Meditation and breath
Mindfulness vs. Meditation: What’s the Difference?
Meditation is a family of practices; mindfulness is a quality of attention, and also the name of one kind of meditation. You can meditate without practicing mindfulness, for example by repeating a mantra, and you can bring mindfulness to washing dishes without sitting down to meditate. Mindfulness meditation is where the two overlap.
What is meditation?
A broad category. According to the NCCIH, the term refers to a variety of practices that focus on mind and body integration and are used to calm the mind and enhance well-being. Some hold attention on one thing, such as the breath, a sound, an image or a mantra; others practice mindfulness.
What is mindfulness?
A way of paying attention. The Wikipedia article on mindfulness describes it, in clinical psychology, as the cognitive skill of, or state reached by, intentionally keeping moment-by-moment awareness of bodily sensations, feelings, thoughts and immediate surroundings, with a non-judgmental or equanimous attitude.
The word has a long history. It translates the Pali term sati, which the article notes literally carries the meaning of memory, and the scholar Thomas William Rhys Davids first rendered it as “mindfulness” in 1881.
How did mindfulness become its own thing?
Through medicine and psychology. The same article reports that mindfulness was introduced in Western medicine in 1975 by Herbert Benson, and built into health programs and psychotherapy in the 1970s and 1980s by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Zindel Segal and Mark Williams. That is how a Buddhist term became the basis of secular programs such as mindfulness-based stress reduction.
It has critics, too. The article notes the argument that mindfulness has been over-commercialized, and that a “McMindfulness” version strips it of its Buddhist ethical and wisdom roots in favor of a productivity-focused self-help product.
How do the two fit together?
Think of three cases:
- Meditation without mindfulness: a focused practice such as repeating a mantra, where the aim is to hold one object rather than observe everything.
- Mindfulness without formal meditation: paying full, non-judging attention to an ordinary activity, such as eating or walking.
- Mindfulness meditation: setting aside time to sit and practice that open, non-judging attention on purpose.
Which should you start with?
Whichever you will actually do. If you want a set daily practice, start with a short mindfulness meditation. If sitting still does not suit you, practice mindfulness in one routine activity each day, such as your first cup of coffee, noticing taste, temperature and the thoughts that pass, and letting them go without following them.
This article is general information, not medical or psychological advice; talk with a licensed clinician about your own situation.