by Dennis M. Warren, Esq.

William James, the father of American psychology, believed that we have within us “unimaginable resources” that can enable us to be resilient in the face of life's demands. He believed we have the capacity to have a second, and a third, and a fourth wind. The type of renewal he was talking about is not just a burst of energy in the face of physical exhaustion. He envisioned a deep well of physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual reserves that could be called upon, and that would spontaneously come to our aid, when needed. James believed that these resources are waiting to be tapped by all of us, just below the surface of our “normal waking consciousness.”

I used to think that James' comments must be metaphor or poetry. They sound too good to be true. But I don't feel that way anymore. My own experience after years of practice with relaxation, concentration, and meditation processes, and that of many with whom I have worked, has changed my attitude.

I've become convinced that we all have the resources within us to experience deeper levels of balance, peace, and happiness. It is possible to engage our professional lives in such a way as to be more productive, but at the same time, be more relaxed and experience greater satisfaction in our work. We can disentangle ourselves from the pressure, stress, and anxiety of intense professional demands and still perform at a high level and do quality work.

We are all familiar with the risks and punishing consequences to our bodies and health from cumulative stress. What I find much more interesting, and important, is the way stress influences our level of awareness, our intentions, and our states of mind. These are the components that determine how we experience our lives, how we relate to others, and how we make professional and personal decisions. If we can unlock the dilemma of dealing with stress-induced states of mind, the reservoir of resources James spoke of can become available to us and reshape our lives.

The real questions are: How can we mobilize these resources? How can we tap into these energies that are normally unavailable to us? Where do we start?

Does any of the following sound familiar?

During a recent telephone discussion, I asked one of my attorney friends how the morning was going. He responded, “I'll tell you what kind of morning I'm having. It's 10:30 a.m. and I already have a stiff neck.”

Some mornings the constant pressure of telephone calls, client demands, deadlines, motions by opposing counsel, and overall workload just take their toll. The quality of our attention and the level of our concentration diminishes. Our level of energy drops. Our sense of resolve and purpose fades. We lose our focus. We may go on automatic pilot, not really being creatively present for our work. The impact of these stress-induced states of mind can ruin our morning, our day, and our performance.

Stress frequently leads to the stress-induced state of mind of personalizing events. Our experience changes from events just “happening” to events happening to me. The aggressive but ethical action by opposing counsel on behalf of their client is now experienced as a personal attack, or one designed to intentionally disrupt our work schedule. Once this starts to happen, the mind personalizes almost everything. It becomes difficult, or impossible, to separate people from problems and to focus on objective issues, rather than finding fault and blame.

Stress also encourages the stress-induced state of mind of a loss of perspective and of tunnel vision. I've been fortunate to work with clients in Hawaii on a regular basis during the last decade. It's not uncommon for me to walk into the office of a client, another attorney, or friend, and be struck by the natural beauty right outside the window. When I comment on this, I frequently receive a distant and detached response: “Oh, yeah. It's something, isn't it?” The demands and pressures of daily work have resulted in the focus of awareness becoming so narrow that the beauty just outside the window, or in our lives, is no longer available to nourish and inspire.

These experiences are not unique to Hawaii. We've all had the experience of putting some special object on our desk, a piece of artwork or photo on the wall, or a special poem on our credenza, to remind us of a special relationship or accomplishment. We take these small acts to provide a source of future inspiration, something to remind us of the greater possibilities of our lives. And very shortly these objects we consider precious or inspirational disappear from our recognition. Our minds become so focused on the task at hand, and the demands of the day, we literally no longer see them.

If these stress-related states of mind continue throughout the day, we go home exhausted and dissatisfied. If they continue for months or years, something much more profound happens. They rob us of our connection to the purpose and the enjoyment of our work. Our understanding of who we are, and what we are capable of, narrows. Our personal and spiritual evolution slows down, becomes stunted, or stops altogether. Some of us wake up one morning at work and we are saddened to find our lives are less than we hoped for or planned. We may discover that we have secretly given up on the idea of things being better, but don't know when or how that decision was made.

Philosopher Alan Watts was fond of saying that each of us is “an aperture through which the universe sees and experiences itself.” When stress-induced states of mind become habitual, this aperture becomes so small, the lens so clouded, that we lose touch with any greater sense of purpose in our careers and lives, and any connection to something larger than ourselves.

