Ed. note: This post is by Jeena Cho, a Legal Mindfulness Strategist. She is the co-author of The Anxious Lawyer (affiliate link), a book written by lawyers for lawyers that makes mindfulness and meditation accessible and approachable. She is the creator of Mindful Pause, a self-paced online program for creating a more sustainable, peaceful, and productive law practice in just six minutes a day. Jeena offers actionable change strategies for reducing stress and anxiety while increasing productivity, joy, and satisfaction through mindfulness.
One of the most profound exercises suggested by the teacher of my mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course at Stanford University was to practice gratitude. He suggested that even something simple like taking a shower is an opportunity to practice mindfulness and to be grateful. Afterall, kings and queens throughout history didn’t have the privilege we enjoy on a daily basis — having hot and cold water that’s clean, on demand. It’s, of course, a privilege that many throughout the world don’t get to enjoy. We often forget the many blessings in our lives.
I spent the better part of Saturday morning planning our Thanksgiving Day meal. After watching a dozen videos on the various ways of prepping the turkey, figuring out the right balance of side dishes, and making a master spreadsheet with all the ingredients, I noticed I was feeling tired and annoyed. The entire process was taking way too long and I had other more important things to do.
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Then I ordered the entire shopping list on Instacart. While I was doing this, I also noticed how long it was taking to add close to 50 items into the cart. To my surprise, I could not order the most important part of the meal — the turkey from Whole Foods — via Instacart. Feeling more annoyed, I headed over to wholefoods.com and ordered a turkey for pick-up.
The interesting thing about having a mindfulness practice is that you can learn to observe the mind, its reactions, and its thought patterns — as if you’re an observer watching a movie. Often, I get caught up in the frustration, annoyance, complaining, whining, irritation, anger, etc. But in moments of wisdom, I am able to catch my mind doing the habitual mind-behavior. Sometimes, I am able to instantly snap out of it. Other times, I am not. However, even realizing that what my mind thinks, what I am feeling is simply a reaction is liberating.