Yesterday, in the middle of a meditation, I had a thought about a case. A good thought, actually, about a strategy I was formulating for handling how to help a couple of clients structure a real estate investment trust. A golden nugget of a thought, and on a Saturday no less.
The thing is, I had sat at my desk in my downtown Philadelphia law office the day before and stared at a legal pad, tapping my pen repeatedly while trying to come up with everything I could think of related to helping my new clients. I brainstormed about all the steps involved in creating and structuring the fund, yet ultimately I felt like I hadn’t come up with anything too exciting. I cooked dinner for Aimee that night, new client problems still echoing in my head. I slept on it and had breakfast the next day. It wasn’t until mid-afternoon, during meditation, that I would have a thought that would crack open my entire perception of the case and send me into the workweek feeling like I can conquer the world.
This type of thing is not an anomaly. For a great constructive thought about my work to come up, seemingly out of the blue, during meditation, is just another benefit in a long line of benefits I get from my practice. Practicing meditation isn’t easy, when I first started I would experience waves of thoughts that would overwhelm me. Alone by myself in the quiet of my guest bedroom, the usual chatter of life that constantly just flowed through me was suddenly turned up to full volume, uselessly – akin to television static.
A few years later and I can effectively let the pointless stuff, all those waves of thoughts, go, and keep only the gold. The good thoughts, the golden revelations, aren’t always about work. Sometimes I am hit with the desire to call my parents and tell them I love them, or I get a random idea for my blog, or I might be inspired to clear the air with a friend. Meditation to me is about disconnecting from that part of me that is constantly going, stepping aside for twenty minutes and just seeing what comes up when I stare at the river instead of being knee-deep in it.
The benefits to my law practice are too numerous to list. I am not sure if I would have been able to build Console Legal’s thriving (knock on wood) business if I didn’t have meditation as a part of my almost-daily routine. Focus, compassion, level-headedness, concentration, acting vs. reacting, listening vs. talking, and empathy: these are all traits I see in short supply in the law profession, traits that would make us better lawyers and all traits that meditation helps foster. These traits are prized by clients, opposing counsel and judges equally. A lawyer who listens and genuinely cares, what could sell better than that?
No matter, some of you will inevitably laugh it off as hippy-dippy or a waste of time. For those that don’t, and might be interested in learning more about my personal intersection of meditation and being a lawyer and business owner (out here in beautiful Philadelphia), I would love to chat about it, so send me a message!