The word mindfulness can be understood to mean remembering—remembering the breath, remembering an intention, remembering one’s values, remembering what matters. Given the mind’s wandering nature and the commonplace tendency to get lost in mind wandering, remembering keeps us on track. Mindfulness practices, like focusing attention on the breath, help to steady attention and enhance the likelihood of noticing mind wandering, thereby allowing us to refocus more readily on what really matters.
Earlier this month, Debi Galler passed away. Among her many gifts to this world, between 2016 and 2019, Debi crafted a collection of thoughtful articles on the value of mindfulness within the legal profession. She introduced readers to various mindfulness insights, drawing on her own reflections and those of prominent teachers and historical figures such as Brené Brown, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Jalaluddin Rumi, Sharon Salzberg, and Mark Twain. She introduced readers to important mindfulness practices, including focused attention, open monitoring, mindful listening, and mindful walking, and she addressed topics ranging from working with fear, to enhancing client relations, to furthering justice.
For those who may not have known Debi, she was a beautiful human being. Along with being a superb attorney—having practiced law for many years with Berger Singerman LLP and then serving as general counsel to Green Street Power Partners LLC in Tallahassee, Florida—she was authentic, joyful, hopeful, and kind. Keeping things real, she noted in one of her pieces, “Even as a mindfulness practitioner, I still, on occasion, have [one of those days.] Mindfulness is not so much about not having stressful days (it comes with the territory of being a lawyer) as it is about being better at dealing with them.”
