Meditation for Successful Lawyers

 As an attorney who practiced in several fields of law in Florida and had my own Law Firm, I know that the law is an unforgiving profession.   Being a lawyer requires a commitment of tireless dedication and perfection. Society places a standard of extremely high expectations on lawyers, which in turn feeds our innate tendency to be perfectionists and competitive people. It’s that combination of our tendency to be perfectionists, society’s expectations, and the daily grind with clients, deadlines, judges, and staff that can catapult just about anyone into incredible amounts of stress, feelings of helplessness and depression.

It’s easy to see why the field of law has such a high percentage of drug and alcohol users who likely use these substances to shield themselves from their daily stress levels.

The amount of dedication necessary to succeed in this profession has led many lawyers to getting burned out and not performing at their highest efficiency levels. It also affects their social interactions with their staff, clients, judges, friends, and family members. I personally know more divorced lawyers than I would like to admit.

It really is a shame because we just never learned how to balance our professional lives with our personal lives. For some reason, they just never taught us that in school. As a result, we bring the stress from the office with us in our briefcase to open it up at home and continue experiencing it instead of focusing on our family during the few waking hours that we are at home and away from the office!

The good news is there is a solution to this problem. Don’t worry; it does not require health insurance, medicine, seeing a psychologist, or even leaving your house or office for that matter.

It's simple and it works; its meditation.  Meditation is not a religion, it is not hypnosis, and it does not require you to be part of any sort of religion or culture or religious at all.

Take a moment and discover how meditation can help you become more efficient at work, more emotionally and mentally present at home, and just happier in general.

As lawyers, we know that being a lawyer is nothing like what is portrayed on television. The glitz and glamour shown on TV is couldn’t be farther from the truth of our daily grind. There are countless hours spent doing research, interviewing witnesses, and preparing legal documents.  This is not even mentioning the time one may spend in a courtroom, on the phone with opposing counsel, or simply wrangling with whoever is across from us in court.  Putting in 14 to 16 hour days is not uncommon because as you are well aware, there are billable hour quotas to satisfy and exceed!

As a result, there is little time to rest in terms of just doing your job, much less anything personal… Easy to see how stress and mental breakdown are not far too far away.

If this sounds even remotely like your daily life, then understand that you have a problem that is only going to get worse unless you address it.  Stress and mental fatigue are major obstacles to work efficiency and motivation.  This is just the work related consequences. On a more personal level, stress also leads to feelings of helplessness, alienation, depression and to physical health problems too.  You have to be aware that work related stress affects your whole life not just your career life.

Now, you may think that your immediate solution to this dilemma is to either seek professional help or perhaps seek out a new profession.  Many do this, or end up seeking more self-destructive alternatives. However, there is a simpler and practical solution as I mentioned earlier; meditation.  If you take the time to learn how meditation can help you become more efficient at work, more patient and calm in the face of stress, and happier in general, you will not be disappointed.

Meditation is a practice that can produce results for anyone.  This includes lawyers.  No doubt, you have heard of some of the benefits of meditation such as increased relaxation and a clearer mind.  This is all true, and it can be true for you as well.  Meditation for lawyers is for real.  As an attorney, you have a responsibility to your client to provide 100% of your energy and effort in your representation.  You need to be motivated, you need to be focused, and you need to be efficient.  Meditation for lawyers is the very thing to get you back on your "A" game.

Where can I Meditate and How Long do I Need to do it?

Here's the thing about discovering how meditation can help you become more efficient at work; it can be done anywhere.  As an attorney, you day is full of meetings, court appearances and any number of other obligations.  Time is a premium and it’s all about billable hours.  No problem, because you can literally meditate almost anywhere.  Even more, you only have to spend 10 to 15 minutes doing it. This is true and I can tell you from my personal experience that I started with just 10 minutes (and that felt like an eternity because I could not get my thoughts to quiet

down).  You don't need to travel to a distant temple or to find a meditation guru - you can do it all on your own and you can start anytime you want.

Sonia Gallagher is a retired attorney who is now the Editor of My Meditation Garden, a site dedicated to sharing different meditation techniques, Free Guided Meditations, information about the benefits of meditation, and ways of applying meditation to daily life in practical ways for busy and overworked professionals, parents, college students, and business owners. She does this in an easy to understand, “plain English” manner.

Go ahead and get your free copy of The Meditation Guide for Successful Lawyers today and learn how meditation can help you beat and better deal with the stress you face on a daily basis and get free guided meditations specifically for relaxation.