The Mindfulness Blog

subscribe to RSS feeds


« back to all blogs

Self-Care Is Not A Slippery Slope

Don't get me wrong-- mindfulness and meditation can make a genuine difference. They certainly do, for me. I've said so in the past and have not had a change of heart-- if anything, I'm even more certain of that now, than ever.

That said, I also know that mindfulness and meditation are private and notwithstanding my vocal public advocacy, they're things that each one of us has to make sense of, in our own way. They certainly impact my day-to-day attitude and awareness of people, places and things, but neither mindfulness nor meditation define who I am-- that's just not real.

And you know what? A lot of people just don't get that-- especially lawyers, of whom I am one (albeit, retired, after almost 40 years hard labor on the rock). With significant trepidation, I retired from the active practice of law and founded The Mindful Law Coaching &
Consulting Group, LLC and since that time, I've come to view both mindfulness and meditation as pillar components of a larger health concern: Lawyer wellbeing.

Specifically, wellbeing in the arena of mental fitness (which is multi-faceted and includes both medical and psychological illness). I've come to view mindfulness and meditation as practices that fall within the penumbra of self-care-- care that can certainly be related to medical or psychological care but is obviously a separate adjunct.

I'm not a health-trained statistician, but anecdotally, it seems to me that for every one man or woman who may suffer from a diagnosable medical or psychological condition, there are dozens of people who are struggling-- off their game, so to speak-- with more common challenges like a death or illness in the family, or a life-impacting relationship disruption-- what about them?

That's where I believe self-care can really make a difference-- and it's not a zero-sum game that inevitably takes over one's modus operandiOr one's personal presence. Or one's professional effectiveness. That certainly was not-- is not, and never has been-- my experience.

Self-care is not a slippery slope of which anyone should be afraid. It's starts with the simple acknowledgment that we can be better and goes on from there.

And can't we all be better?




by

Categories: uncategorized
« back to all blogs

0 COMMENT(S)

POST A COMMENT

Name (required)
E-mail (required but not shown)

 

Blog Articles

Categories