Many attorneys have allowed the pressures and demands of their careers, and stress-induced states of mind, to take over and smother their lives. Frequently this happens by default, unknowingly. A busy, professional life begins to gain its own momentum, pushing us forward. Stress-induced states of mind distort our perception. We stop asking questions about what is really important in our lives. Slowly, imperceptively, things start to spin out of balance.

This loss of perspective and balance is a very real and potential consequence of an attorney's commitment to represent clients zealously, without a counter-balancing commitment to live a rich and full life and to develop meaningful relationships. It is a dangerous act to mistake a good career for a good life. A good career is only one part of a good life.

The possibility of creating a balanced center inside of us in the midst of a busy professional life may seem a long distance away. But it's actually as close as the next moment. Therapist Sam Keen says that “when I need solitude, I turn off the phone and fax and sit until my breath comes slow and gentle. I am able to enter into the sanctuary that always awaits me at the center of my being.” One way of creating this sanctuary is through the daily use of relaxation, concentration, and meditation practices at work and home.

By taking the time to quiet our minds and open our hearts each day, and to look more deeply into our own experience, we begin to see and understand our lives more clearly, which leads to inner balance and peace. This process in turn, leads to wisdom and compassion, which inform our decision-making, actions, and relationships. In this sense, these practices can be a powerful source of inspiration and energy for daily living, problem-solving, and healing. The Indian sage Krishnamurta stressed that these practices are not a means to an end, they are both the means and the end.

All of us have a longing to escape from the pressures of our lives, to be free from those things we believe cause our uneasiness, frustration, and unhappiness. Suzuki Roshi, a wonderful meditation teacher and founder of the San Francisco Zen Center, had an interesting viewpoint on this sense of longing. “We all have an urge to be free.” Suzuki would say, “But what I mean by freedom and what you mean by freedom may be two different things. What I mean by freedom is a calm and clear mind.”

Suzuki's notion of freedom initially seems to run counter to our basic understanding of freedom–the release from constraint or the ability to act without constraint or censorship. This is because Suzuki wasn't defining freedom by describing the type of action one can take after one becomes free. He was talking about the underlying source of freedom–the inherent power, flexibility, and creativity which can emerge from a calm mind and open heart. Suzuki's comments also point to an important understanding: A sense of freedom, balance, and peace will only begin to emerge in our professional and personal lives when we begin to develop these same qualities in the quiet of our own minds and hearts.

An analogy may be helpful here. We're all familiar with the terrifying power of a cyclone, the furious, high velocity, rotating storm destroys anything in its path. Yet inside every cyclone is a central low pressure zone where all is calm. Specialized weather planes can fly right through the danger of a cyclone's circular dance of destruction and arrive at this place of refuge at its very center. In this place, the plane's crew can monitor and formulate strategies for dealing with the storm around them without danger.

The storms created in our own minds, and hearts, every day by the demands and pressures of our professional and personal lives are every bit as real as the storms created by nature in the physical world. More importantly, their destructive impact on our performance, relationships, and the quality of our life is equally dangerous. Each of us has the potential for developing a calm and clear center inside ourselves where our minds and hearts are open, receptive, non-judgmental, and stable in the face of turbulence, confusion, and strong emotions. It is possible to find your center in the midst of stress. The center is already within us, waiting to be discovered and cultivated.

The problem with stress-induced states of mind is that we usually don't see them coming. We may have a vague sense that something unpleasant or negative is taking place. But we usually can't define or recognize the actual process of stress-induced states of mind developing. We remain largely unconscious of their presence until they reach a stage of physical, mental, or emotional symptoms–difficulty concentrating, a quick temper or irritability, anxiety, a stiff neck or shoulders, headaches, indigestion, difficulty sleeping. At this point, a sense of urgency frequently sets in to solve the discomfort or pain.

The typical response of attorneys is to try to think their way out of any problem. Beginning in law school, we are taught that our minds are the primary tool for controlling, dealing with, and solving the issues we confront in the world. We are trained to have an answer for every question, a response for every situation. We spend our professional days analyzing, evaluating, judging, strategizing, and problem solving.

