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PODCAST

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers

Mindfulness for the Legal Mind: a 10-minute talk plus 10 minutes of guided meditation. A brief refuge. The musings of a long-time lawyer, law professor, and mindfulness geek on lawyering from a mindful perspective. Tools to cultivate more joy, ease, and wellbeing in this crazy profession. Ideas to become even better at what you do, and save the world. A few minutes of peace every week, which you definitely deserve.

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All Episodes

20:21

Mindfulness, Love, Courage, and Grace

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/10/31

We know the practice: present moment awareness. But how do we practice when things are so rough and torn? First, with love. The invitation, moment by moment, is, can I bring not only awareness, but also love? Second, with courage. Because no matter how much love we bring, this mind, this body, this world, will present challenges. It’s nothing personal - it’s just the way things work. So, courage. And third, with grace. When I googled grace, I got three things: simple elegance, courteous...

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20:30

The Path, Step Two: Wise Mindfulness

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/10/24

Now that everyone and everything is mindful (except the federal government), is mindfulness diluted? I was starting to wonder so I’m digging into the question, starting with, “What is mindfulness, or ‘wise mindfulness’?” which is the next step on the path. From 10,000 feet, to me mindfulness is looking in and looking up. Looking in, by practicing stillness, examining our fabulous minds and hearts, and then training them to focus and be loving and connect. And it’s also looking in ...

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19:01

Joyful Effort – The First Step

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/10/17

When I look out at the human landscape right now, it feels like joy is in short supply. Sometimes it’s present, but plenty of moments cry out for an infusion of joy. The first step, or one of the first, on the mindfulness path, is “wise effort.” In the past I’ve taken “wise” to mean the diligence to develop practices like paying attention, caring, and peace. I still think that, but I also think attitude matters. If I’m making diligent effort with a joyful heart/mind, joy gets inf...

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20:08

The Path We’re Choosing

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/10/10

We’re all on one path or another. Sometimes it’s the path of least resistance. Sometimes it’s the yellow brick road. Sometimes, to slightly misquote Robert Frost, it’s the path least traveled. For me the point is, to choose. Which is what mindfulness is all about. Stop, take a breath, observe what’s happening, and then choose the path. And crucially, ask before choosing, “Where will this lead?” Will it lead to connection and kindness, even if it must also lead to the win? Or will it lead to p...

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19:56

How to Let Go When the Ride is Bumpy

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/10/03

Good yontif you’re celebrating Yom Kippur. And to everyone, what is your day about today? What’s your intention for the day? And are you experiencing suffering? Not, are you experiencing pain and sorrow? We are all experiencing that, if we’re paying attention, given the world. But are you experiencing the suffering that happens when we clench our fist or grasp for something to be other than it is, or rail at the world - are you experiencing that? If so, then letting go is the classical answer...

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19:53

The Cause of Suffering Right Now

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/09/26

What causes suffering? An ancient question with an ancient answer, and surprisingly, it’s not the hard things in life. It’s the way we think about them. It’s not the ridiculous amount of work on my plate or the unfair judge that causes suffering. It’s not the impossible partner or the associate who’s always late. It’s not even the scary diagnosis, or the fact that we’ll all get a scary diagnosis some day. It’s the way we push back, internally, against it all – or the way I do, anyway. T...

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20:09

The Benefits of Suffering, Distress, and Other...

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/09/19

In classical mindfulness there are six different realms, including the human realm which is considered the best one in which to wake up. One of the reasons for that, is that it’s not easy being human. We get old, we get sick, we die. We lose things and we also lose people. We get into arguments and if we’re lawyers, those can be consequential for us and for our clients so we have to win. The world hits us hard. And there’s so much to do: every day we have to earn a living plus take care...

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20:39

Back to Basics: Setting the Wheel in Motion

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/09/12

There’s a misunderstanding that mindfulness is about suffering. The truth is, mindfulness is about the end of suffering and how to go there. It’s optimistic. Given the moment, that seems like something we can all use. Mindfulness originated with Siddhartha, who became known as the Buddha, which means, “awake.” The Buddha was many things including a phenomenal psychologist, who mapped the mind and then showed how to work with it to cultivate happiness, even in the most difficult of time...

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20:00

What if Every Day Was the Most Ordinary Day of Your...

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/09/05

What does it mean to approach each moment, each day, as if it’s the most ordinary day? How would it feel to do that? And what if it’s not an ordinary day? What if it’s the day of a big trial, or your birthday, or the 500th Wake Up Call? I’m learning that to practice mindfulness – to really practice, moment by moment, day after day – is to pretty much say: no matter what’s happening, practice with it. No matter how momentous, no matter how terrible, be there, and be kind. Be kind, ...

