Trial Magazine

Standing atop a steep and dark backcountry ski run in Jackson Hole, Wyo., I am dizzy with excitement. It is a cold, stormy morning—the deepest powder day of the year. The snow is coming down so thick I can hardly see. Heart racing with ­adrenaline, I drop onto the slope and peel a hard left turn into an untracked wall of snow.

With a heavy buckling, the slope explodes. A huge slab avalanche breaks above me, and I’m absorbed into a sea of snow and then spit out as the wall of snow accelerates. Suddenly I am airborne—thrown over a cliff, 50 feet into the air. I have no control. My life flashes before my eyes. As I hurtle into the canyon a thousand feet below, I reach out desperately and wrap myself around a huge fir tree. The tree knocks the wind out of me, but it holds me. I am bloody, disoriented, and alone—but I am alive.

I have learned a lot about fear, and about life, since that avalanche. I can still feel the rush of panic, loss of control, stress, and anxiety. I feel it as a trial lawyer too—just the same, in and out of the courtroom. After the avalanche, those feelings drove me to study mindfulness and triggered the beginning of my life as a meditator. Learning mindfulness has helped me, and now I always return to three basic principles when work and life become overwhelming.

Find some quiet. Research shows that meditation has significant health benefits,¹ and you can begin to realize those benefits in even a few minutes of simple breathing exercises. Start by trying this: Get up in the morning when the house is quiet, and give yourself five minutes to count your breath. This is called “breathing meditation” or “mindful breathing.”² I like to do “ladders”—take a full breath in and out and count numbers to anchor your focus. For example, you can count incrementally up to 10 with each breath (1-2-1, 1-2-3-2-1, and so on) or count each breath up to 10 and then back down to one. Remember that getting distracted is a normal part of the process. Acknowledge the thoughts that come, and then let them be there. The goal is to make an intentional choice about what you are focusing on.

In breathing meditation, the focus is on the breath, but the exercise easily translates to focusing on whatever moment we are in—whether it is dealing with a difficult opponent or standing up in a crucial moment at trial. Mindful breathing helps calm the mind and body, lower stress, and set a more centered and focused tone for the day.³

Find some joy. I strive to find—or create—joy in every day. For me, that involves aerobic exercise and helping people. Aerobic exercise boosts both physical fitness and the brain, helping it function at its best and increasing resistance to stress, anxiety, and depression.4 Exercise helps me clear my mind, let the past go, and move forward with a more positive and energized attitude.

I also have found that letting go of my ego and spending my time giving to others makes life far more rewarding. Days when I focus on (and sometimes even meditate on) other people and what I can do to make someone else’s life better are good days.

Start now! That avalanche could have killed me, and I have been close to enough tragedy over the years to learn that life is short. It’s a good reminder to live life today—don’t wait for things to change. Being a trial lawyer is hard work, and many of us spend too much time worrying and not enough time just doing and being. So I remind myself repeatedly that there is no shortcut; this is hard, but it also is rewarding. Start today, and ask yourself: What can I do today that will help me find some quiet? What can I do today that will bring me some joy?

Life is not perfect, and those of us who care about the world will always have challenges to deal with. To me, learning to thrive in the challenge—bringing some Zen to the fire we live in—is the way to a happy life.

Tyson Logan is a partner at the Spence Law Firm in Jackson, Wyo. He can be reached at logan@spencelawyers.com.

Notes

1. See, e.g., Britta K. Hölzel et al., Mindfulness Practice Leads to Increases in Regional Brain Gray Matter Density, 191 Psychiatry Res. 36 (2011); see also Arianna Huffington, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder (2014). 
2. For more on this basic exercise, see Diana Winston & Greater Good Sci. Ctr., A 5-Minute Breathing Meditation to Cultivate Mindfulness (Feb. 26, 2016), www.mindful.org/a-five-minute-breathing-meditation.  
3. Check out Headspace (www.headspace.com) or 10% Happier (www.10percenthappier.com), which both have great apps to get you started.
4. See, e.g., John J. Ratey, Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (2008).