or if I would do anything with it at all. Eventually, though, I sat down and let myself write. Then I decided that I liked what I had written well enough to keep working on it. Now, my plan is to publish this little novel by the holidays.

How did I go from nebulous idea to official project? As you may have guessed, mindfulness sure helped. Here are the five ways that mindfulness helped me write my first novel.

1. Mindfulness Helped Me Recognize the Idea.

It’s really hard to recognize a good idea or even be aware that you are having an idea in a crowded mind. Many lawyers try mindfulness with the notion that they will get a clear mind – one with few or at least fewer thoughts. After more than a decade of meditation practice, that hasn’t exactly been my experience.

My thoughts haven’t stopped coming. Far from it, they have continued on much like they did before. It’s just that, with a lot of meditation practice, my mind is much better at knowing which thoughts deserve my time and attention.

I don’t feed all the thoughts and give them energy now. This means that I have a lot more mental space. I can see individual thoughts more clearly. This leaves room for wisdom about which ones are significant.

When it comes to ideas, this really matters. New ideas don’t often yell at us and demand our attention. Instead, they often whisper. When the novel started coming to me, it was very subtle. I would get a flash of a scene that might last only a few minutes. After a few weeks, I realized that this was a pattern and I started to take note.

Without clear, nonjudgmental awareness, I would have easily missed these tiny moments of inspiration. Because my mindfulness practice had honed this trait, though, I was able to see it and let the idea emerge.

2. Mindfulness Practice Gave Me the Patience to Let the Novel Emerge.

As you may have noticed by now, this book has taken a long time to unfold. It began coming to me late in 2022 but I didn’t recognize it until the next year. I started writing it early in 2023, but then didn’t finish until the very end of 2024. In 2025, I thought about publishing but then got sidetracked by my hectic law practice and copious speaking engagements. Only now in 2026 did I decide once and for all that I was going to publish the novel.

My point should be obvious by now: writing takes time. You can’t force an idea to emerge. Creativity doesn’t flow when you exert too much control. After years of writing, I have learned that I have to let inspiration guide me. As a practicing lawyer and mom too, I have also learned that I have to pick my battles in terms of creative ventures.

If there is one thing that breath focus meditation will teach you, it is patience. There have been countless times when I wanted to quit meditating when I was tired or bored or just over it. I won’t lie. Sometimes I did quit. But many times, maybe most, I continued on. In the moment I didn’t always know why.

Now, I know why not quitting matters. All those times, I was practicing patience. I was practicing keeping an open heart and a calm mind when things took longer than I preferred. In the moment, I wasn’t sure my effort was worth it, but I am sure now. Patience is an essential trait for a writer and I am glad mindfulness practice helped me cultivate it.

Image listing the five ways that mindfulness helps with writing a novel as shared in the blog post

3. Meditation Gave Me Plenty of Experience Dealing with Doubt and Resistance.

If you are anything like me, the odds are that you will have an initial wave of pride after completing a new project. Soon enough, though, it may be followed by a wave of self-doubt and resistance. When I finished writing the novel, I had both.

Doubt definitely came up because I had never written fiction before. This was not unexpected. As I have written before, doubt is often strong for me. Any time I try something new, I have grown accustomed to looking for doubt to show up.

Normally, I can breeze right through it. But this doubt enlisted a friend: resistance. Do you ever have times when you just put things off? Or stubbornly refuse to do things you know you should? That’s resistance.

It can be a huge impediment to creative pursuits, like writing, and also moving forward in life. My resistance lied to me. It told me that I was too busy to focus on a novel. It worked with my doubt to convince me that nobody would read it anyway and continued effort would be a waste of time.

So, what did I do? Like in my meditation practice, I just kept paying attention. For a while, the doubt and resistance worked and the novel faded into the background. But when things calmed down in my life and law practice again, the novel came back to my mind. I realized that I cared about it enough to face the doubt and deal with the resistance. Because of my mindfulness practice, I knew that I could.

4. Mindfulness Taught Me Trust Myself, an Essential Trait for Writing a Novel.

I have written a few times before that mindfulness practice builds confidence. This isn’t in the brazen or brash kind of way. Instead, I think it comes from really knowing yourself. When you study yourself closely, you learn what works better for you and that helps you face life on your terms.

Writing is a deeply personal thing, even when the story you share is a made up one. Years of writing has helped me slowly build the courage to share my own story in this blog and elsewhere. It’s allowed me to see that I can be okay if nobody reads my writing or if people don’t react as I had hoped.

In part, this is because I often feel pride and joy in the act of writing and sharing itself. And, as a bonus, some people have read my writing and it has helped me make friends and build community.

Make no mistake. When you write, it is intimate and vulnerable. Because mindfulness helped me know myself so well, I developed good instincts about sharing. I learned I could trust myself and trust others too. That trust helped me see the book in terms of possibilities rather than fears.

5. Self-Compassion Helped Me Craft a Plan to Finish and Publish the Novel.

Did I mention that I have never written fiction before? So that means I was writing a novel without knowing how to write a novel. I was an English major in college but I have never so much as taken a creative writing course.

How did I let myself write a novel with no road map? Well, in a word, I used self-compassion, which may be the very best trait derived from my mindfulness practice. Years of writing has taught me that the first draft does not have to be good. Instead, it just needs to be out. I have to allow the messy mind dump so I can see what I have.

