Today we’d like to introduce you to Idara E. Bassey
Hi Idara E., thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’d be happy to! While I am an attorney by training, I have had a lifelong interest in personal development and esoteric studies that I have cultivated and developed even going as far to earn a Doctoral Degree in Metaphysical Counseling. I had every intention of keeping these two worlds separate until I received a phone call from an Atlanta-area lawyer in 2015 who had inquired about booking some energy healing sessions with me. She insisted on retaining me over other practitioners as she felt as a lawyer I could “speak her language.” She was a client of mine for many years and during our work together it dawned to me that these two worlds I inhabited, so to speak could come together.
I have since worked with corporate professionals (in addition to lawyers) on matters of executive performance, soft skills training, values alignment, stress reduction and wellness and continue to do so via my private coaching firm JOY Counsel LLC (www.LoveYourLawyerLife.com)
I love to write and have published extensively in the self-help/spirituality genre over the past 20+ years. My award-winning essay collection Reflections of a Mystical Sistah (iUniverse Publishing) tells the “story behind the story” of creating my own lawyer life on my terms.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It hasn’t always been a smooth road. I believe any time you are trying to create a new path forward in life there are obstacles involved- internal and external that you have to contend with and taking risks and travelling into the unknown isn’t always a comfortable process. My life has been full of such “jumping off the cliff into the unknown”-type moments- one, in particular, is when I left a high-profile job in Washington DC to work for myself and a few years later move across the country to a city (San Diego) where I knew no one. It did not occur to me at all that this was a courageous (or risky) thing to do. I mapped out this course of action from a rational, methodical, intellectual place (or so I thought at the time); reasoning that if I was miserable in D.C. practicing law, there was at least a chance that things would improve if I did something about it. In fact, to this day it is still not something I grasp entirely- where I got the guts to do what I did until I spoke to a good girlfriend of mine recently (who witnessed the whole thing) who was recently contemplating a similar 180-degree turn in her life/career some 12 years later and was seeking my advice. So in summary sometimes our ability to take risks is born out of a realization that continuing to travel down the same path in any given situation will not produce anything new. If we even do as much as pivot a little in a different direction, there’s a possibility of creating a better situation. My life experiences have assisted me in relating to my clients who may also be trying to create improvements in their lawyer lives.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
In my work with JOY Counsel LLC I specialize in working with women lawyers who struggle with prioritizing their self-care by using tools and practices they never learned in law school so they can enjoy the personal and professional well-being they deserve. When I think about how my lawyer life has unfolded (and is still unfolding), I lead by distilling some unique lessons I have picked up along the way to pass along to my clients who are engaged in their inner reflection and evaluation of their lawyer lives. These lessons revolve around the following:
1.) Remembering that Status Quo is Just a Suggestion (Mindset)- when we look at a can of vegetables on the shelf in the store and we may see a small sign on it that says, “Serving Suggestion.” If we purchase the item we are not obligated to serve the vegetables in the exact manner pictured on the can- it literally is just a suggestion- meaning that how the world shows up in our experience is only one version of how it can unfold. There are many other versions available and one of them will resonate with your unique configuration of skills, talents, and temperament and your task is to search for the best fit.
2.) Recognizing the Limits of Thinking Like a Lawyer-
We all know that lawyering is primarily a left-brained exercise- We lead with logic and analysis to provide service to our clients. However, it is important to realize that this approach only goes so far. Lately for many of my fellow law colleagues, it’s been a season where everything that they knew to be true and dependable has been upended. Consciously cultivating new tools and training in ways of eliciting new insights has been the only way I have been able to respond to changes in the legal market. A legal professional with an agile mind and a receptive spirit paves the way to better lawyering and a more fulfilling (lawyer) life experience.
3.) The Importance of Passion & Purpose
It is important to find a cause or activity that you are passionate about and incorporate it into your life somehow- plugging it into the energy of it just really makes life worth living. There are so many places where there is a need for either your legal expertise or your non-law-related gifts and talents. Make it a priority to decide on what quality of life you wish to experience by sharing these gifts and talents for the benefit of others. I insist on it and tell my clients that they can as well.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
I firmly believe in living a truthful and authentic life as you can. Our society is not often hospitable to people who question or otherwise wonder if the way things have always been done is the best (or only) way. So navigating what you know in your heart to be true and what is in your immediate environment becomes a point of stress. In the legal profession specifically, women lawyers may feel aspects of who they are wind up on the cutting room floor out of necessity. Or that integrating the values that are most meaningful to them isn’t feasible. While the culture of the legal profession is changing (albeit slowly), its continued evolution depends on individuals voicing their unique perspectives, quietly pushing back against the status quo, and proposing new configurations for working that consider a broader range of perspectives. It’s why I feel it is so important for people to hold a vision in their hearts about what is true for them and try to live their truth.
Pricing:
- Love Your Lawyer Life Discovery Call (Complimentary) https://calendly.com/loveyourlawyerlife/20-minute-meeting
- Love Your Lawyer Life Intuitive Consultation (375.00) https://calendly.com/loveyourlawyerlife/corporate-intuitive-consultation
- Workplace Assessment (525.00) https://calendly.com/loveyourlawyerlife/workplace-assessment
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.loveyourlawyerlife.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/attyartisthealer/
Image Credits
Photograph by Lenna Davis