The Mindfulness Blog

It may not be politically correct to say so, but there seem to be increasingly alarming similarities between COVID deniers, climate change deniers, January 6 deniers and the leaders of the business world-- especially the legal profession-- who refuse to do more than virtue signal their support for workplace wellbeing.

That may be a harsh comparison, but one thing is for sure-- the character trait of stubborn denial has grown in popularity recently, among certain of our leaders. Some of us have respectfully-- some might even say, compassionately-- indulged and put up with a lot of denial, but at what point does that indulgence become destructive?

I recently posted a piece about a self-compassion meditation, and it was viewed/positively responded to by well over six hundred people, leading me to conclude that a lot of us agree about the importance of self-compassion-- and isn't concern for one's wellbeing a part of self-compassion? It's time that concern for wellbeing become as compelling as our embrace of self-compassion!

For lawyers (of whom I was one for almost forty years), the process of distancing oneself from compassion-- both for ourselves and for others-- begins in law school and is fine-tuned by the behavior modelled by senior lawyers in most law firms. The indoctrination is constant as well as unrelenting, and I suspect the same is true throughout the wider business world.

But just because our some of our elders may not model compassion, doesn't mean we can't practice compassion, ourselves -- just because some of our elders don't recognize the critical importance of workplace wellbeing, doesn't mean we can't look after our wellbeing by ourselves.

Respect and compassion? Absolutely. Indulgence and destruction? Absolutely not.