When I first read the draft, I needed self-compassion again. Rather than looking at it with an eagle eye, I paid attention to how I felt. I wasn’t looking for plot holes or typos. I was looking to see if I laughed or cried. Fortunately, I did both.

Finally, after languishing for more than a year, my last act of self-compassion was to enlist some help. I asked some friends to beta read the draft. I got some editing help. And I made a plan to get this project done this year. After all, haven’t I written before that success on long-term goals requires adequate support?

Now that I have some support, I have a real plan for publishing the novel in time for the holidays this year.

Image of an open book with the words "novel coming soon" and "stay tuned" and "Holidays 2026"

Mindfulness Helped Me Write My Book. What Could It Help You Do?

Mindfulness practice offers many wonderful benefits, including reduced stress, less rumination, improved health, and better relationships. I experienced all of those things. But when you hear about those benefits, you don’t always understand what it means in terms of a real life. As I shared in this post, all those wonderful traits from my mindfulness practice helped me pursue something I love: writing.

Most recently, it even helped me keep writing when a project I didn’t anticipate or ask for came up. My mindfulness practice helped me write my first novel. Now, I’d love to know, hear about, or see what mindfulness practice helps you do.

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How to Recover When Your Meditation Habit Gets Sloppy

Image of a post it note with the phrase "habit is persistence in practice" and the title of the blog post that says "How to Recover When Your Mediation Habit Gets Sloppy"

In January, my habit tracker showed nice long streaks for meditation. I was laser focused on starting the year strong and practiced mindfulness each day. Now, it’s halfway through February and my meditation practice is a bit of a mess. What is a lawyer to do?

Well, this lawyer is a mindfulness teacher who has been meditating for over a decade. This is not my first rodeo when it comes to a less than perfect meditation practice.

In case you are wondering, here are the three proven steps I will take to get my meditation practice back on track. I also offer three supports you can consider if you need a little bit more help getting your own habit back in order.

1. Lawyers Are Busy, So Don’t Panic or Beat Yourself Up.

The first thing that many people do when they notice a habit slipping is to beat themselves up. I encourage you to avoid this trap. Yes, meditation is an important practice. Yes, it offers many benefits.

These truths can easily cause high achievers like lawyers take their practices very seriously. And that seriousness can lead to self-criticism and even spiraling when the habit is not easily maintained.

Don’t take the bait. Instead, be practical and realistic. For most lawyers and professionals, it is not realistic to expect perfection with any healthy habit. Instead, it makes more sense to think about what we do most days.

If you criticize yourself every time you miss, that won’t motivate you to get back to practice any more quickly. Instead, it will induce hopelessness and shame. This is why the best thing you can do when you notice your meditation habit slipping is to avoid panic and self-judgment.

2. Identify the Impediment to Meditation Practice

When you can bring some neutrality to the situation, it is possible to next review the situation practically. Looking at things from a place of self-compassion, it is easier to see that most of us don’t skip on healthy habits because we are undisciplined or don’t care.

Instead, for lawyers and professionals, the culprit is more likely to be a practical impediment. This is why the next step in the process is to review the things that are getting in the way of meditation.

This might include schedule changes or a hectic period at work. It could also include events in your personal life that create a resistance to practice. Even though meditation can be a great way to process complex emotions or care for yourself, doing so during tough times can be a challenge. Acknowledging this kind of resistance as a human reality may help you work through it.

Other potential impediments could be even easier to address. You may consider, for example, if there is anything you don’t like about the experience of meditation. Then you can consider how you can make the practice a bit more pleasant to get yourself to the cushion.

Ultimately, most people don’t skip meditation because they don’t care about the benefits. Instead, problem-solving the issue from the habit formation level may help you figure get your practice back on track.

Image listing the three steps to Get Your Meditation Habit Back on Track shared in the post, including don't judge yourself or panic, identify the impediment to practice, and just get back to practice.

3. Come Back to Meditation Practice

In truth, you don’t need the first two steps every time you miss a meditation session or get off track with practice for a few days. Instead, the more efficient route may be to just come back to meditation practice.

This may be the most essential lesson from basic breath practice: you can always begin again. Just like there is always another breath to note, there is always another day to come back to meditation.

You don’t have to apologize or make amends. You just start practicing again the same way you did the very first time. That’s the beauty of meditation. It’s always there for you when you need it even if you have been away from practice for a while.

If you have missed practice for a long time, it may be best to ease back into it. I suggest starting small to give yourself time to rebuild the habit. But you may find that you can increase your time more quickly than you could when you were new to practice. Either way, there is no need to rush because meditation is a practice for life.

In the end, the way to maintain a consistent habit is to not give up on the habit when you miss a day, a week, or longer. The best way to get back on track is to just come back to meditation practice.

But What If The Steps Above Aren’t Enough?

After more than a decade of meditation, I can tell you that sometimes getting back to practice is easy and sometimes it is hard. In the easy cases, the three steps above or just step three alone are enough.

For hard cases, you may need some more support. Sometimes we stop meditating due to massive schedule or life changes, personal loss or difficulty, or even health-related conditions that make practice a challenge.

If you are really struggling to get back to regular meditation despite a desire to do so, you may consider the following three steps to support yourself.

1. If Needed, Reflect on What Meditation Offers to Your Life.

When I need motivation to get my habits back on track, I instinctively look to my intention. If your meditation practice is struggling, one way to help yourself recover is to consider if your intention has changed.

