Mindfulness Techniques for Lawyers

Transcription

1 41 st Annual CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF BLACK LAWYERS CONFERENCE Mindfulness Techniques for Lawyers What's "mindfulness" and how can this tool be used to help reduce stress, build resilience, and increase the selfawareness needed to effectively practice law. Mindfulness can ward off the substance abuse that is prevalent in the legal profession lawyers need to take a more proactive interest in their own health, set-aside a mind consumed by winning & losing, loosen judgment - prevention is key. Participants will bring ideas, proven methods, and inspiration to the discussion and leave with a bibliography of further legal materials on how Mindfulness enhances your practice of law. Speakers: Michael D. Thomas, Associate, Ogletree Deakins Deborah Moss-West, Exec. Director, Alexander Community Law Center, Santa Clara Law Friday April 27, 2018 MCLE Registration: 3:00-3:30 Program: 3:30-4:30 MCLE: 30 minutes To receive MCLE credit, you must sign-in during the designated MCLE registration. This activity is approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California. The Bar Association of California (BASF) is a certified provider. Provider #103 Location Hilton Garden Inn 1800 Powell Street Emeryville, CA

2 Mindfulness Techniques For Lawyers Presenters: Michael D. Thomas, Associate, Ogletree Deakins (San Francisco) Deborah Moss-West, Exec. Director; Alexander Community Law Center, Santa Clara Law California Association of Black Lawyers Conference-2018

3 An Introduction

4 What Mindfulness is: The art of observing your physical, emotional and mental experiences with deliberate, open and curious attention What Mindfulness does: The practice strengthens the ability to exhibit non-judgmental awareness, leading to better decision making, stronger empathy, deeper relationships and improved focus and concentration

5 Mindfulness allows you to be aware of and equally present with pleasure and pain. Mindfulness allows us to change our response to the dis-regulating forces surrounding us.

6 Mindfulness Awareness What s happening? Investigation How do you know? Non-Reactivity Can I stay present? Choice How can I respond in a way that supports well-being?

7 Mindfulness is an essential foundation for thriving in and sustaining a satisfying legal career and for increasing the capacity to meet the inherent stressors and challenges of a busy law practice and life. -- Brenda Fingold (Manager of Corporate Programs and a Teacher in the Stress Reduction Clinic at the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care and Society, University of Massachusetts Medical School

8 Lawyers suffer from stress-related health conditions at an alarmingly high rate. We are two to three times more likely to become depressed or chemically dependent than the average adult. Cultivating a habit with proven links to the reduction of the negative effects of stress makes good sense. Lawyers need to take a more proactive interest in their own health. Lawyers are highly goal oriented. We measure ourselves, sometimes relentlessly. Mindfulness goes beyond success and failure. Meditation practice has no expectations of outcome; the goal is simply to be. The process itself is the goal: being fully present regardless of daily experience. Lawyers can benefit from regularly setting aside a mind consumed by winning and losing. Lawyers are driven by time. We are chronically on deadline and overbooked. We record our time in fractions of an hour in order to establish our incomes. Mindfulness meditation affords an opportunity to experience time in a completely different, non-linear way. When consciousness rests in the present moment, our sense of time can drop away. ABA Article: The Mindful Lawyer by Robert Zeglovitch

9 Lawyers tend to be judgmental. Although this is a necessary skill in our profession, it can be corrosive when turned on ourselves or others. Mindfulness meditation encourages the cultivation of a deep acceptance of things as they are, instead of our habitual judgment of our experience. This does not mean that the mindful lawyer stops being a zealous and effective advocate many famous Zen masters were renowned for their ferocious presence. The practice of loosening judgment s hold can help develop qualities that are diminished or have been neglected: wisdom, tolerance, and compassion. Lawyers are trained to think their way out of problems. Our ability to construct compelling arguments is a wonderful skill, but not all of our problems can be solved by thinking and arguing. Mindfulness meditation draws on innate awareness that is prior to thinking and language ABA Article: The Mindful Lawyer by Robert Zeglovitch

