The Red Velvet Lawyer

Focus and be well-rested?  Every law student's elusive desire.  For today's class on test taking strategies and test anxiety, I asked our new 1L students to read M.H. Sam Jacobson's article: Paying Attention or Fatally Distracted?  Concentration, Memory, and Multi-Tasking in a Multi-Media World ( 2010).  She skillfully digests the science behind her thesis that students cannot be successful in law school if they do not manage distractions.  She also recommends getting plenty of sleep. Yesterday, as I was cleaning up my email box (and trying to avoid distractions), I found a web interview of Dr. Richard J. Davidson, co-author of The Emotional Life of Your Brain.    The  interview  (53 minutes) talked about the plasticity of the brain and how mindfulness meditation can help people manage distractions and shape the brain in helpful ways.  I knew some of this science from my own experience, training, and reading.  But, in one of those odd moments of synergy, this

A tunnel, an archway, and the view beyond.   I used these images in a guided meditation with our new 1Ls to help them capture their subconscious dreams for their law school careers and their future as lawyers.   Here's the text I used.  Before launching into it, I took the students through the Getting Vertical M editation  described here .  Again, I want to thank my business coach, Christine Kane, for inspiring this meditation.  Tunnel, Archway, and View Beyond Meditation Inspired by Christine Kane (as remembered by Paula Marie Young) Now imagine yourself at the mouth of a passage-way or tunnel You cannot yet see the end of it But you take a step into it You are entering three stages of your career at law school The first stage represents your first year in law school, where you begin to learn the jargon, and the ways of thinking, and analysis, and begin to develop the professional relationships you will have for the rest of your life Now imagi

As I noted in an earlier posting , we welcomed our incoming 1L students to the school on Friday.  They are really quite wonderful people. I taught two sessions of the Introduction to Law course.  I ended both of the sessions with a guided meditation.  I want to acknowledge that my business coach, Christine Kane, introduced me to this meditation.  I'll post the second one tomorrow. Getting Vertical Meditation By Christine Kane (as modified by Paula Marie Young) Close your eyes Take a deep breath in your own rhythm Take another breath This time see if you can inhale on the count of 4 and slowly exhale on the count of 6, using this Yoga breathing technique to calm the parasympathetic nervous system Continue to breath in this way, and Slowly bring your attention to your tailbone Imagine a cord running from it through the floor to the center of the Earth Imagine it as a gold cord It’s beautiful and radiant And, at the end of it hangs a gold bric