This happens with meditation from time and time and it may not be a bad sign. When I first started meditating, my fundamental aim was dealing with stress. I just wanted to rest and find some relief from all my copious thoughts.

After a few years, though, meditation helped me and the thoughts gradually slowed down. I had to rethink why the practice mattered to me. When I did, I realized that my new focus was to create a refuge for myself to deal with the challenges of everyday life.

The reality is that most lawyers don’t meditate to get really good at meditation or because we think we will become enlightened. Instead, we do it because we want benefits in our lives outside of meditation.

For this reason, it can help to reflect every so often on the ways that meditation supports your life. Once you are clear about your reasons for practice, it may be easier to bring yourself back to regular practice.

Image defining a habit as "a pastime that becomes a regular part of your life because you don’t give up on even though you repeatedly fail to do it perfectly or as much as you want"

2. If Needed, Get Support from a Meditation Teacher or Community.

As I have written many times before, a teacher or community support a meditation practice more than anything else. I know that for many lawyers and professionals, it may be a practical necessity to meditate alone most of the time.

It definitely takes more time to meet up with others at a course or retreat to meditate and it may take some work to find a teacher. Even so, that investment of time is worth even for the busiest lawyers.

If you are struggling with your meditation practice, a great way to refresh it is to get some support. Taking a course, doing a retreat, or finding a meditation group can help you get needed direction. It can also make the practice feel less lonely and more fun.

So, if you practice is struggling, a great way to bring it back it get help from a teacher or a community.

3. If Needed, Here’s a Worksheet to Help You Rework Your Meditation Habit.

For major life or schedule changes, you may also need to rethink how meditation fits into your life. That is something that most lawyers and professionals can expect to do from time to time.

Even subtle schedule changes cause by shifts in family or work obligations can throw wrenches into our normal systems. Instead of thinking of yourself as an undisciplined failure as noted above, it makes more sense to think practically about how the system works.

If you need help restructuring your daily meditation practice, you might check out the guide I wrote here. You can also download the meditation habit worksheet to find ways to make the practice more obvious, satisfying, and easy to do.

Conclusion: Meditation Is a Practice for Life, So Lawyers Can Expect Times of Ebb and Flow.

If you meditate for long enough, you are bound to face disruptions with your normal habits. This is a reality that most lawyers and professionals will face as they navigate life and work changes and busy lives. If you meditation practices gets off track, you can use the steps and supports identified in this post to recover.

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New Podcast: The Benefits of Mindfulness Practice for Lawyers

As I have written before, the best way to learn about mindfulness is with friends. In a recent podcast, I got to talk about mindfulness with a fellow lawyer and good friend, Jamie Jones. Jamie is the President of the Arkansas Bar Association and I got to know her through a professional association.

In the podcast, Jamie asked me about several common issues that lawyers face when they start mindfulness practice. I’m sharing the podcast here because it’s a great resource and may help other lawyers get over some of the myths about mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness Topics Discussed in the Podcast

As in many interview, Jamie first asked me to trace my history with mindfulness. I explained that I stumbled upon the practice in a time of need after dealing with years of anxiety, overthinking, and depression.

Despite starting very small, at 1 minute a day, mindfulness practice quickly helped me. It not only helped me develop tools for managing stress. It also helped me cultivate self-compassion and ultimately confidence. All of these things helped me move forward in my work and life.

Fortunately, though, Jamie didn’t just focus on success stories. Instead, she asked me real questions about the challenges of practice. We covered things like the myth that you can “clear your mind” in meditation. We also talked about the challenges of finding time to practice each day.

One of my favorite parts was when I explained how mindfulness practice can help lawyers cultivate the skill of dealing with thoughts. So many lawyers focus on the idea that their mind must be clear in meditation.

The real gold of the practice, though, happens when you develop skills for navigating thoughts. During the podcast interview, I explained how this works in practice.

The Most Important Pieces for Lawyers

The reason that this matters for lawyers, of course, is that we don’t want to waste our time. Lawyers have so much on our plates that it can feel really overwhelming or even foolish to try something that might not work.

What I tried more than anything to convey in the interview was that a consistent mindfulness practice is attainable for lawyers. Sure, we are busy but we can gain benefits with small periods of practice.

Sure, mindfulness practice may feel confusing and lonely at first. There are resources and groups to help.

Sure, mindfulness practice can feel sometimes like we aren’t any good at it. I discuss in the interview, though, that being good at meditation is really not the issue. In fact, I explain how even an imperfect meditation practice can do a lot of good.

Image showing new podcast episode on ArkBaro on Air with body scan mindfulness practice for lawyers

Try Mindfulness with the Bonus Podcast Episode

Another great thing about the podcast is that I also recorded a bonus meditation. Jamie did not just want to share information about mindfulness with members of the Arkansas Bar, she also wanted them to try it.

When I teach people new to mindfulness practice, I often recommend body scan practice as a great place to start. I do this for several reasons.

As I have written before, body scan is often relaxing and engaging. It is also a great skill for lawyers to cultivate because it can help us avoid being stuck in our minds and thoughts.

In addition, developing familiarity with the body offers many practical benefits. This can include a better awareness of the physical signs of stress, which in turn can engender wisdom about self-care.

In addition, emotions often register in our bodies. In this way, learning about bodily sensations can build stability and intelligence around emotions.

For all of these reasons, body scan is a foundational practice and a great place to start for lawyers exploring mindfulness.

