Casey Many people often confuse the two. In fact, mindfulness is one of the most popular types of meditation practice at the moment. In a broad sense, the two are often used side by side to refer to all psychological practices that actively regulate attention and anchor the present moment. The core function is to help people withdraw from uncontrollable distracting thoughts and emotional rumination.
When I first came into contact with this type of practice, I couldn’t tell the difference. I signed up for an offline introductory meditation camp. The first three classes only taught “counting breaths” and I would pull back when my mind wandered. At that time, I was wondering why it was completely different from the “empty my mind and float” meditation I imagined. Later I realized that it was the most basic mindfulness practice.
In fact, the boundaries of meditation are much wider than many people think. From ancient Indian meditation and Taoist meditation to the current popular transcendental meditation and loving-kindness meditation in Europe and the United States, any practice that actively regulates attention can be classified into the category of broad meditation. The goals of different schools are very different. Some pursue deep relaxation, and some even explore the boundaries of consciousness. What we often call mindfulness now is a non-religious practice method that Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn separated from traditional meditation in the 1970s. The core essence is to "be aware of the present moment without judgment" - it sounds a bit mysterious. In fact, if you are distracted in a meeting and suddenly think, "Why did I wander off again?", that moment of awareness without blame is a natural moment of mindfulness. Systematic mindfulness practice is nothing more than polishing this momentary awareness into a stable mental habit.
However, the current evaluation of mindfulness meditation is quite polarizing. Many of my friends in the Internet and financial industries have cured insomnia and chronic anxiety by practicing mindful breathing for 10 minutes a day. Some time ago, I read a study in The Lancet and said that the intervention effect of regular mindfulness practice on mild to moderate anxiety is no less than that of low-dose anti-anxiety drugs. However, many clinical psychologists have warned that the current mindfulness meditation classes on the market are too mixed, and many classes do not even include basic risk warnings. People with a history of trauma or severe depression may practice blindly, which may trigger acute stress in the process of awareness of emotions. There was a girl in the training group I was in before. She had been bullied in school when she was a child. When she was practicing "awareness of negative emotions" following a short video, her memories of that time were suddenly triggered. She was frozen for more than half an hour. She later found a psychological counselor to recover.
To put it bluntly, these two are actually tools for exercising the brain. Just like when you go to the gym, meditation is the general term for all sports, and mindfulness is the lowest threshold among them. Jogging, ordinary people can follow the two steps without any foundation, which can improve the heart and lungs and strengthen the body. However, if you have old knee injuries, running around will easily lead to problems. You really need to practice systematically and find a reliable guide, which is better than thinking blindly on your own.
