Finding Peace: Less Stress Is within Your Reaction – and Reach

By: Gisela M. Munoz1

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The Covid-19 pandemic has increased stress to unprecedented levels – and especially for those in the legal profession. Gisela M. Munoz explores how mindfulness can help alleviate stress and provides a simple exercise to introduce us to mindfulness.

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I. Introduction

As I started writing this article, I wondered whether I should tell you the good news or the bad news first. I decided to share the bad news first; but don’t stress (pun intended)! There is very good news ahead!

The bad news:

According to a March 2022 poll released by the American Psychological Association (“APA”), various societal issues have increased the U.S. population’s stress to “unprecedented levels,” since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the stress has seemed to embed itself with a recalcitrance that is making it chronic.2 Unfortunately, lawyers in the U.S. are even more stressed out than the American public at large. Even before the APA’s poll, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being (the “Task Force”), which included representation of the ABA Law Practice Division, ABA Center for Professional Responsibility and the Conference of Chief Justices, conducted research and published their August 2017 Recommendations (the “Task Force Recommendations”), which revealed that the number of attorneys in the United States struggling with anxiety and stress was respectively 23% and 19%. Moreover, attorneys face depression and substance abuse at twice the rate of the general population. After just the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic, the non-profit established by the Task Force – the Institute for Well-Being in Law – had determined that “[t]he compounding crises of the past year have acted as an accelerant to the … problems that were already too prevalent in the legal profession.”3

The good news:

Mindfulness can help! What is mindfulness? Mindfulness is “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.”4 I suggest approaching the “non-judgmental” aspect of the definition by suspending both self-judgment and judgment of others and of the world around us.

As I always point out in my articles and presentations, mindfulness is not meant to achieve any particular goal, but as it turns out, mindfulness can have beneficial side effects, including in the development of skills for managing stress and anxiety. Although for years I have resisted promoting mindfulness as a tool, I am going to advocate in this article for the use of mindfulness exercises not only for the purpose of practicing mindfulness, in and of itself, but also for its secondary effects in helping us better handle stress and anxiety. However, it is important to reflect on the fact that mindfulness is its own goal and not intended to be used to attain other objectives, because using it as a tool to achieve other goals can be counterproductive. For example, since one way in which mindfulness helps with stress management is by maintaining our attention in the present moment, if we are practicing it with another purpose in mind, and we let our thoughts wander to that other goal, then we may be wandering to thoughts of the future, rather than focusing on the present moment, since goals are future-facing. That said, if we practice the mindfulness exercises as intended, without obsessing about the secondary goals that we may be hoping to achieve, it can have positive effects.

One of those beneficial impacts is in helping us respond better to stress and minimize anxiety, which is not only advantageous to our health, but can, ultimately, help us in our ethical and professional practice of law, as well.

II. How Does Mindfulness Help with Stress and Anxiety?

A. Defining Stress and Anxiety

Studies of mindfulness practitioners have shown that mindfulness can improve cognitive function in a variety of ways, but we will be focusing on its impact on stress and anxiety. In order to do that, we must first understand stress and anxiety.

A good definition of stress is a person’s reaction to a perceived threatening stimulus.5 In the face of a new occurrence, the amygdala fires up and triggers us into immediate action without conscious thought. That causes our body to release adrenaline, which increases our heart rate, as circulation moves away from the body’s core and to the limbs to prepare us to run from the threatening predator the amygdala believes it has encountered – even if the stimulus that your amygdala has interpreted as a threat and turned into stress is really just that your video camera is not working at the start of a Zoom meeting, and there is no lion or tiger poised to jump out and eat you! In addition, cytokines, which are pro-inflammatory cells, go into circulation, in order to assist with the infection that could follow the injuries from being attacked by a predator or from a “flight or fight” situation. Meanwhile, there is usually less activity occurring in the pre-frontal cortex, where our complex, conscious decision-making is done.6

“Anxiety shares the same physical and biological elements as stress. Two differences are that stress-induced neurotransmitters and hormones stay ramped up and our minds get stuck in repetitive worry, or panic-driven thought loops.”7 Thus, chronic stress can result in anxiety. For lawyers, this can be particularly dangerous, because our jobs often involve stimuli that are perceived as stressful more often than other jobs. In addition, our legal training and the very nature of our jobs compound the issue. We are required to identify all potential problems and risks in order to protect our clients, but that type of negative thinking can escape our legal practice and permeate our thinking in other aspects of life, which can lead to anxiety. For example, “rumination” is when our mind repeatedly wanders to negative past events or to the possibility of negative future events. When this becomes an obsessive fixation, rather than a productive attempt to find solutions, rumination can become chronic and result in anxiety.8