This training, unfortunately, does not serve us well with stress-induced states of mind. We cannot think our way out of stress-induced states of mind. We cannot conceptualize ourselves into being relaxed. We cannot intellectualize ourselves to sleep. Clearly, a different and more global strategy involving resources other than just our intellectual or conceptual capacities is necessary to deal with this situation. What we need is a strategy based in awareness and direct experience.

The answer to dealing with stress-induced states of mind, and tapping into the reservoirs of energy referred to by William James, lies in bringing our awareness and attention to that which is normally unseen, unnoticed, and ignored. Therapist R.D. Laing points to part of the strategy in this way: “The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change, until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.”

One of the biggest challenges during our workday is to remember to pay attention, to actually be present in the moment. We frequently find ourselves in difficult situations at work because we have failed to exercise care and attention–to simply be conscious and aware of what we are doing. Our focus is divided between a current project, some other pressing matter, anticipation of difficulty on yet another situation, and worrying about something that happened the day before. As a result, we are not fully present for and focused on the work underway and errors and misjudgments occur. Professional errors and misjudgments are a symptom of divided concentration and a lack of inner balance.

A helpful way to start bringing the process of stress-induced states of mind into view is to periodically stop what you're doing during the day. Close your eyes. Take several deep breaths. Allow the body to relax. Then experientially ask these Quality of Work and Life Questions:

Am I working in a relaxed way? What is the level of tension, bracing, or holding in the body, and what does it feel like? Is the mind relaxed, open, and spacious? Or tight, constricted, and narrow? Is the energy active and fluid? Or dull and blocked? How do I feel emotionally? How does it feel to work this way? Why am I working in this way?

Am I present and involved in my work? Is the mind wandering repeatedly off the project at hand? Or staying focused on what is being done and how it is being done? Am I actively engaged in my work? Or am I resisting and struggling with it? Am I creatively involved in what's happening? Or on automatic pilot? How does it feel to work this way? Why am I working in this way?

What can I do, right now, to deal with or improve the situation? Do I need to take a break and clear the mind? Would doing a brief breathing, relaxation, or concentration process assist grounding and stabilizing the mind, the emotions, and my outlook? Do I need to re-evaluate today's, or my overall, workload and current schedule of appointments and commitments? Would stopping the current project, stepping back, and re-evaluating things be helpful? Is prioritizing or re-prioritizing today's work, or the work on this project, in order? Can input or guidance from a colleague or friend provide needed balance? Would straight-forward and direct communication with another member of the team or opposing counsel be wise?

I assure you that regularly exploring these questions will be instructive. If we patiently and honestly look at these questions, they can serve as a direct and effective diagnostic tool. The answers can help us understand how we work and why we are not as effective, efficient, or productive as we can be. They can help us wake up to our own lives. But you may find it difficult to sit with these questions, because the mind and body are not calm, clear, and relaxed. That's where meditative practices come into play.

If we're willing to remain open to these questions, to sit with them without trying to find a solution or fix things too quickly, they can serve as the basis for developing a revised attitude and approach to our work. By understanding our working patterns, habits, and attitudes, and how we feel about our work, we can begin to fashion a vision of what needs to be changed and how we can work in a more relaxed and satisfying way. We can see what skills need to be improved or acquired to move in this direction. We can craft a daily strategy for both dealing with the stress and for slowly transforming our professional lives. The creation of a formal vision statement and daily strategy plan are two specific steps we can take to facilitate this process.

Meditation practices are a method of developing, and a process for maintaining, a calm and clear mind. They are about paying careful attention to our lives. During these practices, our focus shifts from our usual busy outer world of commitments, concepts, and actions, to the moment-to-moment observation and investigation of the body and mind. This is done through calm, focused, and balanced awareness. The experiential question is asked: “What is happening, now, in my breath, my body, my mind, and my emotions?” The answer arrives, not conceptually or intellectually, but through our direct experience of what is occurring in the present moment.

Instructions for two different meditation practices you can use at the office and at home appear at the end of this article. The first is a Conscious Body Scan, the second involves Conscious Breathing. Both are excellent methods of developing awareness, and relaxing the body and mind. They slowly help us develop a new understanding and perspective on how we relate to our experience.

If you use these practices regularly, particularly in conjunction with the Quality of Work and Life Questions, you will begin to notice a larger sense of awareness starting to emerge during the day. As your skill develops, you can use these same practices before and during meetings, court appearances, and the day to become more aware, relaxed, and refocus your attention.

