What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

The most common perception at present is that meditation is a broad category covering many attention training methods, and mindfulness is the most popular branch of it.； However, in the circle of professional practitioners of mindfulness intervention, many people believe that mindfulness is a complete life attitude and training system, and meditation is only one of the carriers of mindfulness practice.

If you are new to this kind of physical and mental training, the first thing you will most likely encounter is mindfulness meditation - sit cross-legged, focus on the touch of your breath, and gently bring your attention back when your mind wanders, without criticizing yourself for being distracted, or making up stories based on wandering thoughts. This is the most typical mindfulness-oriented meditation. But if you come into contact with other schools of meditation, you will find obvious differences: for example, transcendental meditation requires practitioners to repeat specific mantras silently, and the core goal is to enter a state of deep relaxation and thoughtlessness. ； Meditation in some traditional religious systems also includes steps for visualizing specific patterns and reciting mantras. These are all within the scope of meditation, but they have nothing to do with the core logic of mindfulness. Mindfulness fundamentally does not pursue "thinking about nothing". Instead, it allows all thoughts and emotions to emerge naturally, and just requires you to be aware of it without judgment.

However, most of the practitioners around me who practice mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) are not used to classifying mindfulness under the subcategory of meditation. After all, when Kabat-Zinn first separated mindfulness from the traditional meditation system and scientifically transformed it, the core definition he gave was "purposeful, non-judgmental, awareness of the present moment." This awareness does not need to be limited to the scene of cross-legged meditation.

I once met a client who worked as a salesperson. He felt itchy all over after sitting quietly for more than 5 minutes. He said that he couldn't practice regular meditation. I taught him to stand downstairs for 2 minutes every time before meeting a client. He felt the feeling of the soles of his shoes on the ground and the temperature of the wind blowing against his ears. Even if he only focused for 120 seconds, it was a serious mindfulness practice. He practiced intermittently for two months, and said that the stomachache he suffered from panic before meeting a big client was mostly cured, and he did not sit down and "meditate" once during the whole process.

To be honest, people tend to confuse the two. The essence is that almost all the meditation content currently promoted in the mass market is mindfulness-oriented. Over time, it is easy to equate the two. It is not difficult to make a simple distinction: if you sit cross-legged and practice breathing awareness, it is both meditation and mindfulness practice. ； You concentrate on chewing a bun, feeling the wheat aroma of the dough and the salty taste of the fillings, without checking your phone or thinking about work during the whole process. This is mindfulness but not meditation. If you think this way, you will rarely get confused.