Trial Magazine

I am a big proponent of mindfulness meditation.¹ The theory behind mindfulness is simple: If you live in the past, you will suffer. If you live in the future, you will be anxious. That’s why training your brain to stay in the moment is so important. Mindfulness meditation involves attention and acceptance. Focus on what’s happening in the present moment—such as your breathing, your thoughts, or what your body is feeling. Then accept your observations without any judgment—simply observe them and then let them go.² It is normal for your mind to wander, so take note and then refocus on the present moment.

I believe you will never be a great trial lawyer unless you have mindfulness meditation training. The thought behind that is you really must be trained on how to listen, how to be empathetic, and how to operate under stress. The science behind mindfulness meditation has shown that it may be just as effective as medication in treating depression and anxiety for some people.³

Building a New Habit

Practicing mindfulness can be challenging at first—it’s the easiest thing to teach someone and the hardest thing to do, because you’re doing something that’s not normal to you. But all you’re doing is training your mind to stay in the present moment. Whatever you feel, learn to accept it as normal, and then learn to let go of it.

Everything we do in life is a habit, so practicing mindfulness meditation is really about creating a new habit. Start with a minute or two a day. I recommend either doing this in the morning or at night, depending on the kind of person you are. If you’re a morning person and you try to do this at night, you’re going to fail because you haven’t made it easy for yourself. It’s just like any habit that you want to create—do it in small steps. Often the problem is not actually starting, it’s how do you get motivated to want to do it every day? Keep doing it until it becomes as much of a habit as taking a shower or brushing your teeth.

There are many resources to help you get started.⁴ The Calm app is one great option. The trick to these types of apps is picking a voice that appeals to you, so you want to listen to it. For example, I like a seven-minute exercise on Calm called the “Daily Jay.” Many apps have free timers that set chimes so you don’t have to worry about looking at the clock for when you start or finish, which is helpful for keeping you in the present moment. Insight Timer is another app that has a lot of free content. You also can just go on YouTube and search for “how to start meditating.”

Practice gratitude—mentally saying to yourself how grateful you are and listing the specific things that you’re grateful for.

Focus on gratitude. I also strongly believe in practicing gratitude—mentally saying to yourself how grateful you are and listing the specific things that you’re grateful for. This will be uplifting and is a huge part of mindfulness training.

Advice for new lawyers. If you are beginning your career as a lawyer, now is the ideal time to develop stress- and anxiety-reduction habits that will last you a lifetime. Starting a new career is very anxiety-producing because you’re always trying to figure out if you made the right decision. If you’re a young lawyer starting something new, you must have clarity—and mindfulness calms your mind down so you can think clearly.

As a new lawyer, it can be daunting to take risks—but if you’re a trial lawyer, taking risks is something we do every day. So reducing anxiety and having mental clarity can help you feel more comfortable about taking risks.

Supporting Your Employees

Law firm managers play an important role in supporting employees’ mental wellness. The first thing to do is to listen. And there is an art to listening—it’s called “mindful listening.” “Mindful listening is about being present in your conversation so others feel heard and perceive your intention to listen and understand them. . . . Practicing mindful listening involves avoiding distractions on a screen or distractions from your own thoughts and feelings. Instead, it’s important to be present in the moment and conversation.”⁵

The next thing to do is give your employees tools. For example, I know of a law firm that offers chime meditation every Friday at noon—people come into a room, lay down, and meditate to chimes. Another option is to give employees a subscription to a meditation app. It’s all about giving people tools, because human beings get themselves in trouble when they don’t have an alternative plan. You have to pre-plan what you’re going to do when you start to feel lonely, anxious, or stressed. Otherwise, you’ll turn to some unhealthy habits.

Mindfulness meditation is just one way to reduce stress and encourage wellness. Ultimately, it’s about knowing yourself well enough to know what it is that you particularly need, not what someone else tells you they think you need. You can avoid or lessen stress by being self-aware enough to know what is going to work for you. For some people it’s going to be alone time, or a massage, or just hanging out with family watching TV. The goal is to build healthy habits so you are prepared when the inevitable challenges of life come your way.

Lisa Blue is a partner at Baron & Blue and a partner at Athea Trial Lawyers. She can be reached at lblue@baronandblue.com. The views expressed in this article are the author’s and do not constitute an endorsement of any product or service by Trial or AAJ.

Notes

1. For another resource on mindfulness, see AAJ Education’s webinar “Mindfulness, Resilience, and Productivity in the Time of the COVID-19.” Visit https://tinyurl.com/b9fnbyur for access to this complimentary program. I also hold weekly Monday meditation sessions through AAJ; contact membership@justice.org to RSVP.
2. Am. Psychol. Ass’n, Mindfulness Meditation: A Research-Proven Way to Reduce Stress, Oct. 30, 2019, https://www.apa.org/topics/mindfulness/meditation; Mindful, How to Practice Mindfulness, Dec. 12, 2018, https://www.mindful.org/how-to-practice-mindfulness/. For sample exercises to get started, see Brenda Fingold, Mindfulness and Well-Being, Trial, Mar. 2018, at 22, www.justice.org/resources/publications/trialmagazine/2018-march/mindfulness-and-well-being.
3. See, e.g., April Fulton, Daily Meditation May Work as Well as a Popular Drug to Calm Anxiety, Study Finds, NPR, Nov. 11, 2022, https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/11/09/1135211525/anxiety-medication-meditation-lexapro.
4. For more Trial articles on wellness, see Marianne C. LeBlanc, The Resilient Lawyer, Trial, Dec. 2020, at 20; Brenda Fingold, Navigating the ‘Full Catastrophe’ With Mindfulness, Trial, July 2020, at 20; Gail A. Glick, Fostering a Healthy Office Culture, Trial, March 2018, at 38. Visit www.justice.org/resources/publications to read these articles and more.
5. PsychCentral, How to Practice Mindful Listening, https://psychcentral.com/lib/mindful-listening-exercise.