Where and How Lawyers Can Listen to the Podcast

To listen to the podcast, you can find it on the ArkBar on Air Podcast website here. You can also find it on your favorite podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Castro, Castbox, and Goodpods.

The interview is found in Episode 8: Mindfulness for Lawyers. This is where you will learn about how to start a mindfulness practice and keep it going. You will also learn about the benefits of mindfulness practice.

The meditation is found under Bonus Content: Body Scan Meditation for Lawyers. This is where you will get a chance to try meditation in the comfort of your own home or office.

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Mindfulness in Crisis: How Titration Helps Lawyers Manage News Stress

I didn’t get a new post written last week. This time, my schedule is not to blame. I was home due to the massive snowstorm that plowed through my community and much of the United States. Instead, my only excuse was that I struggled to write because I was troubled by the news.

I try to avoid taking positions on the news in this blog. I don’t want to give people the wrong idea that mindfulness practice is restricted to a single political persuasion. It isn’t. But as a mindfulness teacher and a lawyer it does not feel right for me to pretend like political and social events don’t affect us. They do.

My point here is not to take a position on the events in the news. I do that via appropriate means in other ways. It is important to address the reality that the news cycle recently has been hard on almost all of us. In this post, I will share a mindfulness strategy that has helps me deal with the news: titration.

Two common solutions for lawyers trying to deal with the news.

There are two common forms of mental health advice when it comes to the news cycle. One camp suggests avoidance and self-preservation. The appeal of this school of thought is obvious. The news cycle recently and often in general is filled with violent images and stories of conflict.

Though these stories stir our emotions, they often relate to things outside of our control. This is a recipe for empathic overwhelm. Based on this, some people argue that we should turn off the news, stay off our phones, and focus on self-care.

Others take the opposite view. They tell us that we are scared and concerned for a reason. They urge us to find ways to act, to call our senators, raise our voices, make donations, or even attend meetings or protests.

This path does not offer the respite of the first, but it promises a greater sense of agency in the world. It also offers a use for all of the energy we are bound to feel watching conflict play out on the news. It could even help us feel less alone and more engaged in our community, especially it leads us to in-person experiences.

Can mindfulness offer lawyers a middle path?

As indicated above, there is wisdom in both of the approaches stated above, but there are also downsides. For lawyers, the downside of the self-care route may be that it could inspire guilt. It could also be really hard to actually relax and rest for too long, knowing that turbulence is happening in the world.

The downside of the engagement approach, of course, is that many lawyers may not feel safe to do so. Client opinion or law firm policies may prevent us from engaging with social or political issues as much as lawyers might like. Some lawyers may not have the energy or mental space to even face the news, let alone engage civically or politically in response to it.

Given the pros and cons for each approach, the mindfulness teacher in me reflexively looks for a middle way. After some struggle this weekend, I think I finally found my answer. The issue is not a true dichotomy between self-care and engaging with the world in turbulent times. Instead, it is possible to do both. A practice called “titration” provides a useful model.

The Mindfulness Practice of Titration

Titration is a mindfulness practice that allows us to approach difficult experiences slowly, gradually, and in manageable doses. A very common way of using this strategy in meditation practice is in response to powerful emotions or difficult bodily sensations.

The classical mindfulness directive is to allow the difficult experience to arise and be fully present with it. But for truly powerful emotions or painful sensations, though, this advice can leave us overwhelmed. For people with trauma or other conditions, this advice may be impractical.

Out of self-compassion and wisdom, then, we can instead learn to titrate by noticing small bits of the experience over time. To do this, you might notice the challenging emotion or sensation for a few moments. Instead of simply staying with that difficult experience, though, you would then shift attention to something pleasant or neutral as a means of rest and recovery.

When you feel ready again, you can return attention to the area of difficulty. This strategy is called pendulation, a specific variety of titration, because it helps you take small doses of a difficult experience instead of taking it in all at once.

Image with question asking what titration is and answer which says "Titration is a mindfulness practice that allows us to approach difficult experiences slowly, gradually, and in manageable doses. To do this, you might notice the challenging emotion or sensation for a few moments, then shift attention to something pleasant or neutral as a means of rest and recovery."

Why titration helps.

Titration is a great skill for lawyers for work and life in general. Many of us face times of high conflict and stress. Lawyers must often deal with people who present us with difficult circumstances and issues.

Titration offers us the ability to face the difficulties of life on our terms. It marries courage with self-kindness. It balances stability with flexibility. It gives us a real strategy for caring for our minds, hearts, and bodies as we engage with a sometimes challenging world.

As someone who has had anxiety most of my life, I have found that mindfulness practices like titration build a lot of confidence. Even though they don’t mean that I will never be afraid, they give me a road map to follow when fear arises.

This means I am allowed to be afraid because I have faith that I can manage it when it arises. If I can be afraid, that means I can do the things in life and work that I need to do. This translates to faith in myself and great confidence for managing my life.

How to apply the concept of titration to a challenging news cycle.

I know it sounds weird to say this, but you can apply titration to the news and world events too. With this practice, you can take the wisdom of the people advocating rest and self-care and combine it with the necessity of engaged citizenship.

With this approach, you do not have to shield yourself entirely from the news during difficult times. You can scroll social media, listen to or watch the news for the purpose of obtaining information. As you do, though, it is best to monitor yourself for how the news is affecting you.

