Health / Wellness

Meditation Can Help To Soothe The Anxious Mind

Many lawyers seem to think that anxiety must be part of a law practice, as if there is no choice in the matter.

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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.

According to 2016 Hazelden Betty Ford/ABA study, 19 percent of lawyers suffer from anxiety. It’s a familiar territory (after all, I wrote a book titled, The Anxious Lawyer.) I regularly talk to lawyers who are struggling with anxiety, but interestingly, when I ask what tools they have for managing anxiety or if they have sought help, I get a lot of blank looks.

Many lawyers seem to think that anxiety must be part of a law practice, as if there is no choice in the matter.

It’s helpful to talk about what anxiety actually is. Anxiety is the reaction to situations perceived as stressful or dangerous.

Change the reaction, get rid of the anxiety.

Of course, it’s one thing to tell yourself that you shouldn’t feel anxious about that upcoming hearing or performance review, and another thing to actually change the reaction.

We can’t change the reaction through sheer will. In fact, often, we might notice that trying to force the anxiety to change will only result in secondary anxiety. We can also experience anxiety about the anxiety.

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You’re fretting about that hearing on the motion to dismiss and notice you’re anxious. You then become anxious about the fact that you’re anxious. It’s a vicious cycle.

Fortunately, there are practices and habits we can incorporate into our daily life to soothe the anxious mind. One such practice is meditation. In a 2016 study, lawyers noticed a 30 percent drop in their anxiety after an eight-week meditation and mindfulness training program.

Continue reading and get a short guided meditation over at Jeena’s website…

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