By Jenny Mind over matter Canau The art of mindfulness meditation

hat is an article on mind- in the moment without judgment. It is a focus our energy on and what we leave fulness meditation doing secular practice of cultivating our innate alone. Such awareness enables us to in a legal journal? Why human qualities of presence and aware- understand and deal with our own reac- are mainstream law firms ness. This systematic method of paying tions to inner tensions, stress and con- and law schools world- attention enables us to gain insight into flict. It opens the door to developing Wwide offering courses on mindfulness our mental and emotional processes, our ourselves in ways that will enable us to meditation? What is meditation, and habitual reactions and their manifesta- perform better and get more satisfaction what could it possibly have to do with tions in our mind and body. from work and life. the practice of law? This article will of- Mindfulness training is a way of bring- Over the past 20 years, mindfulness fer answers to these questions, and ing awareness to the moment by mo- meditation has made significant contri- show how mindfulness meditation will ment experience of living, realising that, butions in many sectors of Western so- enhance your legal practice. in each moment, we have a choice as ciety, including health care, psychother- Mindfulness meditation is the art of to what we think and how we act. It af- apy, education and the legal system. In using simple methods to calm and sta- fords us the skill of standing back from the (UK), mindfulness- bilise the mind. It is in essence a mind- the flow of our thoughts and emotions, based cognitive therapy has been incor- training in paying attention, deliberately thereby enabling us to choose what we porated into the official guidelines of

