Mindfulness and meditation are terms often used interchangeably. While both are wellness practices and share common traits, they’re two fundamentally different things. Understanding mindfulness vs meditation is crucial to determining the best way to incorporate each into your daily routine. Having both mindfulness and meditation in your routine is crucial to bringing calmness to your daily life and strengthening your relationships with others.
The benefit of mindfulness and meditation is that anyone can practice these at any time. If you’re looking for ways to work on self-improvement or boost your mental health, meditation and mindfulness are two practices you’ll want to master.
Read on to find out more about meditation vs mindfulness and practical advice on how to incorporate each into your life.
Table of Contents:
What is Meditation vs Mindfulness?
What is Mindfulness?
What is Meditation?
How are Meditation v Mindfulness Similar?
Practicing Meditation and Mindfulness Everyday
Summary:
- Although both are associated with wellness, meditation is a dedicated practice, while mindfulness is something you can practice at any time of your day.
- Mindfulness is an active practice that encourages us to engage with our body, mind, and spirit, by observing our surroundings, while being present in the moment.
- Meditation is a structured practice, of which mindfulness is a technique, that reduces stress and provides clearer thought by making us focus our mind on the present.
- Meditation and mindfulness have similar effects on the brain by regulating our nervous system to meditate on the impact of depression, anxiety, pain, or stress.
What is Meditation vs Mindfulness?
Although both are associated with wellness, meditation is a dedicated practice, while mindfulness is something you can practice at any time of your day. These two should be practiced together as part of your self-care routine. Meditation can help us become more mindful, while mindfulness doesn’t necessarily require us to meditate.
Here’s a short overview of mindfulness vs meditation:
What is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is an active practice that encourages us to engage with our body, mind, and spirit, by observing our surroundings, while being present in the moment.
The benefits of practicing mindfulness include:
- Feeling more connected to our environment, ourselves, and relationships.
- Enjoy the moment by slowing down, instead of rushing from one point to the next.
- Being present with ourselves and others in a moment.
What is Meditation?
Meditation is a structured practice, of which mindfulness is a technique, that reduces stress and provides clearer thought by making us focus our mind on the present. While mindfulness can happen anywhere at any time, meditation is more ritualistic.
The benefits of practicing meditation include:
- Relaxes the body’s nervous system, allowing us to feel more connected to ourselves.
- Focuses the mind to facilitate clearer thoughts.
- Improved sleep pattern, including deeper sleep.
- Positively impacting mental health, including reducing anxiety and stress.
- Reduce cardiovascular risk by improving stress management.
How are Meditation v Mindfulness Similar?
Although we should consider mindfulness and meditation to be two separate practices, they often overlap and rely on each other. When we practice mindfulness and meditation, our mind focuses on the present with a higher sense of awareness of our surroundings.
Practicing these can enhance your emotional well-being and allow you to achieve inner peace. They can also help you practice gratitude towards yourself and others.
Meditation and mindfulness have similar effects on the brain. It works by regulating our nervous system to meditate on the impact of depression, anxiety, pain, or stress. Most life coaches will encourage clients to incorporate mindfulness and meditation into their daily routine to feel happier and more fulfilled day-to-day.
Read more: What is a life coach?
Practicing Meditation and Mindfulness Everyday
You’ll want to take proactive steps to practice mindfulness and meditation as part of your daily routine to maximize their benefits. It only takes a few minutes every day to start your wellness journey, whether it’s a 5-minute meditation or practicing self-care with breathing exercises.
Here are some ways you can incorporate mindfulness into your everyday routine:
- Set a daily intention: give your day purpose by setting a daily intention at the start of your day. You can write this down in a journal or even a post-it note. Make it a positive and actionable intention to give your day direction. It may be to complete a task at work to boost your productivity or to recharge your mental batteries on your day off by relaxing at home.
- Listen to your body: help your mind and body to become one by listening to signs from your body. Having a heightened awareness of your body can help you become more mindful by grounding yourself in the present.
- Practice self-love: One of the best ways to practice mindfulness is to show yourself love and kindness. You can choose daily affirmations or do one thing every day that brings you happiness, whether it’s having your favorite coffee or de-stressing after work with a bubble bath.
- Breathing exercises: As life coaches, we often recommend breathing exercises to reduce stress. Feeding your brain with fresh oxygen can help you feel more present and reduce inflammation.
By comparison, meditation is a more guided practice that usually involves physical activity or long-term growth. Many meditation practices may sound like mindfulness practices, such as breathing exercises and having a mantra as an alternative to daily affirmations.
Here are some ways you can incorporate meditation into your daily routine:
- Yoga: Yoga is one of the most popular forms of meditation. It focuses on incorporating breathing exercises alongside stretching and movement. While signing up for a yoga class might feel daunting, there are thousands of beginner yoga classes with guided meditation to try at home on YouTube. There are yoga classes with modified movements to suit every body type and athletic ability.
- Journaling: While meditation is more deliberate than mindfulness, it doesn’t always require physical activity. Journaling is a great way to meditate by reflecting on your thoughts and feelings at a moment in time or looking back on situations in your past. Keeping a journal allows you to check in on yourself and your feelings.
- Breathing exercises: Unlike mindfulness, breathing exercises for meditation are more structured and happen over a longer period, anywhere from five minutes to half an hour. Try grounding yourself by sitting on the floor or by getting comfortable with a pillow. You can try meditating on a mat if it feels easier to do your breathing exercises that way.
- Physical exercises: Meditation looks different for everyone, and you can incorporate meditation into other activities. The goal of a meditation session is to focus on yourself and the moment in time by eliminating the background noise. Physical exercise can tick these boxes for some people, providing them with a way of becoming present in the moment by having a task to focus on. Try to incorporate instrumental music or soothing sounds into your workout to structure your meditation.
Embrace Mindfulness and Meditation with Teen Life Coaching
Seeing a teen life coach can help you put an actionable plan and routine in place for you or your child. Mindfulness and meditation are encouraged for people of all ages – and it’s never too early to start these wellness practices. Incorporating them into your daily routine will boost your daily well-being and improve your long-term mental health.
Book a discovery call to find out how a teen life coach can help you and your family incorporate mindfulness and meditation into your daily lives.