Similar meditation practices are currently being used in over 500 hospitals and medical clinics in the United States to help individuals enter into a new relationship with chronic pain and stress-induced conditions such as headaches, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, gastrointestinal problems, and anxiety.

These meditation practices are simple, short, easy to do, and pleasurable. There is an almost immediate payoff: you feel better and think more clearly. This is intentional. We frequently start some new project–an exercise program or diet–which is overly ambitious. It soon becomes burdensome, a chore. We abandon it as quickly as it was begun.

To avoid this common syndrome, we start simple and easy. The key is to do the practices regularly, every day, in the environment where you actually face the challenges of stress. The purpose of this approach is to systematically develop a new way of responding and relating to stress in our lives right where we live and work.

It's important to be realistic with your expectations. Remember that your current states of mind are the product of years of conditioning, reinforcement, and habituation. The process of developing a new perspective and a more conscious way of living in the world occurs gradually. It is based on making a realistic and consistent effort every day–day after day after day.

You will probably find it helpful to do a number of small, manageable sessions of these practices throughout the day. You can start with 5 to 15 minute sessions, depending on the time available.

After surveying a number of businesses who encourage their employees to meditate, Business Week's Geoffrey Smith concludes, "People who have the most success with meditation make a point of incorporating it into their daily routine, whether at home or on the job. That way, it becomes second nature. So if your boss blind-sides you at 5:00 pm with a 20-page report that's due tomorrow, you have a better chance of staying calm and keeping your blood pressure down."

Doing these practices regularly acts as a reminder to pay attention to how you are doing what you are doing–your state of mind, your energy level, your level of bodily and mental relaxation–rather than merely being unconscious and lost in what you are doing. This tends to break the cycle of tension and stress that begins to take over our day and helps restore our perspective. It also reinforces your intention to practice.

Don't be surprised if you find your mind wandering, and if you have difficulty keeping your mind focused, when you begin these practices. It takes a while to develop your concentration and to begin stabilizing the mind. If your mind tends to wander or becomes resistant, don't struggle with it or become judgmental. Just relax and bring your attention back to the practice–over and over and over again. Use the same approach you would use with training a small puppy. Genuine care and kindness, rather than harsh reactions and criticism, produce the best results.

Meditation practices provide us with the possibility of living a conscious life. They offer us a new skill set to improve the quality and level of our work. All of the states of mind that are developed through these practices–concentration, quietness and calmness of mind, the ability to deeply listen, a more spacious approach to problem-solving and relationships, a less personalized and attached view of experience, greater understanding, kindness, and compassion, and more–can expand our capacity to deal more effectively with difficult professional and life situations.

They can also help us tap into deep resources within us. Mahatma Gandhi considered his early morning meditation practice the foundation of his day. It allowed him to access a deep source of inspiration, patience, courage, and resilience that sustained him in all of his activities.

Attorney Barbara Ashley Phillips describes the potential impact of these practices on our professional lives: “Do this now. Put your world aside for a moment. Imagine a calmer world. Take a deep breath, breathing out slowly. Notice the breath moving against your nostrils, the fresh air refreshing the various parts of your body. In this calmer world, there is always enough time. Rushing is inappropriate. Reflection and good judgment are highly valued. Clients receive the best of service and the closest attention. Less is done, more is accomplished. Conflicts are addressed in an orderly fashion and needed adjustments are made quietly and easily. There is such a world. It lies within us.”

We have the capacity to remain at the center of the storms of our own thoughts and emotions allowing us to exercise sound judgment, wisdom, and compassion. There is a way to obtain a new sense of spaciousness, or breathing room, in the face of stressful situations. There is a safe refuge, a sanctuary we can visit to restore ourselves and to nourish our spirit and inspiration. But this does not just happen. Developing the meditation skills to access and maintain these states of mind is the result of consistent effort and a committed decision to live a conscious life.

The following meditation practices involve bringing awareness to our experiences of the body and breath. Our objective is to experience whatever is present on a moment-to-moment basis. We're not trying to make something “special” happen, or to change, manipulate or control what we're experiencing. Just allow yourself to be fully present, and non-judgmentally experience what unfolds.

We'll maintain our attention primarily on the experiences in the body or breath, depending on which exercise is being done. Don't be surprised if your concentration seems weak or your mind unusually active. It takes awhile for concentration to develop and for the mind to quiet down. Give yourself the time, space, and permission to allow this to happen.