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18:43

The Wake Up Call @499

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/08/29

The Wake Up Call @499 Ten years ago, the Wake Up Call was an unlikely dream, of a place for those of us who were practicing both law and mindfulness, to be together. And here we are, at Wake Up Call #499. Ten years plus, of exploring how these highly trained legal minds, and those of us who have them, can be different with, and benefit from, mindfulness. Howe we can be more effective. How we can be happier. How we can be of greater service to the world: more compassionate, wiser, more connect...

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19:56

The Relief of Not Being in Charge

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/08/22

I sometimes think the world would run more smoothly if I were in charge. Or let’s face it: I often think that. Do you? The problem, or one problem (because there are many), with this kind of thinking is, first I have to believe I know what’s best for others. I don’t mean when that’s my job. I mean when it’s my colleague or partner or kid. The next problem is, when I think I know what’s best, I’m judging, or pitying, the other person for not knowing…especially when they don’t follow my t...

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19:44

Positive Regard for Undeserving People

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/08/15

There are people in the world who, at first glance (or second, or third), don’t seem to me to deserve positive regard. At all. Maybe there are people like that for you, too. But in an ancient tale, five people are traveling through the forest: the leader, their beloved, a friend, a stranger, and a wicked person. The group is attacked, and one person must be sacrificed in return for safety for the rest. Whom should it be? The wicked person, if we’re being just? The leader themself, if they’re ...

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20:21

Playing With Untangling the Mind

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/08/07

Even when my intellect and emotional life feel like they’re in tune, I still have so many old, internal, tangles in my mind. And in any given moment, those tangles can cause me to tense up, grab hold, or turn away. My tangles were probably formed a long time ago. Daily practice helps me to see them more clearly, and to begin, slowly and playfully, to untangle them. Practice that’s oriented towards connecting with and generating good will for myself and everyone, feels especially helpful...

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19:25

Relaxing the Mind

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/08/01

What happens for you when your body or mind signals that it’s time to relax, and you pay attention to the signal? From a Netflix perspective, it might be just that: turn something on; turn off all the rest. That seems legit – I do it plenty. From a mindfulness perspective, though, relaxation is different. It’s letting go. For me, it’s a few minutes in stillness, watching thoughts, emotions, and sensations arise, and lovingly letting them go. It’s a light touch, a commitment to go easy w...

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19:58

Ethical Choice : One Thing to Feel Good About

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/08/01

I feel like we’re trying, every day, to be kind, and ethical, and to serve well. We’re even taking the time to cultivate these qualities. And I also feel like when we fail, it’s hard. And even harder to turn towards the situation with clarity. What gets in the way, for me, is justification and denial. And that’s when I slide backwards. Not because my “fail” is terrible, although it might be. But because I lose sight of the positive. Forget about all the goodness. And when that happens, ...

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20:16

Ethics in Uncommonly Difficult Times

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/07/04

I feel like we’re trying, every day, to be kind, and ethical, and to serve well. We’re even taking the time to cultivate these qualities. And I also feel like when we fail, it’s hard. And even harder to turn towards the situation with clarity. What gets in the way, for me, is justification and denial. And that’s when I slide backwards. Not because my “fail” is terrible, although it might be. But because I lose sight of the positive. Forget about all the goodness. And when that happens, ...

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19:34

Conjuring Love Out of Adversity

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/06/05

In Zimbabwe, there’s almost 90% unemployment. In South Africa, there are the remnants of apartheid. America has cancelled US AID to the poorest of poor, and is about to tax a huge lifeline: money that gets sent home. Conditions on this amazing continent are not easy, to say the least. And through it all, to a person, the Africans we’ve met, from so many countries on this patchwork continent, are kind and loving and generous. No matter that we come from the west, or from comparative wea...

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19:20

Letting Generosity Set the Tone for What Follows

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/05/17

I wonder about the power of generosity to set the tone of the law, or change it. Right now, we’re everyone to their corner and then knives out. What if we could be passionately on the sides of clients, causes, justice, but in a different way - not with a classic, take no prisoners approach, but with generosity? And with faith that the choice to do that would be seen as skillful, not weak? In a way generosity seems anathema to our work. In another way it seems like a shift we desp...

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19:29

Could These Be Three Elements of Peace?

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/05/09

Not much can change on the global scale, or even in my community (or even in my house), if I’m not thoughtful and intentional about my own personal behavior. I know that. You probably know that, too. But I’d also say, not much can change if I’m not thoughtful and intentional in a specific way: by being a little (or a lot) more generous; by committing, and making sure, that nothing I say or do will cause harm; and by taking the time, no matter how busy I am, and no matter how much the w...

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18:42

Making Peace with Dread (The Personal Kind)

The Wake Up Call for Lawyers ·

2025/05/01

Recently I said something snarky and it got back to the person.For the whole day, I dreaded what would happen. When the worst did happen, I felt even worse: a slow, painful remembering of how imperfect I am, despite all the striving. And of how perfection is not even a thing, no matter how much I strive. In a funny way, dread helped me. In fact, dread was the most helpful thing. Without dread, I wonder if I’d even have noticed, let alone cared. But with dread, and after making pea...

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