10 Follow the breath When you breathe in, know you are breathing in... When you breath out, know you are breathing out... When your thoughts come, can you just watch them? Note the interest Don t get on the train with the story Just observe

11 When and where do we practice mindfulness Sitting down Walking Eating Working Driving Anywhere!

12 Key Benefits: Improved concentration / attention Improved working relationships Ability to handle stress more effectively Increase baseline happiness We are able to see our own minds more clearly notice mental patterns and reflexive thinking It is a process that changes us as we change our relationship to our own suffering, stress/ anxiety

13 Other Benefits: Improved mood Greater feelings of equanimity, / calm, contentment Increased patience Greater compassion for others Internal emotional stability and clarity Increased longevity of cognitive function Improved immune system function

14 What is Stress? A reaction to conditioned experience Executive functions of brain are hijacked by primitive part of brain (fight, flight, freeze) Not seeing clearly glitterball mind

15 What is Anxiety? The subjectively unpleasant feeling of dread over stressful or unfamiliar situations ú Personal ú Different experiences ú Sense of something being wrong ú Often supported by negative self-talk

16 When trapped in an unexamined mind, we are trapped in the past or the future Seeing clearly means not seeing encumbered only by our conditioning seeing what is presently happening (in body, mind and surroundings) Need well-functioning executive capacities to make good decisions and evaluate risks, plan, prioritize, cope with new situations

17 1. How do you process stress? 2. How can mindfulness aid in processing the stress and anxiety that lawyers face in the workplace?

18 Brain isn t very good at discriminating between real and imagined danger Body reacts by increasing flow of blood and oxygen to muscles Chronic stress increases chances of hypertension, heart disease, digestive disorders, headaches, susceptibility to infection causes physiological damage. Anger causes greatest increase in blood pressure; Anxiety damages arteries, kills brain cells, increases risk for osteoporosis and suppresses immune system

19 Hypo-Vigilant or Hyper-Vigilant Stuck in Fight or Flight Mode

20 Impaired language processing Impaired memory Reduced creativity Limited problem-solving ability Impaired concentration Reduced ability to learn Emotionally reactive

21 A sampling of the science: Based on neuroplasticity & neurogenesis Brain continually evolving in response to our experience through establishment of new neural connections, the strengthening of existing ones, or creation of new neurons. Intentionally created states can become enduring traits The mind takes it shape from what it rests upon

22 Thoughts do not disappear while meditating Relational Quality Doesn t depend on what is happening, but on how we react to it We observe thoughts, rather than get sucked in by them Teaches us how not to catastrophize

23 Allows us to discern what is relevant in this moment find choice and freedom Leads to the direct experience of the mind, not just the hamster wheel of thinking Takes us out of the wandering mind Teaches our mind to stop manipulating our experience of the present moment

24 Pay Attention with Intention Radically Simple Easy to understand Difficult to perform Notice how the quality of your attention impacts the experience. Don t believe everything you think!

25 Mindfulness is a gateway to self-awareness Call to action to serve company and society Question your commitment to improve the experience of employees, customers and society Take into consideration wide breadth of needs and habits It isn t easy but your worth it!

26 Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom. Victor Frankl Man s Search for Meaning

27 Riskin, Len. The Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Contributions of Mindfulness Meditation to Law Students, Lawyers, and their Clients. 7 Harv. Negotiation L. Rev. 1 (2002). Magee, Rhonda. Educating Lawyers to Meditate? UMKC Law Rev. 79 (2010): 535.

28 featuring recordings and guided meditations by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Miami Law Mindfulness in Law Program Research/index.html

29 Becoming a Joyful Lawyer by Deborah Calloway Mindfulness For Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment And Your Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn Mindfulness and Professional Responsibility: A Guide Book for Integrating Mindfulness into the Law School Curriculum by Scott Rogers and Jan L. Jacobowitz On Engagement: Learning to Pay Attention by Lisle Baker and Daniel P. Brown Mindfulnes for Lawyers, A Short Handbook by Jon Krop, J.D. Rogers, Scott L. Mindfulness in Law, The Wiley Blackwell Handbook for Mindfulness, First Edition.

