Resources on this Page

These resources can provide you with immediate improvements in mental well-being. They can also get you started on integrating mindfulness in daily life. Suitable for absolute beginners.

Law Student Mini-Meditation / Breathing Space [4 min | centering meditation]
Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) for Law Students [10 min | deep full-body relaxation]
Mindfulness Meditation for Law Students [6 min | intro to meditation]
Stress-Relieving Yoga You Can Do at Your Desk [4 min each | focus; muscular tension]
What Are You Trying to Control? A Meditation. [11 min | reduce anxious rumination]

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Additional Resources

Interested in exploring mindfulness meditation more intensively, or supporting a mindfulness meditation practice with helpful tools? We’ve compiled a list of additional resources, recommended by law students who have enjoyed using them.

Why Mindfulness Meditation?

Mindfulness Meditation refers to “notic[ing], without judging and with equanimity, whatever passes through [one’s] awareness”. Research shows that mindfulness and meditation (a method of practicing mindfulness) can assist with:

– reducing anxiety and depression
– improving concentration and memory
– improving emotional regulation
– improving ability to regulate chronic pain
– increasing creativity
– increasing self-compassion and self-understanding

For a brief article reviewing some of the scientific findings on the benefits of mindfulness meditation, see The Science of Mindfulness by Cynthia McDonald, in the Spring 2014 edition of U of T Magazine.

Mindfulness meditation can specifically help law students in two ways:

1. Reduce stress, unhappiness and depression and improve sustainable performance in the short and long term.
2. Allow lawyers to expand practice beyond a narrow adversarial approach to a more humanizing or collaborative approach, providing the most appropriate service to clients.

[See Leonard L. Riskin, “The Contemplative Lawyer: On the Potential Contributions of Mindfulness Meditation to Law Students, Lawyers, and their Clients.” 7 Harv. Negotiation L. Rev. 1 (2002). Available HERE.]

 

Law Student Mini-Mediation/Breathing Space

(Approx. 4 minutes)
The Three Minute Breathing Space (or ‘mini meditation’) is taught as a practical, effective tool to manage stress, feel more centered and less overwhelmed. Doing this practice may help you feel more able to respond to whatever challenging situations or feelings are present.  It can be practiced anywhere, at any time, when you feel you could benefit from being more grounded.

Open the audio recording of this meditation

View the transcript for this meditation

Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) for Law Students

(Approx. 10 minutes)
This recorded 10 minute Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR) exercise helps you quickly and deeply release tension. You may not realize how much tension you are holding in your body at any given moment. Especially for the chronically stressed, the feeling of being relaxed may become unfamiliar. PMR can reconnect your body to deeper relaxation, helping to reduce stress, anxiety, intense negative emotion and related physical ailments. It can even help improve sleep. [Prepared by Simon Fraser University Student Services.]

Open the audio recording of this meditation

Below is a longer (30 minute) and more extensive PMR guided exercise. [Recorded at Dartmouth Health Promotion and Wellness from a script prepared by Georgia Southern University Counseling Center.]

Open the audio recording of this meditation

For a brief written guide on how to do Progressive Muscle Relaxation, see Anxiety BC.

Mindfulness Meditation for Law Students

(Approx. 6 minutes)
The following guided meditation was developed specifically for law students as an introduction to mindfulness meditation. Practicing this 6 minute meditation daily or as needed may help to decrease stress, anxiety and overwhelm. It may also be an effective practice for improving mood, sleep, clarity of thinking and focus.

Open the audio recording of this meditation

View the transcript for this meditation

Stress-Relieving Yoga You Can Do at Your Desk

(Approx. 4 minutes each)
These two short video yoga sequences from Rodney Yee and Gaiam are excellent for restoring focus and reducing muscle stiffness due to long study sessions. The first video allows you to release the tension in your head, back and neck, while the second focuses on releasing tension in the shoulders. Both will help you re-center and feel more energized after too much desk-work. Choose the one that better targets your sore spots, or do both.

Note: if you have any injuries or sensitivities that may be aggravated, you should proceed with caution or not at all. Please listen to your body and be gentle with yourself.

Releasing Stiffness from the Head, Back and Neck
Open the video recording of this meditation in YouTube

Relaxing the Neck and Shoulders
Open the video recording of this meditation in YouTube

What Are You Trying To Control? A Meditation.

(Approx. 11 minutes)
It’s no secret that law students can tend toward control freakery. This soothing guided video meditation with Esther Teule from Ekhart Yoga allows you to identify, observe and release restlessness, dissatisfaction, or intrusive thoughts regarding thing that are out of your control. It can provide immediate relief or be a useful tool to check in with yourself periodically. It is best done after one of the shorter introductory meditations, but is still suitable as an introduction to meditation.

Open the video recording of this meditation in YouTube

Additional Resources

Interested in exploring mindfulness meditation more intensively, or supporting a mindfulness meditation practice with helpful tools? We’ve compiled a list of additional resources, recommended by law students who have enjoyed using them.

Access Additional Resources HERE.