If it is affecting your mood, behavior, or leading to compulsive doomscrolling, it may be time for a break. You also might consider caring for yourself with restorative practices, including exercise, calming strategies, or talking with a trusted friend.

Another strategy that I like is to take some small but productive action in response to what I see on the news. I may make a donation, research ways to offer help, or find ways to support a worthy cause. Then after I have done my part, I let go of the issue and turn my attention elsewhere.

Given how engrossing TV news and social media can be, it may be wise to schedule breaks or plan activities to avoid overwhelming yourself. This may mean scheduling time with other people, getting outside, or just leaving your phone out of arm’s reach.

Conclusion

There is never a lack of challenging information waiting for us on the news and social media. When times are particularly difficult, it can be tempting for lawyers and other professionals to take an all or nothing approach. We can either be sucked in by the neverending news cycle, which may lead to overwhelm. Or we can be tempted to check out in the pursuit of self-preservation.

This post is not intended to tell you how you should respond to the social and political issues you see on the news. Instead, it explains one strategy, titration, that may provide a way to balance self-care and engaged citizenship as we face turbulent times.

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Why Skepticism Can Enhance Your Meditation Practice

Sometimes other lawyers tell me that they are interested in trying meditation but they are skeptical. With this question, people are suggesting that their doubts get in the way of trying the practice.

I get why these questions arise. Lawyers tend to be a skeptical bunch. We don’t like to waste our time. If we try something, we want o have some assurances that it will be worth it.

In reality, though, skepticism is not a true impediment to meditation practice. It actually supports it. Here are a few reasons why.

Skepticism Defined.

Before I explain why skepticism can support a meditation practice, it’s important to define what I mean. When I talk about skepticism here, I am talking about a state of being unsure or having doubts.

This is different from certainty or having one’s mind made up. Clearly, if someone truly believed that meditation would not be helpful to them, that would be an impediment to practice. In that case, you would expect that the person would be very unlikely to try meditation. Even if they did, they would not be interested in looking at it clearly.

Skepticism, on the other hand, is not certainty. Instead, it is a state of having doubts, being unsure, or being confused. Most lawyers do not enjoy states like these, but they are actually really useful for meditators.

Why Skepticism Can Be Good for Meditation

Most lawyers even remotely interested in meditation have probably heard the term “beginner’s mind.” This term, made most famous by the Zen teacher and author of the seminal book, Zen Mind Beginner’s Mind, generally refers to looking at things with fresh eyes (paid link).

This sounds beautiful and alluring and it is often what attracts many people to meditation. But let’s be real. How often do you exhibit beginner’s mind in ordinary life? How often do you see things with truly fresh eyes?

Most of us do not. In fact, this is one reason that new meditators are often instructed to “get curious” about their mundane life experiences. Curiosity is the state where we stop assuming we know and we look deeper.

Image with definition of skepticism shared in post which says "A state of being unsure or having doubts.
This is in contrast to certainty or having one's mind made up. A variety of confusion that can support curious investigation."

Skepticism Encourages Curiosity

This is where skepticism can actually come in handy. I said earlier that lawyers are skeptical people. And why is that? Well, in part it is because we are used to drilling down deeply into the facts and evidence. We do this because we often need a good grasp of the facts before we can help our clients.

Lawyers don’t often think of it this way, but that skill is curiosity. As we go digging into the facts, we have an open mind as we search for the truth.

This same skill can and ideally should come into play with meditation. Let’s say that you are unsure that meditation will work for you. How could you actually answer that question for yourself?

Well, you might become an amateur scientist and set up your own little meditation experiment. You’d give meditation a try, try to make it as enjoyable as possible, and pay extra close attention to how it affected you. Why would you be able to pay close attention? Because you aren’t sure about something but want to get some answers.

An Example for Lawyers from Real Life

I know you think that this is just hooey that a meditation teacher would tell you to try to get you to meditate. But in truth, skeptical is exactly how I was when I started meditating. As I have written before, I did not start meditation with certainty that it would do any good.

Instead, I started meditation out of desperation. I was a young associate and a new mom with a two-week trial coming up. I was so busy I could not see straight. I was also exhausted because my daughter was still not sleeping through the night.

I was filled with anxiety, constantly overthinking and exhausted. I first started mediating in one-minute sessions because it was all I could handle. I didn’t start practicing because I knew it would help. I started meditating because nothing else had.

As I learned to sit for longer periods of time, I was looking with an eagle eye for any signs that it didn’t help. I didn’t find them. Instead, what I found was a reduction in the physical signs of stress, less overthinking, and a practice that I could rely on when life was hard.

Image of man in suit with quote "Lawyers are used to drilling down deeply into the facts. That skill is curiosity and it is perfect for meditation."

Experts Also Say Skepticism Can Support Meditation

Okay, I get it. I’m talking to skeptics here. Perhaps anecdotal evidence is not enough to convince you. In that case, my closing argument is that the masters of meditation say that skepticism can support meditation.

I mentioned the Zen school of meditation already. This school is famous for using states like confusion and bewilderment to achieve the beginner’s mind mentioned above. Why would confusion ever be useful in meditation? Of course, it is because we look closer and get more curious when we are confused.

If we keep skepticism from hardening into a misguided variety of certainty, it can work the same way. In truth, skepticism truly is a variety of confusion. We are often skeptical about things that we don’t fully understand. When we get curious and look closer, that’s how we can build understanding.

