What are the differences between mindfulness and meditation?

For those who have been in the physical and mental practice circle all year round, the most intuitive difference between the two is actually the core mentality during practice - most of the conventional meditation we often say is "seeking concentration", while mindfulness is "seeking awareness".

When I first started practicing meditation with the APP, the guide always said, "If you notice your mind wandering, pull it back immediately." At that time, I would blame myself whenever I had random thoughts and felt that I had no talent. Every time I finished practicing, I was more tired than before. I always wondered whether I had not focused for more than ten seconds. It wasn’t until I attended a mindfulness workshop later that the teacher’s first words relieved all my previous anxiety: “It’s so normal to be distracted. The moment you can notice that your mind is wandering, that’s when mindfulness takes effect. ”

Behind this is actually a difference in practice logic. Conventional meditation often pursues "reduce distracting thoughts and enter a state of relaxation." Most of them have to find a quiet place, sit cross-legged, close your eyes, and try to eliminate external interference.； But mindfulness has no such limitation at all. When squeezing in the subway, you can feel the frosted texture of the handrails. When eating, you can feel the sweetness and chewing texture of each mouthful of rice. Even if someone is making noise next to you, you don't have to block it. Just know "Oh, there is a sound now". There is no need to force yourself into a state of "no thought".

Speaking of which, the boundaries between the two are not completely unified in academic circles and practice circles. Some scholars who study religion and traditional yoga believe that mindfulness is originally part of the Eightfold Path of Buddhism and is a branch of Vipassana meditation. It is essentially a kind of meditation. There is no need to mention it separately.； But most practitioners of clinical psychological intervention don’t see it that way. The secularized mindfulness currently used for depression intervention and chronic pain management has long been stripped of its original religious attributes. It doesn’t even require you to sit cross-legged. The targeted technology has completely different goals from traditional meditation, so separation is inevitable.

I used to go to rehabilitation with an elder at home who had chronic back pain. The mindfulness body scan taught by the rehabilitation teacher allowed him to take the initiative to notice the location of the pain, whether it was sore or tingling. Don't hold it in when it hurts, just look at the pain. On the contrary, it was much more effective than relying on meditation to "forget the pain" before. The elder said that after practicing for half a month, at least he would not be so irritated that he could not sleep when he was in pain.

Later, I always compared it to my friends who were just starting out. Traditional meditation is like putting a glass of water mixed with sediment on the table without moving, waiting for the sediment to sink to the bottom and the water to become translucent. What we pursue is a stable state of "no distracting thoughts"； Mindfulness is like walking with a glass of water. You clearly see the sediment sloshing around in the water, but you don't shake it intentionally and you don't rush to make it clear. You just see the existence of the sediment. It doesn't matter even if the water is always muddy. You don't regard the sediment as the water itself. That's enough.

In fact, for those of us who are ordinary practitioners, there is really no need to dig too hard into the definition. If you are tired recently and want to find half an hour to relax quietly, it is absolutely fine to choose traditional breathing meditation.； If you tend to get stuck in past regrets or future anxieties, try mindful awareness that you can do at any time, and it might be more suitable.