Being a lawyer is one of the most admirable and sought-after professions. As we have watched in films and shows, the courtroom drama can get so juicy that it is simply too hard to resist. It must be thrilling to witness the evidence unfold right before their very eyes, don’t you think?
It can be rewarding as well whenever you’re able to win a case or just the fact that you passed the bar feels fulfilling already. But pursuing this career has a downside.
The truth is, practicing law is never easy. One of the biggest drawbacks of this line of work is the amount of stress you regularly face.
The worse part is that it is inevitable, given the nature of your profession – the long hours, difficult cases, deadlines, demanding clients, and many other things that put pressure on you.
We already know how repeated exposure to stressors could affect not just our emotional and psychological wellbeing but our physical health as well.
Legally Mindful App
This is why it is important to learn to manage stress and find other means to relieve anxiety. The National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being of the American Bar Association found that mindfulness is an effective way to combat depression, anxiety, and stress.
Gary Powell, a private attorney for more than three decades, maintains that practicing meditation regularly helps him find inner peace and become more aware of his feelings and emotions.
The lawyer has made it a habit to meditate and reap its benefits, so much so that he even created an app called Legally Mindful, intended for attorneys and other professionals working in a high-stress environment.
A meditation app doesn’t sound that different from others that have already been on the market for a long time but Legally Mindful offers the added benefit of an audio technology called Spatial Angle Modulation, which is said to alleviate stress and help you reach a relaxed state.
Levels
The app has different levels to accommodate all users, irrespective of their meditative history. The primary level offers exercises to help a lawyer think about the things they are grateful for and why there is a need to be compassionate. This will help them achieve better focus, thanks to the SAM signals that ease your brain into a meditative state. Meanwhile, the secondary level will build upon the progress made in the first level.
Other Challenges
Stress is just one of the obstacles lawyers must overcome on a daily basis. Like most fresh graduates, some are still grappling with student debt and with the average fee of $40,000 per year, the cost of law school is only going up. This means that those who start practicing are still burdened with debt as high as six figures.
Clients are also more aware of their spending habits and high legal fees, which is why many of them choose not to consult lawyers on several matters.
In a divorce, couples are well aware of how much an attorney charges and how long litigation can drag on, which is why they choose alternative dispute resolutions, like mediation or arbitration, which are cheaper alternatives to the traditional process.
Technology also poses a threat to lawyers. There are a lot of do-it-yourself apps that give pieces of advice to clients for a small amount.
