What are mindfulness and meditation

Simply put, meditation is a general term for all practices that regulate physical and mental regulation by actively regulating attention and anchoring the present state. Mindfulness is the most widely used and popular branch of the meditation system. The core essence is to be aware of current thoughts, body feelings, and surrounding environment without judgment.

When I first came into contact with the two, I was confused. I thought they both required me to wear a meditation suit and sit cross-legged on a futon to clear my mind. Once I did a five-minute mindful breathing exercise with the teacher. My mind was filled with the work news that I had not answered just now and what I was going to eat for dinner. The more I tried to push the thoughts out, the more irritated I became. The teacher smiled and told me that there is no need to chase the thoughts, just treat them as floating clouds in the sky. Just stand on the ground and watch them, and just know that they are passing by. There is no need to chase them or stop them.

Most of the mindfulness practices that we ordinary people have access to now are derived from the mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy launched by Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. He stripped the mindfulness content in traditional Buddhist practice of religious attributes and changed it into a completely secular body and mind adjustment tool. Now many clinical psychology departments and psychiatry departments in tertiary hospitals use mindfulness as an auxiliary intervention method for anxiety and depressive disorders. A large number of clinical studies have confirmed that regular mindfulness practice for more than 8 weeks can significantly reduce anxiety levels and improve sleep quality.

However, the controversy over mindfulness meditation is not small now. On the one hand, some people exaggerate it, as if practicing it can solve all emotional problems, and it has even become a "standard solution for successful people." Many commercial courses deliberately exaggerate the efficacy and charge high tuition fees. In the end, if the practice has no effect, students blame themselves for not being meditative enough.”； On the other hand, there are also critics who believe that transforming the original spiritual practice tool into an "emotional stabilization tool" suitable for the workplace is essentially helping capital tame employees, so that everyone can adjust themselves first when encountering pressure and not resist the unreasonable work pace. Some even think that this is completely an IQ tax.

In fact, I have been practicing it for more than three years, but I feel that there is no need to praise it too highly or beat it to death with a stick. It is essentially a tool for strength training for the brain - just like you practice squats to train your leg muscles, practicing mindfulness is to train your attention control muscles. In the past, when you were wrapped up in negative emotions, you couldn't even notice it. By the time you realized it, you had been angry for half an hour. After practicing for a long time, you will be able to notice when the emotions first arise, and you will have more space to "choose whether to get stuck in". I have a friend who works on Internet products. He used to panic until his hands shook every time he stayed up late before launching a project. Now, before every high-pressure requirements review meeting, he would sit at his workstation with his eyes closed for 3 minutes, focusing only on the breath and touch of the tip of his nose. Gradually, he rarely went blank on the spot.

Of course, not everyone is suitable for practicing. If you have severe post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or acute mental disorder, rash mindfulness exercises such as body scans may trigger traumatic memories. It is best to do it under the guidance of professionals. You don’t have to sit cross-legged for half an hour. Wearing headphones for 10 minutes of guidance when commuting, deliberately feeling the force of your feet on the ground when walking, or even focusing on tasting the food without using your phone while eating are all informal mindfulness exercises.

In the final analysis, these two things are not that mysterious. Whether they are useful or not, if you take 5 minutes to follow the free guidance audio and try it once, it will be more effective than watching any analysis.