Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
- 1 Gaining Self-Awareness
- 2 Introduction to Mindfulness Techniques
- 3 Managing Energy, Time, and Physical Space for Happy and Healthy Efficiency
- 4 The Lawyer in Society: Popular Culture Images of Lawyers and Your Self-Image
- 5 Lawyer Skill Sets: What We Have, What We Need
- 6 Building Your Professional Identity
- 7 Resilience
- 8 Mindfulness: Theory and Practice
- PART II YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
- PART III YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
- Index
8 - Mindfulness: Theory and Practice
from PART I - NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 May 2018
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- PART I NURTURING YOUR BEST SELF
- 1 Gaining Self-Awareness
- 2 Introduction to Mindfulness Techniques
- 3 Managing Energy, Time, and Physical Space for Happy and Healthy Efficiency
- 4 The Lawyer in Society: Popular Culture Images of Lawyers and Your Self-Image
- 5 Lawyer Skill Sets: What We Have, What We Need
- 6 Building Your Professional Identity
- 7 Resilience
- 8 Mindfulness: Theory and Practice
- PART II YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU
- PART III YOU AND SOCIETY: FINDING GREATER PURPOSE
- Index
Summary
A Wild Bull
The effort to make the mind quiet,
Is like holding a wild bull on a leash.
The leash is held on to, and he drags you around,
And you are determined not to release.
One day maybe the bull will stop moving,
And finally you can rest.
Or you can stop expecting the bull to be still,
And let go of the leash, instead.
Once you don't care what the bull does,
When you no longer seek to control him,
Wherever he goes and whatever he does,
Does not affect the one watching.
A bull moves around, that's what it does,
If you fight him, he fights you back.
Don't ask the mind to be silent,
Then silence is all that you have.
Adam OakleyI love the image of the mind as this raging bull in Adam Oakley's poem above. The mind is often like that, off on its own, pulling us all over the place and causing us to go way off track from where we want and need to be. Most of this severe agitation is unnecessary. We all know that our thoughts are not us and that our thoughts are not reality, but we still have moments when those raging bull thoughts, As a result, we get less done and are less happy in life than we could otherwise be. In a sense, by allowing the bull to rage, we are wasting our precious time on this earth. This chapter provides an introduction to some modern mindfulness practices that can be used to slow the raging bull down.
This chapter starts by describing the world's first mindfulness practices, developed over 3,000 years ago. It then describes what drew people to these practices back then, and why there is an upsurge in these practices now. Meditation, for example, has been scientifically shown to improve concentration, allowing one to get more done in less time and with less effort, to help one establish “flow,” and to find enhanced meaning and purpose in life.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Lawyering from the Inside OutLearning Professional Development through Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence, pp. 100 - 116Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018