What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

The most common consensus at present is that meditation covers all concentration and awareness training, and mindfulness is one of the most widespread and scientifically studied specific branches. However, practitioners in different fields actually have different understandings of the boundaries between the two.

Most of the introductory meditation courses you usually find on major content platforms and meditation apps are mindfulness meditation - guiding you to sit in a comfortable position and anchor your attention on your breathing or the touch of the tip of your nose. When your mind wanders to unfinished work and what you had for lunch, you can gently bring your attention back without criticizing your wandering thoughts, "Why am I distracted again?" This is the most typical mindfulness practice. But if you encounter the kind of positive suggestion course that guides you to imagine golden energy infusing your body from the top of your head, or repeatedly silently saying "I am great, I can", although it is also included in the category of meditation, it does not belong to the category of mindfulness.

If you ask practitioners with long-term practice experience, you will most likely get another statement: mindfulness is actually a state of staying aware, non-judgmental, and staying in the present moment, and meditation is just one of the ways to help you enter this state. I used to know a practitioner who runs a light food restaurant. He never takes 20 minutes to sit cross-legged on a mat and meditate. However, when chopping vegetables, he will carefully feel the crispness of the knife blade against the purple cabbage and the touch of the bursting juice of the tomatoes.

Nowadays, many people think that there is no need to distinguish the two words so clearly, which actually makes sense. After all, the "meditation" in the public context basically defaults to mindfulness meditation. If ordinary users just want to relieve anxiety and relax, there is no need to pick out the words and get entangled in classification. I used to give an analogy to friends who are just starting out. The relationship between the two is like fruit and apples. When you go to a fruit store and say you want to buy some fruit, it is definitely not wrong for the boss to bring you a red Fuji. But to be more serious, there are more than just apples, including oranges, bananas, and strawberries. In the broad sense of meditation, there are too many categories that have nothing to do with mindfulness.

It’s easy to make a true distinction. What we often call secular mindfulness now is the product of Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn who refined traditional Vipassana meditation in the 1970s and stripped away all religious attributes. In the past few decades, a large number of clinical studies have confirmed its effect on improving anxiety and reducing chronic stress levels.； The scope of meditation is much broader, including meditation and meditation practices in different religious systems, as well as various creative meditations developed in the new era, and even types such as moving meditation and dance meditation that do not require sitting at all.

For ordinary people, there is really no need to worry about what the name is. Whether it is mindfulness or meditation, after practicing it, you will feel that your mood is more stable, you are less likely to get into trouble, and you can focus more on the current things. This is a good method for you.