What is the difference and connection between mindfulness and meditation?

Simply put, meditation is the general term for all practices that actively regulate attention and are intended to enhance inner awareness. Mindfulness is one of the most commonly used core techniques in the meditation system. It can also be independent of meditation practice and become a state of awareness that is integrated into daily life without judgment.

Maybe it's a bit abstract to say this. Let's take a scene that everyone can encounter. You are crowded into the subway during the morning rush hour. You are so crowded that you can't stand steadily. Your mind is still thinking about the plan to be submitted today and the children to be picked up in the evening. The more you think about it, the more annoyed you are. At this time, you deliberately bring your attention back and only feel the support of your feet on the ground. There is a cold feeling in your nose. Inhale and exhale warmly, even if it is only for 30 seconds. You are practicing mindfulness, but most likely no one will say that you are meditating. After all, meditation in the public perception is still a formal practice that requires special time, finding a quiet place, and even crossing your legs and closing your eyes. This is the most intuitive difference between the two.

Of course, this division is not absolute, and practitioners in different circles now have quite different opinions. For example, friends who practice traditional Theravada Vipassana always say that it is too simplistic to call "eating well" and "walking with concentration" all called mindfulness in the market. Strictly speaking, mindfulness is part of the practice of the four foundations of mindfulness. It must rely on formal meditation practice and practice step by step. Mindfulness separated from the context of practice can only be called "concentration."” ； Teachers who work in clinical psychology will feel that since Kabat-Zinn founded Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to dereligiously deify mindfulness, it is itself a transferable attention training method that can be used in daily intervention without meditation scenarios. It is not in the same context as traditional meditation with practice attributes. Each of the two views has its own basis, and there is no one who is right or wrong.

If we talk about the connection, in fact, the core of most common meditation practices cannot avoid the cultivation of mindfulness. When I had an anxiety attack two years ago, I followed the doctor's advice and took an 8-week MBSR course. It started with 15 minutes of sitting meditation every day. The requirement was to focus on my breathing and pull it back without judgment when my mind wanders. This process of repeatedly bringing my attention back is practicing mindfulness. After practicing for more than two months, I discovered that not only can I stabilize my mind when sitting down to meditate, but also when I usually feel irritable during long meetings, or when a client suddenly changes their needs, my first reaction is not to get angry, but to notice "Oh, I am in mood now" and not follow the mood. This is actually the mindfulness ability cultivated in meditation practice, which has been transferred to daily life.

To use an inappropriate analogy, meditation is like an entire sports center. There are various exercises in it, some for relaxation, some for spiritual practice, and some for training concentration. Different categories have different requirements.； Mindfulness is like core strength training. You need core strength to practice any event in the sports center. Even if you don't enter the sports center, you can deliberately tighten your core exercises when walking, sitting at work, or even carrying things. You don't have to change into sportswear to go to the venue.

In fact, for ordinary practitioners who just want to relieve stress and adjust their state, there is no need to struggle with the conceptual boundaries between the two. Whether it is taking 10 minutes to sit down and watch your breathing, or concentrate on feeling the salty aroma of the milk cap while drinking milk tea, as long as it can bring you back to the present from the tossing past and the anxiety that has not happened yet, it is good enough.