This is why Jon Kabit-Zinn, the founder of mindfulness-based stress reduction, wrote in Full Catastrophe Living that skepticism is a good trait for new meditators (paid link). Kabat-Zinn is a researcher of mindfulness who has worked with thousands of new meditators over the decades. And he says that skepticism is no impediment to meditation practice. Instead, he says it can help.

Conclusion: You Can Stay Skeptical

So what does this mean for you? First, it means that there is nothing wrong with being skeptical about meditation. It’s human, normal, and arguably healthy. Second, it also means that meditation and skepticism are not incompatible. Lawyers don’t have to become true believers before they explore mindfulness. Instead, being less than totally convinced might actually be better. Third, if you are interested in meditation but are still skeptical, there is one good way to resolve your confusion. Give meditation a good faith effort, pay close attention, and see what happens.

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Tips for Starting a Meditation Practice in the New Year

It’s the beginning of a new year, so lawyers may be thinking about new years goals and resolutions. For many people, this might include the goal of exploring mindfulness or starting a meditation practice.

If this is your intention for the year, I think it’s a great one. But all of us know that noble intentions in January sometimes fade by February. How can you start a meditation practice in January that has the hope of lasting the year and beyond?

That’s why I wrote this piece. In this post, I will share some tips intended to help you explore meditation and turn it into a real practice.

Establish Meditation as a Habit

My first advice for lawyers exploring meditation is to start small. That isn’t only because it’s kinder to yourself. It’s also much easier to do something repeatedly if it takes less time.

The biggest problem many lawyers and professional have with meditation is finding the time to practice. Given this, it is essential to not overwhelm yourself at the beginning.

I started my meditation practice over a decade ago at 1 minute per day because that is all I could handle. Though I was quickly able to add minutes on as the days went by, this small increment of time meant I had very few excuses to skip practice.

This meant that I quickly established a habit of meditating every day. If you want the benefits of meditation, making the practice regular is important. To do this, start with short sessions but aim for regular, ideally daily, practice. If you need any more help on brainstorming meditation as a habit, download this free worksheet.

Focus on Building Skills Instead of Being “Perfect” at Meditation

Now, you may be worried that even if you make meditation a habit, you still don’t know what you are doing. So you may be worried about doing the practice wrong or wasting your time.

I have shared basic meditation instructions on this blog and posts about a variety of different meditation practices, including breath practice, body scan, joy, and loving-kindness. At the beginning, though, I would not worry so much about being right in meditation.

Of course, no lawyer wants to waste their time. But the mistakes in meditation are often the best teachers. Meditation is not a thought exercise. It is an experiential practice. You learn how to do the practice by meditating.

At the beginning, then, the object is not to be perfect but instead to cultivate some basic skills. These include the following:

Patience with yourself;
Focus (including which focal point works for you);
Learning what calms and soothes you;
Connecting with bodily sensations;
Noticing when you are thinking;
Redirecting attention; and
Self-kindness.

Image of author Claire E. Parsons with quote from post "Of course, no lawyer wants to waste their time. But the mistakes in meditation are often the best teachers. Meditation is not a thought exercise. It is an experiential practice. You learn how to do the practice by meditating."

Don’t Expect to See Quick Progress in Meditation

Many lawyers start a meditation practice because they want the benefits they have read about in research studies. They want to feel less stress, they want to be able to focus on demand, and they want more happiness and kindness.

Then they sit down in meditation and they feel stressed because they can’t focus. They feel tired and bored. Their feet fall asleep, their knees and back hurt. All of this is bound to make any reasonable lawyer think the practice doesn’t work.

But here’s the thing: the benefits of meditation often don’t show up in the practice itself, at least not right away. After a while, practice should come to feel a bit more enjoyable and soothing in itself. At first, though, you are still building skills. Expecting to see mastery in your practice is like expecting not to struggle at all when you start a new exercise routine.

This means that you should give yourself some time (four to eight weeks) before you look for any benefits to emerge. And if those benefits emerge, they probably will show up outside of meditation first. These might include things like rushing less, a reduction in the physical signs of stress, or less reactivity.

Though benefits very likely will emerge with consistent meditation practice, be cautious about your expectations. Don’t expect immediate results and look for the benefits in life first before they show up in meditation practice.

Keep Your Practice Simple

One of the problems that knowledge seekers like lawyers may encounter at first is that they can’t decide which mindfulness practice to explore. The list of skills mentioned above may suggest that you must master all forms of meditation in order to gain benefits. Allow me to set the record straight.

While it is great to explore a variety of practices, ultimately simplicity is ideal. Keeping your practice simple will reduce decision fatigue. This means that there is less chance that your actual practice time will be delayed or derailed by too many planning questions.

Over the years, I have done a variety of practices with and without guiding. Eventually, though, I settled into a simple routine that consists mostly of breath focus practice, open awareness, and loving-kindness. I generally don’t do formal body scan practices, but I enjoy them on occasion if I have a special need to relax or calm my body.

Based on this, it is great to explore and shop around with practices at first. After a few days or weeks, though, it is best to settle on the practice that allows you to relax and focus the most. This will allow you time to build proficiency with the practice, so that you can experience benefits and build confidence.

As the months and years go on, you can always adjust your practice. In fact, you may need to do so to address specific issues like increased stress, sleepiness or spacing out, or just to refresh your practice.

Image sharing five tips for lawyers starting a meditation practice as shared in the blog post

Don’t Go It Alone

I offer my last bit of advice with a strong sense of humility. When I started meditating, I practiced totally on my own. I had no teacher or community and at first hid my practice from my family.