30 Mindful Movement

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60 MINDFULNESS FOR LAWYERS A Short Handbook Jon Krop, J.D.

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62 Table of Contents Principles of Mindfulness Benefits of Mindfulness...3 Sitting Meditation Sitting Meditation: Pointers Maintaining a Sitting Practice...6 Mindfulness Methods for Daily Life....7 Stress in the Legal Profession: Statistics...8 The Consequences of Stress...9 Stress and Anxiety: the Usual Approach...10 Stress and Anxiety: the Mindful Approach...11 The Mindful Pause...12 Using the Mindful Pause...13 The Mindful Workday...14 Getting Better Sleep 15 About the Author Cover photo by Chi King (cropped, otherwise unaltered). 1

63 Principles of Mindfulness Being in the present moment and out of your head. Observing your experience as it is, without judgment. Seeing thoughts as thoughts rather than getting lost in them. Paying attention to sensory experience as a gateway to the present moment. Turning toward present experience rather than resisting, even when it s unpleasant. Accept the present moment as if you d invited it. -Pema Chodron Be here now. -Ram Dass 2

64 Benefits of Mindfulness Reduced stress, increased job satisfaction. Improved focus. Example: a lawyer is able to research and draft motion papers well before the deadline, with few distractions. Improved attention to detail. Examples: a lawyer is able to notice unfavorable nuances in proposed contract language. Greater emotional resilience. Example: a lawyer earns the judge s favor during oral argument by remaining calm, clear-headed, and civil while opposing counsel makes unreasonable allegations. Enhanced interpersonal skills. Example: a lawyer is able to facilitate collegial, effective two-way communication with junior lawyers and support staff, even when the team is under time pressure. 3

65 Straight spine. Sitting Meditation The Posture: Feet under the knees, flat on the floor. Try sitting toward the edge of the chair. For more, google posture-pedia to find Stephanie Nash s thorough posture guide. The Technique: Rest attention on the sensations of breath at the nose. When you notice attention has wandered, gently return to the breath. Breathe normally. 4

66 Sitting Meditation: Pointers Meditation is not about emptying the mind. Let the whole rich landscape of sounds, sensations, and thoughts continue in the background. Your mind will wander, and that s okay. This isn t about stopping the wandering; that s impossible. It s about noticing and gently guiding the mind back. When you notice you ve wandered, briefly savor that recognition before returning. Apply gentle effort. No need to strain. There is no failing at this, no doing well or poorly. There s only practicing or not. Optional: apply a light mental label to a distraction (e.g., thinking, itching ). 5

67 Maintaining a Sitting Practice Daily practice will transform your dayto-day experience for the better. Daily consistency trumps length of sit. Sitting for even one minute is fantastic. Sit first thing in the morning. It s the easiest way. If that s not workable, aim for the same time every day. If resistance arises, mentally shrink the session length until the resistance fades. ("Could I do 15 minutes? No, too much resistance. What about ten? Still too long; the thought puts me off. Okay, five? Hm, I feel like I could sit for five.") Use a timer (e.g., Insight Timer app). Practice now. Don t think you will do more later. -Dipa Ma 6

68 Mindfulness Methods for Daily Life Rest attention on the breath at the nose. Mindful walking (walking meditation): rest attention on sensations in soles of the feet. Mindful eating: eat slowly, experiencing the food with all of your senses. Rest attention on an entire sense field (e.g., sound, body sensations). If you get lost in thought: use the mental label thinking to let go of story mode. The Mindful Pause (p. 12). 7

