Speaker: Cory Muscara, MAPP, Long Island Center for Mindfulness, West Babylon, NY Summary: Lawyers rank among the most anxious, depressed, and suicidal professional. It is essential that they cultivate the skills and inner resources that enable them to not only manage their high stress environment, but thrive in their work. In this webinar, Cory will share the evidence-based practice of mindfulness meditation. With over a thousand scientific studies supporting its efficacy, mindfulness is proving to be one of the most effective methods for reducing stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout in working professionals. After this session, you will walk away with practical tools to begin a mindfulness meditation practice, manage stress in critical moments, and make the shift from surviving to thriving as a lawyer. Sponsors: ABA Law Student Division and the ABA Young Lawyers Division Aired: March 30, 2016

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Mindfulness Meditation: Managing Stress and Shifting from
Surviving to Thriving as a Law Student or Lawyer
Law Student Division and Young Lawyer Division

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Katherine M. Bender, PhD, NCC
Programming Director
The Dave Nee Foundation
http://www.daveneefoundation.org/
Moderator

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Cory Muscara, MAPP
Long Island Center for Mindfulness
Faculty: Columbia University, UPenn
www.Limindfulness.com
Instructor

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• Explore what mindfulness meditation is and why it
might be worth cultivating as a lawyer or law student
• Review the research supporting mindfulness
• Learn how to shift from living on “automatic pilot” to
living with greater awareness, presence, and
intentionality
• What is the root cause of stress and how does
mindfulness help us manage it?
• Learn how to practice mindfulness meditation and
develop a practice moving forward
OBJECTIVES

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Lawyers are generally high in career dissatisfaction. Linked with:
• Reduced performance
• High attrition rates
• Lawyers leaving the profession
Compared to other professions, lawyers are more likely to develop:
• Poor health
• Depression, anxiety, and hostility
• Substance abuse problems
• Increased risk for suicide
(Beck, Sales, & Benjamin, 1995; Daicoff, 2004; Eaton, Anthony, Mandel, & Garrison, 1990;
Mauney, n.d.; Schiltz, 1999; Smith, 2013; but see Hull, 1999; Levit & Linder; 2010).
DOES IT MATTER?

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MINDFULNESS

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PAY ATTENTION TO THE SOUND OF THE BELL

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• The self-regulation of attention with the use of an attitude of
curiosity, openness, and acceptance
(Bishop et al., 2004)
• The ability to pay attention, on purpose, in the present
moment, nonjudgmentally.
-Jon Kabat-Zinn
• Instead of falling asleep, we’re falling awake.
WHAT IS MINDFULNESS?

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LET’S TRY IT OUT

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WHAT DID YOU NOTICE?

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MENTAL FITNESS
• Recent research on mindfulness:
Reduced stress, anxiety,
depression, burnout, improved
joy, creativity, focus
• The brain changes in response to
a meditation practice
• Mindfulness meditation is the
exercise for the brain
(Holzel et al. 2011; Davis & Hayes, 2011; Grossman,
Niemann, Schmidt & Walach, 2004)

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“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
freedom.”
VIKTOR FRANKL

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RESPONDING VS. REACTING
• We often go through life on
“Automatic Pilot”
• When on automatic pilot, we
are not present; we are
enslaved to our thoughts and
emotions

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STRESS
• Perceived demands are
greater than our perceived
resources to meet those
demands
• Key Word: Perceived
(Mcgonical, 2015).

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WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW ?

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• There will be things in your life and job that you do not want
to do and/or wish did not happen.
• These things are inevitable. This is primary pain.
• We create secondary pain for ourselves with our thoughts
and emotions.
• THIS we have control over.
PRIMARY PAIN VS SECONDARY PAIN

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GUIDED MEDITATION

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SUMMARY
• You have control over your stress and wellbeing, even in
very difficult situations
• Your brain is like a muscle—Mindfulness Meditation is the
exercise to condition it for optimal functioning
• There is a space between stimulus and response—this is
where you choose how you will respond to experiences
• Stress is caused by what you perceive, and therefore can
be managed

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• Beck, C. J. A., Sales, B. D., & Benjamin, C. A. H. (1995). Lawyer distress: Alcohol-related problems and
other psychological concerns among a sample of practicing lawyers. Journal of Law & Health, 10, 1-94.
• Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social
psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333-371.
• Daicoff, S. S. (2004). Lawyer, know thyself: A psychological analysis of personality strengths and
weaknesses. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
• Davis, D. M., & Hayes, J. A. (2011). What are the benefits of mindfulness? A practice review of
psychotherapy-related research. Psychotherapy, 48(2), 198.
• Eaton, W.W., Anthony, J. C., Mandel, W., & Garrison, R. (1990). Occupations and the prevalence of major
depressive disorder. Journal of Occupational Medicine, 32(11), 1079-1087.
• Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and
health benefits: A meta-analysis. Journal of psychosomatic research, 57(1), 35-43.
• Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011).
Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research:
Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36-43.
• Kreiger, L. S. (2008). Human nature as a new guiding philosophy for legal education and the
• profession. Washburn Law Journal, 284-308.
• Levit, N., & Linder, D. O. (2008). The happy lawyer: Making a good life in the law. New York, NY: Oxford
University Press.
• McGonigal, K. (2015). The upside of stress: Why stress is good for you, and how to get
• good at it. New York, NY: Avery.
REFERENCES

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LET’S STAY CONNECTED…
• Page:
www.Facebook.com/CoryMuscara
• Website:
www.Limindfulness.com

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QUESTIONS?

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