DE REBUS – AUGUST 2013 - 48 - FEATURE the National Health Services and today including the Berkeley law school and tex – the area of the brain that is linked many countries, including South , the University of Missouri law school, of- to happiness – are activated by medita- have doctors, psychologists and psy- fer mindfulness training to law students, tion. The region of the brain most associ- chiatrists prescribing it for depression, while other universities, such as Monash ated with emotional reactivity and fear, stress and chronic illnesses. Mindful- in Australia, are offering mindfulness the amygdala, has decreased gray matter ness-based cognitive therapy has been training to all first-year students, includ- density in meditators. shown to be more beneficial than anti- ing offering training to faculty members. The most surprising finding was that depressants, particularly for people who In 2010, the University of California at both of these types of structural brain have experienced three or more previ- the Berkeley School of Law held a con- changes were seen after only eight weeks ous episodes of depression. This is now ference entitled ‘The Mindful Lawyer: of mindfulness meditation practice. recommended as a treatment modality Practices and Prospects for Law School, Recently, Richard J Davidson and by the National Institute of Clinical Excel- Bench and Bar’. colleagues reported their study where lence in the UK (see ‘Depression: The treat- This saw 200 lawyers, law students, high-tech executives (with no previous ment and management of depression in judges and law professors from the US, experience in meditation) were given adults’ at 38 www.nice.org.uk/nicemedia/ Canada and Australia attend the first an eight-week meditation course, which live/12329/45896/45896.pdf, accessed 17- ever international conference, exploring resulted in increased activity in the left 7-2013)). the integration of mindfulness medita- prefrontal lobe cortex, which is the part In education, mindfulness is taught tion with legal education and practice of the brain associated with happiness worldwide at many prominent universi- (www.mindfullawyerconference.org). (see RJ Davidson ‘Alterations in the ties, promoting cognitive and academic There is a growing interest globally in Brain and Immune Function produced by performance, as well as mental health mindfulness meditation in the legal pro- Mindfulness Meditation’ (2003) 65 Psy- and wellbeing. Rob Nairn, prominent fession, as evidenced by articles on this chosomatic Medicine 564). international mindfulness meditation subject in mainstream legal journals. The ‘Jurisight Program’ developed teacher and former professor of crimi- It features frequently in newsletters from by Scott Rodgers, now brings together nology at the the American Bar Association, which has groundbreaking work in the field of neu- (UCT), currently leads the first three- shown its support by sponsoring talks, roscience and the contemplative practice year master’s degree in mindfulness at articles and mindfulness programs for of mindfulness in the field of law (www. Aberdeen University in . The the legal fraternity (J Patton Hyman, Esq jurisight.com). Scott Rodgers recently Institute for Mindfulness Interventions ‘The Mindful Lawyer: Mindfulness and presented a programme at the Florida is presently collaborating the Law Practice’ (2007) Summer The Bar Convention called ‘Mindfulness, Neu- with the Faculty of Health Science at the Vermont Bar Journal; ‘A call for mind- roscience and the Law’, which focuses on University of Stellenbosch to offer the fulness in our profession’ (2009) April improving effectiveness and reducing first postgraduate certification in mind- Massachusetts Bar Association Lawyers stress through understanding how the fulness-based interventions in South Af- Journal www.massbar.org/publications/ brain works under certain conditions. rica. It is also currently being taught at lawyers-journal/2009/april/president’s- What is evident today is that mindful- cutting-edge business schools, including view, accessed 17-7-2013; LL Riskin ‘An- ness has many benefits for the legal sec- UCT’s Graduate School of Business. nual Saltman Lecture: Further Beyond tor, in that it helps to: The pioneering initiative in the area of Reason: Emotions, the Core Concerns, • Manage and reduce stress. law was led by the Centre for Mindful- and Mindfulness in Negotiation’ (2010) • Increase problem-solving and negotia- ness in Medicine, Health Care and Soci- January Nevada Law Review). tion skills and abilities. ety, which offered the first mindfulness Although traditional legal training still • Improve concentration and generates programme to trial court judges in the focuses on overcoming external chal- an inner sense of calm and stability. United States (US) in 1989. This was fol- lenges, through mindfulness practice, • Improve emotional intelligence through lowed in the early 1990s by mediators of there are now an increasing number developing self-awareness, self-regula- the US Court of Appeals, who attended of lawyers worldwide that are training tion, motivation and empathy. mindfulness workshops held at Spirit themselves to work on their inner life in • Improve equanimity of mind through Rock Meditation Centre. During this an effort to improve their law practice, developing patience and balance (see LL time, the Boston office of the leading law benefit clients and colleagues, and pro- Riskin). firm Hale and Dorr was the first to of- vide better training for lawyers and, ulti- The South African legal profession fer its lawyers a mindfulness meditation mately, yield better justice. needs to stay abreast of these develop- course. There has also been an explosion of ments and, through the newly estab- In 1998 the Centre for Contemplative scientific interest worldwide in the neu- lished Centre for Integrative Law (www. Mind in Massachusetts held its first re- roscience of meditation, with neurosci- integrativelaw.co.za), such training is treat for Yale law students and faculty entists recording brain waves and taking now available to lawyers in 2013. In members, presented by mindfulness lu- pictures of brain activity in many thou- partnership with Mindfulness Africa, an minary Joseph Goldstein. This resulted sands of meditators, ranging from nov- association of mindfulness practition- in the creation of a law program, led by ices in urban practice centers to monks ers founded and developed by interna- Charlie Halpern, which sponsors annual in secluded monasteries. tional mindfulness meditation teacher retreats and mindfulness gatherings for In this way, neuroscience has uncov- Rob Nairn, it will host the first course of lawyers, judges, professors and students ered how mindfulness meditation trans- Mindfulness for Lawyers in Cape Town (see www.contemplativemind.org). forms not only our behaviour, but also over an eight-week period in two-hour Mindfulness meditation has since the structure and function of the brain. evening sessions. For further informa- made many inroads into legal dispute Benefits of meditation, namely increased tion, please visit www.mindfulnessaf- resolution education and is offered as calm, decreased stress, and better atten- rica.org and www.cil.org continuing education programmes for tion have been traced to actual neural lawyers, judges, mediators and nego- changes in the brain. Meditation practice tiators (LL Riskin ‘The Contemplative is associated with changes of specific Lawyer: On the potential contributions brain areas that are essential for atten- Jenny Canau BA LLB (Wits) LLM of mindfulnesss meditation to law stu- tion, learning and regulation of emotion. (RAU) (cum laude) is a director at dents’ (2002) 7 Harvard Negotiation Law Harvard neuroscientist Lazar found Mindfulness Africa. Review 1). Some universities in the US, that enlarged areas of the prefrontal cor-

DE REBUS – AUGUST 2013 - 49 -