69 Stress in the Legal Profession: Statistics In a 2016 study of 12,825 lawyers: 61% of participants reported concerns with anxiety sometime in their careers. 46% of participants reported concerns with depression sometime in their careers. 23% were experiencing mild or higher levels of stress at the time of the study. 33% were problem drinkers. A 2013 study of 2,226 British lawyers found that lawyers primary causes of stress were: Workload (60% of respondents) Client expectations (42%) Number of hours (18%) 8

70 The Consequences of Stress Stress causes cognitive and physiological impairment. You can t power through. Effects on job performance include: Tendency to miss important details and make mistakes Trouble focusing, working efficiently, and meeting deadlines Tendency to react without thinking, leading to communication problems with adversaries, clients, judges, and colleagues. Effects on well-being include: Headache Fatigue Sleep problems Depression 9

71 Stress and Anxiety: the Usual Approach Our intuitive coping method: avoid or resist the way we feel. The most common strategies: Distract ourselves: social media, TV, food, socializing, etc. Dull ourselves: alcohol, drugs, etc. Ruminate: dive into our anxious thoughts. 10

72 Stress and Anxiety: the Mindful Approach Resisting or avoiding unpleasant feelings only exacerbates them. The key: acceptance, not avoidance. Emotions manifest partly as sensations in the body. Instead of flinching away from those sensations, tune into them. Let the feelings stay; be willing to feel them. Resist fleeing into anxious thinking. 11

73 The Mindful Pause A 30-second spot treatment for stress and anxiety. If attention wanders at any point, gently guide it back to the step you are on. 1. Take a slow, deep breath. 2. Tune into whatever sensations you notice in your body, especially sensations that seem related to stress or anxiety. (Duration: one in-breath or out-breath, or longer if you like.) 3. Rest attention on the breath at the nose (Duration: one in-breath or out-breath, or longer if you like.) 4. Carry on with your day, but in an unhurried way. 12

74 Using the Mindful Pause No need to adopt a special posture. Practice the Mindful Pause when you are not stressed. Then, when you are stressed, you will remember to use it. Do not expect the Mindful Pause to make anxiety-related sensations or thoughts vanish. The problem is not that those sensations and thoughts are there; the problem is that we resist them. Useful for: inserting breaks into research, writing, and doc review, getting centered before a deposition, negotiation, meeting, or oral argument. If you get stressed during a meeting, you can use a Mindful Mini-Pause. Take a slow, deliberate breath in. As you exhale, tune into sensations in your body. 13

75 The Mindful Workday Use a Mindful Pause (p. 12) or other mindfulness method (p. 7) at defined points in your daily routine: when you first sit at your desk in the morning, before you get up for lunch, etc. Eat lunch mindfully (p. 7). The mental rest and rejuvenation will help your productivity more than working while you eat. When you need to walk somewhere -- a partner s office, the bathroom, the water cooler -- practice mindful walking (p. 7). Try alternating timed work sessions with short, timed breaks. Use breaks to take a Mindful Pause (p. 12) or practice another mindfulness method (p. 7) in a relaxed way. Mindful walking is especially good. 14

76 Getting Better Sleep As with anxiety, resisting sleeplessness only exacerbates it. Being less concerned with falling asleep will help you sleep better. You can t will yourself to become sleepy. If you re not falling asleep, don t lie there and keep trying. It will only stress you. Get up, do something relaxing for about 30 minutes, then go back to bed. The relaxing activity should not involve digital screens. Repeat as needed. If you become sleepy, great. If not, don t worry about it. Remember: missing sleep is very common and isn t a big deal. 15

77 About the Author Jon Krop, the founder of Mindfulness for Lawyers, is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has been practicing mindfulness for almost a decade. He has studied with masters from around the world, including the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan master Tsoknyi Rinpoche, and western teachers Gerardo Abboud, Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D., Trudy Goodman, Ph.D., and John Yates, Ph.D. Jon has sat numerous meditation retreats, including a seven-month silent retreat with meditation master John Yates. After law school, Jon clerked on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as a litigator at public-interest law firms in Los Angeles and New York City. jon@mindfulnessforlawyers.com 16

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