It was not until years later that I realized the error in this approach. When I attended my first retreat, I was amazed at how supportive it was to meditate with other people. I couldn’t believe how helpful a few minutes of chatting with a teacher was.

Though many lawyers pride ourselves for our independence, we do best when we remember that humans are social animals. When we humans want to make real habit change, social support is the way to go. If you want to make meditation a lasting part of your life, finding a teacher or community should be a priority.

Now, as I said above, time is often a challenge for lawyers. I am no stranger to this. To be sure, meditation can be learned and practiced on your own and you should not feel ashamed at all about that. If, however, you have any options to meditate in a group, learned from a trained mindfulness teacher, or go on retreat, it will support your practice.

For anyone in the legal profession looking for such a community, the Mindfulness in Law Society provides a highly accessible option.

Conclusion

These are my tips for starting a meditation practice in the new year. They are offered to help busy people like lawyers be kind to themselves while forming a habit that can last. Regardless of the goals you set, I wish you luck in the new year and hope you find whatever practices support you and your community best.

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5 Years of Blogging: Lessons Learned for Mindful Lawyers

Cover image for blog post with picture of birthday cake with candle in shape of number five and title "5 Years of Blogging: Lessons Learned for Mindful Lawyers"

I am really proud to say that I just celebrated five years of blogging. I started this blog in 2020 with little more than a vague notion that I wanted to write about mindfulness for lawyers. I was not sure I would be able to keep the blog going, but I did.

Here are the most surprising lessons I learned along the way.

1. Start with a Vision and Let the Plan Emerge.

Many people start a new goal and think a clear plan is an essential first step. I don’t disagree with this, but this could be an impediment for something new. When I started this blog, I knew a lot about mindfulness but I knew almost nothing about blogging.

What made me start was more of a vision. I knew that my mind was active and I need a place to share my thoughts. I also knew a lot about mindfulness and loved sharing about it. From experience, I also knew that there was a need for practical and accessible instruction for lawyers on the subject.

I did chart out a rough plan to get started. I planned to post weekly and created a few categories of posts to get me started, including:

Mindfulness Basics – posts teaching basic concepts and practices
Mindfulness in Action – posts illustrating how mindfulness works in practice
Brilliant Recommendations – book reviews and resource recommendations
Mind and Body – posts discussing body-based practices
Compassion Practices – posts emphasizing compassion and kindness.

At first, I stuck to this framework and I have on average stuck to my goal of writing weekly. Over time, I added more categories, resources, and meditations.

In other words, sometimes a vision is all you need to get started and a clearer plan can emerge with time.

2. Blogging Takes Some Discipline.

When I tell people that I practice law, teach mindfulness and manage a blog, they always comment on my discipline. While I have sometimes been skeptical about discipline, they do have a point.

In truth, much like mindfulness practice, discipline will not sustain a long-term habit like blogging. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important at all. Much like with mindfulness, I needed discipline to keep coming back to the practice.

There have been so many days when I did not feel like writing or told myself I could not think of a good idea. Then I made myself sit down for a little bit and at least try to write. And you know what? A blog post emerged. Over time, I kind of started to like this. I found it pretty magical.

That magic could not have happened without the small amount of discipline it took me to sit down and try. Discipline is not everything and should not be everything for a habit you mean to last for years but it matters.

3. Blogging Needs to Be Fun.

I have written before about the fact that mindfulness practice should ideally become at least a little bit enjoyable. Even with all the discipline in the world, I never would have kept blogging for 5 years if I wasn’t having some fun.

I love writing. It makes my mind feel better. It allows me to get some of my copious thoughts out of my head and provides much needed mental space. I also love sharing about things that light me up, whether it is mindfulness practices, good movies or music, or stories of amazing people.

There is no doubt that blogging is a ton of work. It required a lot of effort and time. But it also was fun for me to share my story and things I love and to watch something I built grow over time. Good habits require discipline for sure, but the best ones are also fun.

Image that says "celebrating five years of sharing mindfulness for lawyers! Thank you to our guest bloggers, readers, followers, and friends."

4. Good Habits Grow with You.

For good habits to stay fun, though, they have to change along with you. The thing about this blog’s five-year anniversary that makes me the most proud is that it really has grown with me. Change is something that most lawyers deal with frequently.

In the last five years, though, I experienced a lot. I had two job changes, I wrote 2 books and edited a treatise, and my daughters went from little kids to pre-teens. Because of this, I had to keep my blogging flexible.

There were times when I had to pause or take a break from writing. There were times when I wrote more because I had the energy. Part of the reason I think I made it to five years is that I let the blog have this level of flexibility.

5. The Best Habits Sustain You.

This is the thing that most lawyers don’t believe when I tell them. Blogging and writing in general give me more energy than they take. People always ask me how I find the energy to keep a blog going. Some of the answer is that creating things creates energy for me.

As I said, this blog has been with me through a lot of change. Some of the times in the last five years have been really hard. Though this blog takes a lot of effort, it also sustained me during those hard times.

For one thing, having a way to share beneficial things helped me avoid hopelessness when the the world was a challenging place. As a practical matter, much like I have written about when it comes to meditation, all the time I spent writing was time that I didn’t spend agonizing over work or my life.

