Free One-Hour Briefing on Mindful Lawyering: An Introduction to Mindfulness and How it Can Boost Your Life and Legal Practice

September 16, 2014, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. (E.D.T.)

One of the greatest challenges in today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world is staying present in life’s most sacred moments. The overwhelming pace of communication, keeping up with inboxes and texts, the sea of information at our fingertips, and efficiency expectations at work has led to widespread attention and engagement issues and increased stress. It is very easy to get caught up in a sort of auto pilot, constantly thinking about the past and future, mindlessly going through life. When we fall into mindlessness we struggle to stay focused in our work with clients and find it difficult to manage ourselves, relationships and key, high impact moments.

One of the best ways to overcome these challenges and effectively manage the stress inherent in the pace of life today is to develop a mindfulness practice. “Mindfulness” is defined as being present with our experience, non-judgmentally. Put simply, it’s about being aware of the story lines, bodily sensations, and emotions that are present throughout life. With practice, mindfulness exercises can help lawyers decrease stress, manage emotions, enhance team dynamics, and increase both self-awareness and focus.

Though we can all benefit from a mindfulness practice, it can be particularly useful if you:

Find it difficult to stay present with clients
Struggle to stay focused at work
Slip into mindlessness and rely on old, outdated habits rather than choosing adaptive and best courses of action
Experience persistent stress and find it difficult to disengage from work

In this briefing on Mindfulness for Lawyers, participants will learn:

What mindfulness is
How it can enhance focus and concentration
How to develop a basic mindfulness meditation practice
How developing a mindfulness practice can lead to increased self-awareness and emotional intelligence, and therefore greater leadership
The core components of mindfulness

Please join Dan DeFoe, J.D., M.S. of Adlitem Solutions and Rob Durr, Ph.D., Licensed Clinical Psychologist at Northwestern University for this interactive workshop to learn about mindfulness meditation, an empirically-supported practice that can decrease stress, boost concentration, and aid in emotion regulation through the cultivation of present-moment awareness.