Do Something! Inject Some Calm Into 2019 - Try Meditation

This might seem like an odd post for this blog, but it really isn't. I'm all about preventing Lawyer Meltdown, being more productive, increasing your bottom line and making the practice of law more enjoyable. Believe it or not, meditation can help you with all of those things.

I wrote about meditation and mindfulness before in this post, in which I reviewed the book The Anxious Lawyer. And lawyer health and well-being have been getting a lot of press lately. A post in yesterday's "Your Voice" column of the ABA Journal online, 4 Strategies for Building the Habit of Lasting Resilience in the Legal Profession, highlights the growing importance of resilience and mindfulness for lawyers, referencing the ABA's Working Group to Advance Well Being's pledge for law firms to acknowledge that more needs to be done to improve the health and well-being of lawyers.

The article poses the question, "What are the most effective and efficient strategies for achieving this important goal?" and outlines four essential principles for implementing an effective well-being strategy. One of those principles is to form habits around well-being.

One of the well-being habits attorneys can begin to cultivate is meditation. While I've long been skeptical of meditation (or at least skeptical my own ability to meditate), the increasing deluge of information in today's world has made it incredibly difficult to turn off and 'tune in' to what makes us human and what connects us to other human beings on a deeper level than just scrolling through photos on our social media channels. For other reasons that I will explore in a future post, I think the ability to connect on a human level and to use our intuition will become increasingly important, particularly for lawyers, as technology continues to advance and artificial intelligence becomes more mainstream in the legal world.

Over the past several months, I've been working on meditating more frequently. It certainly isn't always easy and I admit that I completely got away from my meditation practice (and it does take practice) over the holidays. Part of that was because my usual routine was to meditate immediately after working out. But I was hit with not one but two nasty colds and threw my back out all during the holidays, so, working out wasn't even on the radar.

None of that should have kept me from meditating. Thinking about the power of habit and developing habits around well-being makes me realize that when the habit of working out went away, the habit of meditating did also because the two were linked. Perhaps that is something to keep in mind when developing habits - linking them is great for reinforcement, but the loss of one habit could create a domino effect with unintended consequences.

But I digress, so I'll do what I do when my thoughts start taking over in meditation - simply recognize it and return to the practice. Back to meditation.

As we begin this new year of 2019, I'm re-committing to make meditation a part of my regular routine, if not daily, then at least several times a week. I find that by giving myself permission to slow down and let go of everything - even for a few minutes - I can be more productive with the rest of my day. And ironically, the days in which I have the most to do or the most pressure are the days when meditation seems to help the most - if I make the decision to carve out the time to do it. It helps me clarify my thinking and makes it easier to let go of things that aren't important or that create unnecessary stress.

As a beginner at meditation, I'm not yet comfortable just meditating on my own, so I've tried out a few meditation apps. The one I like best at the moment is Insight Timer - a free app available on iOS and Android. Insight Timer categorizes meditations into 7 categories: Mindfulness, Visualization, Gentle Repetition, Movement, Sound, Concentration, and Self-Observation. There are literally thousands of meditations available from all over the world - some guided, others just with music, ambient sounds or bells, or you can just use the app to set a timer for your desired length of meditation.

One of the things I like about the app is that it keeps track of your meditation time and the milestones you reach when meditating, which helps you keep the momentum going once you start meditating. Habits require reinforcement, after all. And apparently I'm not the only one who enjoys using Insight Timer - according to this article, 63% of those who use meditation apps in the U.S. are using Insight Timer - that's three times more than any other meditation app.

If Insight Timer isn't for you, there are many other meditation apps available. For a calmer and more productive 2019, why not give one a try? Even 5 or 10 minutes can make a big difference. Just don't give up too soon - the more you practice, the better you'll get at it, and doing it "badly" or letting your thoughts intrude on your meditation practice is just part of the process.

Let me know in the comments if you already meditate and why, or if you decide to give it a try, let me know and tell me what you experience as a result of employing this new well-being habit.