The Difference Between Mindfulness And Meditation

Photo by Mario Dobelmann

Although many misunderstand mindfulness and meditation to be exactly the same, in actuality, there are quite a lot of differences between mindfulness and meditation. In fact, mindfulness is a kind of meditation that involves various steps and that which helps one to completely aware of the present moment, enjoying every single aspect of it. It can be defined as the art of being completely aware of the present moment.

Meditation on the other hand, is more about relieving oneself of all that is around oneself, and reaching up to a consciousness that is beyond the material world.  In meditation, one surrenders even the idea oneself and this makes the body completely relaxed as there is nothing to be worried about. There are some meditation styles that relax the body even better than sleep. Such meditation styles helps in enhancing the communication between the two hemispheres of the brain by strengthening the corpus callosum and this results in better relaxation and effective solutions during the time of high-level stress.

Just like it takes time yield results in a gym workout, practicing meditation require time to have an effect on the mind and body of the practitioner. Moreover, just as in case of gym workout, the process might be difficult and might require more effort initially, but with time, it would surely become smooth and effective. Moreover, to yield best results, it is always better to stick on to daily practice of meditation rather than doing it once in a blue moon and then complaining about it being not effective.

Being human beings, every day is different and the moods keep on changing too. Meditation too would be affected by these changes and subsequently, it might seem to be smooth and easy on sometimes, but on some other days, meditation might require quite a lot of effort. Thus it is extremely important to keep on practicing in order to yield best results and patience and persistence are the only shortcuts to positive effects. It is also recommended that one approach a proper trainer or practitioner than practicing it with insufficient knowledge as the latter might have adverse effects. While practicing meditation, it is extremely important to first find the most appropriate style of meditation that suits the individual than trying out all styles of meditation and yielding no results.