This month, I'm launching a space which is dedicated to short Daily Mindfulness Practices which you can do at home or at work. To take a look at the first five practices, simply click here.

Taking ten minutes out for yourself during the day to step out of automatic pilot mode can be a life-saver. Choose a quiet place, listen to a guided meditation track and prioritise this time for yourself. You may be surprised at how rested you feel.

Listen to the 3-Minute Breathing Space Meditation

The Wellbeing at the Bar report published in February 2024 (based on data from 2023) showed some improvements since the last report in 2021. However, worryingly and significantly, 34.9% of responders indicated they tended to feel down or in low spirits and of these, 23.7% reported low psychological wellbeing, while a third (31.4%) indicated they weren’t coping. Significantly, women, barristers from an ethnic minority background, and those who are younger and more junior had lower overall wellbeing. While barristers working in family law had significantly lower overall wellbeing compared to all other practice areas, except for the Criminal Bar.

The key findings include the following:

• Overall, barristers reported higher levels of work satisfaction and wellbeing in 2023 when compared to 2021. This was in terms of their psychological wellbeing, workload management and supportive work environment.
• 73% of respondents agreed they had supportive colleagues and/or work environment, a...

A comprehensive report released in the 2020 Journal of The Professional Lawyer which surveyed more than 1,000 judges across the United States suggests job stress has become a serious health concern in the state judicial ranks, with about one-third or more reporting fatigue and low energy, sleep disturbance or disturbed attention and concentration. The survey was carried out before the pandemic.

Interestingly, for stress relief, mindfulness was endorsed as a current activity by 36% of responders, although 81% of the judges were interested in it. The report concluded that this "suggests that the 45% gap may reflect a potential for further training in this highly effective resiliency skill."

To read the full report, click here.

This report published two years ago by the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime is the most comprehensive report on global judicial wellbeing ever compiled with data from 758 members of the judiciary and staff in 102 countries. The key findings make hard reading and it's clear that more must be done to raise awareness and promote open dialogue on the challenges faced by the judiciary and their support staff.

The key findings include the following:

One of the interesting findings was that many of the survery participants appreciated their judiciary's efforts to promote wellbeing but would welcome continued online training opportunities to promote work-life balance, wellness or mindfulness, self-care courses and group support with colleagues.

To read the full report, click here.

This season, to celebrate the Mindful Life Podcast, Im releasing a free E-Book: "Building Your Mindfulness Practice" for all new subscribers to Everyday Mindfulness. Simply subscribe by clicking here to receive your copy.

You'll also get three Mindfulness practices and an 8-week mindfulness log to record your journey. Happy reading.

In this week's episode of Mindful Life, I look at some of the difficulties you might encounter when you start to meditate, how to overcome them and how to build your daily practice.

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Find out more about mindfulness here: www.gillianhiggins.co.uk (http://www.gillianhiggins.co.uk/)

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...Then you can now listen to all episodes of the Mindful Life Podcast on the new channel. Simply click here.

Info About Mindful Life

The Mindful Life podcast shares practices, hints and tips on how to bring mindfulness into your daily life. As well as sharing her own thoughts, host Gill Higgins also invites guests to share their practices to help bring a little more calm into daily life.
Gill is an international war crimes barrister, mindfulness teacher, author and mother who comes to mindfulness out of sheer need.

Last week, I spoke to Sharon Salzberg, one of my all-time favourite mindfulness teachers and authors. As many of you may know, Sharon has a no-nonsense, practical, and relatable style of explaining mindfulness. She's a pioneer in the field of meditation, a world-renowned teacher, and the New York Times bestselling author of Real Happiness and other books. She's played a pivotal role in bringing meditation and mindfulness into mainstream American culture since the 1970s, including co-founding the Insight Meditation Society with Jack Kornfield and Joseph Goldstein in 1975. I had the pleasure of talking to Sharon last month about about mindfulness, her Thirteenth book, "Finding Your Way", how she came to the practice and some of her inspirations.

You can listen to the interview on the Mindful Life podcast on Spotify, Apple, or here. 

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Find out more about mindfulness here: www.gillianhiggins.co.uk

Read my book, Mindfulness at Work and Home: ...