In this way, writing on the blog gave me something to focus on besides the heavy parts of my life. Sure, I have to come back and face those parts eventually. But I could usually face them with a clearer mind and a fuller heart after spending a little time writing.

Conclusion

There are the lessons I have learned after blogging about mindfulness for five years. I am so glad that I got started and kept going even on the days that I wasn’t sure I could. Just like my mindfulness practice, writing helps me stay mentally healthy and teaches me so much. Thanks to all the lawyers, readers, followers, and friends who have supported the blog. It’s been a great five years and I hope I get to celebrate many more anniversaries in the future.

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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 Explained: A Guide for Busy Lawyers

I’ve been blogging about mindfulness for almost five years. Today, I realized that I have never done a post explaining what mindfulness is. I’m going to correct that in this post and explain why it matters for lawyers.

Understanding what mindfulness is can help you see the benefits it offers. In this post, I will define mindfulness, explain how it differs from but relates to meditation, and identify the benefits that mindfulness practices produce.

Mindfulness Defined

Mindfulness is a faculty of the human mind. It is something that most humans have – even lawyers. It is the ability to be intentionally and nonjudgmentally aware of your present circumstances.

The definition I use most often when I teach mindfulness is one from researcher Jon Kabat-Zinn. I like this definition because it has clear elements that many lawyers would appreciate. According to Kabat-Zinn, mindfulness is:

awareness
that arises through paying attention
on puprose
in the present moment
nonjudgmentally.

What the Definition Means for Lawyers

No self-respecting lawyer would take the definition of a word at face value. If you are new to mindfulness practice, this is a great trait to have. When it comes to mindfulness practice, you may quickly see that the most common practices are aimed at training up each of these individual elements.

You may think awareness is natural and easy. To some degree it is, but most of are not used to paying attention to our awareness on purpose. Most of us are also not accustomed to doing so in the present moment and nonjudgmentally.

The reality for most of us is that we have access to and experience with mindfulness. If you stop and notice these times, you may notice that moments infused with mindfulness are among your happiest and most meaningful.

But in everyday life, it is often the case that one or more of these elements of mindfulness is missing. That may be due to a busy schedule, life difficulties, too much technology, or a special condition such as a history of trauma or ADHD. As such, most lawyers and people may need help putting the pieces together.

Image sharing definition of mindfulness share in the post "awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally"

Is Meditation Required?

This is where meditation comes into the picture. Meditation and mindfulness are not the same thing. However, meditation and other practices, like yoga or pranayama, help us train mindfulness.

Much like with physical exercise, practices like meditation help us practice each of the elements from Jon Kabat-Zinn’s definition. Some practices help us gain consciousness of our awareness. Some practices help us train the capacity to keep our attention in the present moment. And some practices help us reduce our habits of judging and reacting to every aspect of life.

Many teachers correctly note that meditation and mindfulness practices cultivate, grow or build mindfulness. In my view, though, the better way of seeing this is to say that these practice remove barriers to mindfulness. By practicing breath focus, body scan, loving-kindness or open awareness, you are letting the clarity of mindfulness shine through. It’s almost like refining a diamond to make it brighter and clearer (hence the name of this blog).

The Benefits for Lawyers

Understanding mindfulness as a collection of skills may help lawyers understand how the benefits of practice emerge. Many lawyers consider mindfulness practice because they want the benefits that research have shown are possible. These include things like reduced stress, better focus, improved physical and mental health, and even more happiness.

Many of these benefits emerge, though, not from merely experiencing mindfulness as a state. Instead, they happen when we can cultivate mindfulness as a personal trait.

As I have written, there are numerous benefits from having a regular period in your day for mindfulness practice. These include clarity about your values and intention, resting your nervous system, and getting in touch with your feelings. These periods of calm are essential for lawyers who are often busy and in stress situations.

But as you rest in mindfulness practice, you also build skills. Slowly and surely over time, you build patience, self-compassion, focus for increasing periods of time, steadiness amidst adversity, and emotional awareness. It is through this regular practice and training that mindfulness becomes a trait.

In this way, mindfulness does not make the normal stresses of life go away. It does not make the challenges lawyers face disappear. Consistent mindfulness practice, though, may help you respond to and even see the challenges and stresses of life and work differently.

Image with a quote from the post that says "Benefits don’t emerge from merely experiencing mindfulness as a state. Instead, they happen when we cultivate mindfulness as a personal trait. "

How Lawyers Can Get Started with Mindfulness

If you want to get started with mindfulness practice, here are some of my top pieces of advice:

start small and focus on establishing consistency;
find a teacher or explore resources, such as my book or many of the books reviewed on this blog, that can give you a roadmap and helpful tips;
find a supportive community, such as the Mindfulness in Law Society events;
another option would be to visit your local dharma or zen center for retreats, events, and courses
discipline is important but don’t be too serious and learn to play with mindfulness practice;
be kind to yourself in meditation or mindfulness practice and let yourself enjoy it; and
don’t forget that movement and mindfulness work very well together.

Conclusion: The Benefits of Mindfulness Come from Practice

In short, mindfulness is a faculty of mind. You have mindfulness already or you wouldn’t have gotten as far as you did. With some practice and training, you can find a regular time for respite in your daily life and make mindfulness a more reliable trait to support your life and work.

As shared in this post, you can get started with practice with small and simple steps. The first step, though, is the hardest and the most important: getting a mindfulness practice started. The good news is that this blog has tons of teachings, meditations, and resources that can help.

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