You'll find your attention pulled away many times, even during a short session, by sounds, smells, thoughts, emotions, or memories. When this happens, don't fight it. Notice that the attention has moved and gently refocus it back to the experience of the body or breath. Do this over and over again. Just relax into the rhythm of this process.

If the attention keeps wandering repeatedly back to a particular thought or emotion, allow the attention to shift to how that thought or emotion feels in or affects the body or breath.

More advanced forms of these practices involve engaging thoughts and emotions in the meditative process. This is beyond the scope of this article.

Both the Conscious Body Scan and the Conscious Breathing practices initially begin the same way as follows:

Sit comfortably erect with your feet on the ground. Fold your hands softly in your lap with the hands together or place them on the knees. Find a position where your hips, shoulders, and back, and head and neck are aligned. Allow the shoulders to move back and down, and the chest to open. Feel the full weight of your body in the chair. Feel the weight of your feet connecting with the ground. Once you have settled into this position, take a few deep, comfortable, rhythmic breaths.

At this point, move to the Conscious Body Scan or Conscious Breathing practices described immediately below.

The Conscious Body Scan can be a rich and relaxing experience. It involves systematically brining awareness to different parts of the body; experiencing and feeling whatever sensations are present; and then allowing the area or region to fully, deeply relax. It differs from a simple relaxation exercise because it involves two steps, rather than one. First, sensations in a particular area of the body are fully experienced. Second, that area of the body is relaxed.

There may be regions of the body where you won't experience any sensations at all. That's quite natural. Don't try to make something happen. Be patient. Your level of body awareness will increase with practice.

Bring the attention to your forehead. Calmly experience and investigate any sensations in this region. Is there a sense of tightness or constriction? Openness and relaxation? Vibration or tingly? Heaviness or lightness? Temperature? Fully experience whatever is present. You may find that bringing this type of careful attention to the forehead will result in this area spontaneously relaxing. If not, intentionally allow any bracing, holding, or tension to be released and to relax fully.

Systematically move through the body following this process: Forehead, eyes, nose, cheeks, jaw, neck, shoulders, all the way down to your toes.

Depending on the time available, you may only do a portion of the body: the head and shoulders, or just those areas where holding and tension can be strongly felt. Experiment and see what works for you.

When you are ready to end the session, bring your awareness into your body. Feel the full weight of your body in the chair. Feel the weight and contact of your feet with the floor. Take several deep breaths. Experience a sense of stability and balance. Gently open your eyes.

Gently move the attention to the experience of breathing. Calmly investigate and determine where the experience of breathing is most clearly and strongly felt. In the rising and falling of the abdomen? In the expansion and contraction of the chest? At the tip of the nostrils as the air enters and is expelled? Select one of these areas and allow the attention to refocus here exclusively.

Allow the breath to settle into its own natural rhythm. Connect the attention with the earliest sensation of the in-breath. Sustain the connection until the end of the in-breath. There will be a small pause between the in-breath and the out-breath. Relax.

Connect the attention to the earliest sensation of the out-breath. Sustain the connection until the end of the out-breath. Relax. Maintain this process with each in-breath and with each out-breath.

As your ability to sustain the attention on the breath strengthens, explore what is experienced with each in-breath and each out-breath. What are the sensations? Is the breath deep or shallow? Smooth or rough? Heavy or light? Warm or cool? Is there vibration, stretching, tingling?

Just calmly investigate and experience this incredible process of breathing that sustains our life and is usually outside the range of our awareness.

When you are ready to end the session, bring your awareness into your body. Feel the full weight of your body in the chair. Feel the weight and contact of your feet with the floor. Take several deep breaths. Experience a sense of stability and balance. Gently open your eyes.

© Copyright 2002, Dennis M. Warren. This article contains slight modifications from the original formatting and content on the Hawaii State Bar Association website.

Dennis M. Warren is a Sacramento, California-based healthcare attorney. Prior to entering private practice, he was a government prosecutor and consultant to the California Department of Health Services. He conducts workshops which help attorneys identify and monitor stress and enhance performance. He has been studying and working with various meditation, concentration, and relaxation practices for nearly 30 years. Dennis invites your reactions and comments about this article at (916) 447-9999 or warrenlaw@earthlink.net