B. How Does Mindfulness Help?

Mindfulness exercises strengthen that proverbial “brain muscle” that allows you to stop your brain from automatically reacting to events – creating a space between stimulus and response. The mindfulness practitioner pauses before responding, rather than having a knee-jerk reaction to something that has happened. She is able to do that as a result of the mindfulness training which repeatedly, intentionally focuses her attention on the present moment, with openness, and without judgment or jumping to any conclusions. In that space, she is able to respond consciously and thoughtfully to the stimulus that has arisen. In addition, the mindfulness practitioner may be able to shift her attention from the stimulus to other things. For example, rather than focusing on the event that has occurred, she may shift her attention to the resources that are available to her, and realize that she is fully equipped to address the event/stimulus and that the stimulus presents no threat at all.9

That said, the changes in stress-responses that have been found in mindfulness research are not just behavioral changes, but also physical changes in the brain of mindfulness practitioners. In a Harvard study, the MRI scans of people who engaged in mindfulness exercises for less than three months showed shrinkage of their amygdala, which is known as the stress center of the brain.10 In addition to shrinking, the amygdala’s connection to other parts of the brain has also been found to diminish, which has been correlated with an increase in higher-order brain activities, such as focus and decision-making.11 In other words, once the stress center had less influence over the other parts of the brain that are in charge of the executive functions like attention and decisions, the other parts of the brain were better able to perform those executive functions.

“‘[B]rain changes due to chronic stress . . . make[ ] us less capable of making decisions that can give us a healthy future both at an individual and cultural level.’”12 Therefore, counteracting stress with the brain changes from mindfulness becomes perhaps even more salient. Further, the impact of mindfulness on the amygdala may have other health benefits. For instance, one study found that people with high activity in the amygdala were at greater risk of heart disease and stroke.13

All of this is particularly critical in today’s climate, given the nowhigher levels of – and perhaps chronic – stress with which many of us are living, as noted in the APA poll and the information collected by the Task Force and the Institute for Well-Being in Law mentioned at the start of this article. Mindfulness can help us stop stressing out to stimuli that do not “deserve” a stress reaction.

Moreover, in reducing our stress reactions overall, we are reducing the chances of anxiety. While we should not over-simplify anxiety, and while anxiety should be treated by professionals, it has been shown that chronic stress and rumination can lead to anxiety. Likewise, the practice of mindfulness, although not a substitute for clinical therapeutics, can help with anxiety and be part of the process. For example, according to psychologists, when rumination is an issue, the first step is to identify the “cognitive distortion” or the trick that your mind is playing on you, where you may be imagining a potential negative future event as if it is inevitable, and, as you continue replaying it in your head, it becomes more and more real in your mind, but it is really not even a probable event statistically speaking.14

Mindfulness can help you [identify the cognitive distortion and stop rumination] by keeping you focused on the present non-judgmentally, rather than allowing your mind to continue on auto-pilot rehashing the past or ruminating on the future with a judgment that something has gone wrong or is going to go wrong. For example, mindfulness may help you recognize that perhaps the outcome of the future event causing you anxiety at a particular time is not actually within your control and, therefore, there is no reason for you to continue thinking about it, since you will not be able to solve anything by doing so. That said, your response to the event is within your control. And mindfulness gives you greater control over your response and, thereby, can decrease anxiety.15

III. Mindfulness Practice: A Sample, Simple Exercise

If you would like to try mindfulness, I encourage you to find a mindfulness class or coach near you. In the meantime, here is a brief “Awareness of Breath” exercise that you can practice on your own for as little as five minutes a day or longer, if you would like. As always, please take into account any physical limitation that may affect you and adjust the exercise to accommodate that.

~Sit in an upright position that feels stable.

~Rest your hands somewhere comfortable.

~Close your eyes gently (or, if open, allow your gaze to relax so that you are not trying to look at anything).

~Notice the sensations of where your body connects with the chair, the floor, etc. If you detect physical tension somewhere in your body, notice that and perhaps try to release the tension so you feel comfortable.

~Begin focusing on your breathing. Simply notice your breath entering and leaving your body and follow its path through your body.

~If your mind wanders to other thoughts, simply return your attention gently (without self-judgment or berating yourself) to your breathing. At those moments, remind yourself, there is nothing to do, no goal to achieve, simply feel your breath entering and leaving your body.

