Mind Yourself
3 Tips To Keep You and Your Career Healthy
I spoke to a new intake of trainee solicitors last week about finding balance in their working life as lawyers. I shared the tips, practices and insights that I would have appreciated to hear as I began my legal career almost a decade ago.
The session was part of the Law Society’s Mental Health Awareness week. It’s the second time I have spoken in the Law Society (this time through zoom) to share my story and insights.
This is a progressive step; to invite a once-lawyer-now-yoga-teacher to speak to trainees about prioritising their wellbeing, state of mind and the thing that bring them joy in this world. Well done to the Law Society. I was delighted to share the things that I now know are absolutely necessary and important. These are the three tips I shared:
Get out of your head and into your body
Being in a “head-y” job (one that requires a lot of mental power and skill) means, yes you got it, you are in your head all day. As solicitors, we are fine tuned and trained to use the mind to memorise, cite, quote, problem solve and analyse. Wonderful. But, are we trained to turn off this machine at the end of the day? No. This is why yoga and meditation are necessary and crucial practices to learn so that the mind does not overwork, overload and maybe burn out.
In yoga and meditation we are diverting our consciousness to the breath and different parts of the body. We are moving the thing that allows our mind to think (our consciousness) and bringing it elsewhere. We learn to embody different elements of ourselves. In this way, we experience that we are not just the mind.
This is a powerful, but difficult thing for the busy mind to accept. It will be agitated to begin with as you sit in complete stillness. Slowly through practice, which can be movement, meditation or breath work, the mind will relax and ease. This type of practice is a balm and necessary antidote to “head-y” work and being at a computer all day.
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Get to know yourself
The best thing I did as a trainee solicitor was to start a journal for my musings and thoughts. At the back of my journal, I had a blank page with the words “Things that I like” written in big letters. That page stayed blank for quite a while. As a young solicitor all I could think to put down was going out and drinking with mates but I didn’t feel that was what I wanted to sum myself up as. So I started paying attention to things that caught my eye and sparked my curiosity. Jasmine oil. Sanskrit words. Sunrise. India. Chanting. Over the years these pages filled up with words. When I look at them now, they are the blueprint for the work I am doing and the life that I am living now.
This method is a wonderful skill for anyone to use. As a trainee, or someone starting their career or wanting to change their career, this page can tell you a lot. Start gathering your words, your interest, things that catch your eye. These things are your essence and will guide you to the work and life that will bring you most joy. I am still doing the “Things that I like” page and will continue to for the rest of my life. This page is my guide; it is a little peak into my soul.
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Find your balance
Find your balance between movement and stillness. The world and your work is fast paced and it can be hard to become still. We are often drawn towards practices to keep up with this pace. We avoid things like meditation and slow paced yoga because it is too slow and doesn’t give the fast results that we want.
We opt for fast paced, achievement driven yoga so that we can do impressive poses. We skip meditation and scroll on our phone instead. I have been there, and I am still there when my mind gets overwhelmed and when I have “no time“.
This response “I don’t have time” is now my signal that I am out of balance. It means I need to bring stillness into my life through my yoga and meditation. Deepak Chopra gave a wonderful response when he was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey. She asked him how many times a day should we meditate? Deepak said once a day. What about the people who don’t have time to meditate once a day? Oprah asked. Well then, he said, they should meditate twice a day.
This sums it up for me. It is challenging to make time for self-care. To prioritise yourself over deadlines, tasks, team workload and pressure. It is up to us to make this time. To make it the number one priority in our life because it is the most important thing you can do for yourself. And to do it once, maybe twice a day.
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Sarah Shannon is a yoga and meditation teacher. She qualified as a solicitor with the Law Society in 2013 and worked as a corporate associate in Dublin. She left her legal career in 2018 and set up Sarah Shannon Yoga which offers workplace yoga, meditation and webinars on wellbeing. Get in touch with Sarah to find out more.