Mindfulness Vs Meditation, How Are They The Same Or Different?

Transcript

mindfulness versus meditation oh wait a minute are they two separate things aren't they used interchangeably as the same thing well yes and no let's look into why this is Dr CM almashat registered psychologist and mindfulness teacher I get asked that question very often and rightfully so it is kind of confusing like what is the difference between these two mindfulness and meditation let's first look at meditation on a broad level meditation is a formal practice where we are directing attention to something specific we're focusing on something specific now what is that something specific well it depends on the form of meditation is there just one form of meditation there's no a lot of types of meditation for example there's Mantra meditation where people repeat to certain words and can be very calming there is visualization type of meditation there is spiritual meditation where it's related to um whatever religion is reflecting on specific questions there's also focused meditation where you were focusing on something specific so it could be your breath it's going to be sounds so can we develop mindfulness in a meditation of course we can but let's first look at just mindfulness itself so what is mindfulness then mindfulness on its own it's the awareness we get when we intentionally pay attention in the present moment and we do so non-judgmentally what are we paying attention to well it could be our senses so we can be paying attention to our body it could be to sounds to sights as well as to thoughts emotions that's paying attention with mindfulness now does it only happen in meditation well no we can be mindful throughout the day meditation itself you can think of it as the gym where we build the muscle of mindfulness so if we're practicing mindfulness meditation we are working with getting to know our mind relating to our minds seeing our thoughts seeing our emotions paying attention to Sensations or it could be a breath and working with this very distracted mind all of us pretty soon seconds into trying to meditate our mind is going to drift and we're going to build a relationship with this mind not getting upset at this mind seeing where it goes and just lovingly coming back that's mindfulness meditation a form of meditation so now we can see clearly that we kind of need both we need a meditation practice to help us build our muscles of mindfulness and we can do a mindfulness meditation practice which is a form of meditation to specifically build this mindfulness muscles and there's a link below if you're interested I describe the different ways of practicing mindfulness there's formal informal ways that really gives us some options on practicing mindfulness so feel free to take a look there and by the way if you're finding this useful feel free to like share and if you haven't done so it really help me out as I would love to share more of this work now it's actually really great for all of us that meditation strengthens mindfulness I'll give you an example so you're at the grocery store well does that mean if you're wanting to be present now you have to meditate you have to do a formal practice where you like in the produce department and suddenly just decide I'm going to now want to be present cross your legs and just go right on to the floor or grab a chair and you're like now I'm going to meditate and close your eyes if that's how you do it well obviously not so mindfulness we can really bring it into this moment you're at the produce section in the grocery store and you can notice all the colors all here's the vegetables and here's the shapes of the different vegetables or the fruits there's a scent as you're walking by the grocery you can hear some sounds you can be aware of your body as you're walking all all these things you're present you're right there you're not doing what our brain likes to do most of the time and some research even says up to 50% of the time our mind is where somewhere else like not where we are not present we could be walking in the grocery store and our mind is already and some kind of argument mentally or remembering something or thinking about something so here we are being present with actually this very alive moment in our life so it's so beautiful bringing mindfulness and we can take it wherever we want so these are some of the differences between mindfulness and meditation and how they support each other and feel free to let me know your experience of practicing meditation and mindfulness and what you discovered from this video thank you for watching mer moments be filled with ease and may you be present in as many of them