~Have you noticed a difference from breath to breath? Different sensations? Different sounds or smells?16

IV. Conclusion

Many factors over the last two years have exacerbated what were already high levels of stress and anxiety in the United States generally and especially among lawyers. With mindfulness, we achieve a healthier approach to the stressors in our lives and law practices, leading to less stress and anxiety. It’s within our reaction – and within our reach!

Endnotes

1. Gisela M. Munoz is Associate Counsel, Florida Region, D. R. Horton, Inc. The views expressed in this article are solely the views of the author, not of the author’s employer or any organization with which the author is affiliated. This article is for educational purposes only and does not contain legal advice or therapeutic advice.

2. Press Release, “Inflation, War Push Stress to Alarming Levels at TwoYear COVID-19 Anniversary,” American Psychological Association (March 10, 2022) (citing the American Psychological Association’s CEO, Arthur C. Evans, Jr., PhD), available at Inflation, war push stress to alarming levels at two-year COVID-19 anniversary (apa.org).

3. See Press Release, “National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being Establishes Institute for Well-Being in Law,” Institute for Well-Being in Law (April 26, 2021) (quoting Bree Buchanan, IWIL President), available at https:// www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-task-force-on-lawyer-wellbeing-establishes-institute-for-well-being-in-law-301276518.html.

4. Mary Elizabeth Williams, “Why Every Mind Needs Mindfulness,” Time Magazine Special Edition: Mindfulness, The New Science of Health and Happiness 10 (2016) (quoting University of Massachusetts mindfulness pioneer, Jon Kabat-Zinn).

5. See Kathleen Raven, “Stress, Anxiety, or Depression? Treatment Starts with the Right Diagnosis,” Yale Today, available at https://www.yalemedicine.org/stories/stress-anxiety-depression (May 21, 2020); Markham Heid, “Rising to the Challenge,” Time Magazine Special Edition: The Science of Stress 12 (display until December 13, 2019).

6. See Heid, at 13; Gisela M. Munoz, “Mindfulness: Lightening the Lawyer’s Load and Helping the Lawyer Lead during Trying Times,” at

7, The ACREL Papers (American College of Real Estate Lawyers (Fall 2020)). 7. Raven.

8. See Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy, “When Doubt Becomes Destructive,” Time Magazine Special Edition: The Science of Stress 58 (display until December 13, 2019); Jeena Cho, “No Magical Cure for Anxiety,” ABA Journal 12 (Sept.-Oct. 2019); Gisela M. Munoz, “Meant To Be: An Article About Mindfulness In the Practice of Law,” The Bulletin (Miami-Dade County Bar Association March 2017).

9. See Kelly McGonigal, “Embrace the Pressure,” Time Magazine Special Edition The Science of Stress 57 (display until December 13, 2019).

10. See Alice G. Walton, “7 Ways Meditation Can Actually Change the Brain,” Forbes (Feb. 9, 2015), available at http://www.forbes. com/sites/alicegwalton/2015/02/09/7-ways-meditation-can-actually-change-the-brain/#2c41fa2c7023.

11. See Tom Ireland, “What Does Mindfulness Meditation Do To Your Brain?,” Scientific American (June 12, 2014), available at https://blogs. scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/what-does-mindfulness-meditationdo-to-your-brain/.

12. Sophie Brickman, “When Stressed, We ‘Catastrophize’ – But We Can Learn To Calm Our Irrational Fears,” Guardian (June 21, 2022) (quoting Dr. Amy Arnsten, neuroscientist and psychologist at Yale Medical School), available at When stressed, we ‘catastrophize’ – but we can learn to calm our irrational fears | Sophie Brickman | The Guardian.

13. See Robert Preidt, “Here’s How Stress in Your Brain May Cause Heart Troubles,” Healthday (Jan. 12, 2017), available at http://www.cbsnews. com/news/heres-how-stress-in-your-brain-may-cause-heart-troubles/.

14. See Fosslien and Duffy, at 58.

15. Munoz, “Mindfulness: Lightening the Lawyer’s Load and Helping the Lawyer Lead during Trying Times,” at 9.

16. See Munoz, “Meant To Be: An Article About Mindfulness In the Practice of Law” (quoting most of the exercise directly from this article); see also Jennifer Gibbs, “Saving Lawyers 1 Breath at a Time: Mindfulness in the Law,” Law360 (Jan. 13, 2017), available at https://www.law360.com/ articles/880125; Scott Rogers, “Mindfulness in Law and the Importance of Practice,” The Florida Bar Journal 11 (Apr. 2016); Terry DeMeo, “How To Deal with Difficult People,” May 29, 2011, available at http://www. inner180.com/2011/05/29/how-to-deal-with-difficult-people/.

FALL 2022 eReport