Attorney Wellness
| Publication year | 2021 |
| Pages | 0058 |
| Citation | Vol. 26 No. 6 Pg. 0058 |
Playing Music, the Brain and the Intellectual Dimension of Lawyer Well-Being
“Music has healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours.”—Sir Elton John
BY ERIC BALLINGER
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting quarantines, lawyer well-being has become a popular topic. As many lawyers have had to deal with isolation, working from home and reduced income, reduced revenues or even losing a job, the topic is on the mind of many members of the Bar these days. However, lawyer well-being has been a developing subject for some time now, with both the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia devoting a great deal of time and effort to the matter.
Lawyers have begun searching for work-life balance in the pursuit of mental, physical and social wellness in their personal lives. The goal was to combat the
problems created by the stress and fatigue brought on by the practice of law. This attempt to balance one's career and personal life has proven to be impossible.[1] In 2017, the National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being (now the Institute for Well-Being in Law) released a report entitled "The Path to Lawyer Well Being: Practical Recommendations for Positive Change."[2] In the report, the task force defined lawyer wellbeing as "a continuous process in which lawyers strive for thriving in each dimension of their lives," and identified these six dimensions as emotional, occupational, intellectual, spiritual, physical and social well-being. Here, we'll take a look at ways a lawyer can thrive intellectually.
While there are many ways that lawyers and non-lawyers develop the intellectual dimension of their lives, I've found that one of the most rewarding is learning to play a musical instrument. In her article for the Federal Practitioner entitled "A Prescription for Music Lessons,"[3] Debra Shipman, Ph.D., R.N., said, "Learning to play a musical instrument provides a peaceful retreat from the pressures of daily life. Therapeutic outcomes of playing music include better communication skills, improved emotional release, and decreased anxiety and agitation."
In her article, Dr. Shipman discussed the effects that learning to play a musical instrument have in dealing with depression, mental stimulation and dexterity. Musical training provides a multisensory integration of the senses with specific motor responses that can reorganize the brain's neural pathways. As we all age, there is a progressive loss of auditory function, cognition, memory and motor control; however, some evidence supports the idea that learning to play a musical instrument that involves sensorimotor practices can slow this degradation as we get older. The evidence also supports that learning to play an instrument can reduce the likelihood of cognitive impairments in advanced age, such as dementia.
Eric Ballinger picked up the guitar about 16 years ago, playing every night after his son was asleep, and soon built up the calluses to prove his...
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