Mindfulness vs Meditation: Differences, Benefits & Which Is Better?

When life becomes ‘all too much’—when the pings and to-dos are relentless and buzzing, with all the social media and inner voice to keep us in check — a breath of inner space to simply just ‘be’ suddenly appears to be impossible. One reason for this is that we hear meditation vs mindfulness all the time. While, frankly, folks use them interchangeably, they’re not exactly synonymous.

Mindfulness is essentially about becoming aware of what’s happening now.

Meditation is, on the other hand, a group of techniques designed to facilitate access to certain states of mind. You can practice mindfulness as part of your meditation sessions, but you can also practice while eating, running, talking, working, and so on. The good news is you can simply incorporate them into an ideal and productive way if you want, without much effort. They do not need to substitute each other.

By understanding how mindfulness and meditation differ, you’ll be able to craft an approach that suits you personally and fits your lifestyle.

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness – It’s attending to what is in the here and now fully and openly, non-judgementally in the first instance. Which sounds straightforward enough, but in actual reality, the vast minority of us are not mindful a significant portion of the time. We might have breakfast whilst checking our phones, be sat listening to somebody whilst our mind is formulating our next witty contribution, or be in our cars listening to music whilst dwelling on everything we missed the night before.

If you want to use mindfulness as part of a routine for managing everyday pressure, explore our mindfulness practices for stress relief for practical ideas.

The mindful state can also function as a gentle nudge to bring your attention back to the practice at hand. In drinking a cup of tea, for example, you could be drinking and recognize, while drinking the cup, that warm water is being ingested, that it tastes, for me, thus and such, that it smells thus and such, that it is warming your gut, that it warms your hands as you cradle the cup. Nothing feels fantastic about any of this, or marvelous, yet you really are paying attention instead of mentally projecting into the day to come!

According to the American Psychological Association, mindfulness is both consciousness of internal states and of the external world around you, and is sometimes used to describe behavior in an observable or even unobservable, non-rational, or implicit mode of consciousness, characterized by automatic and thoughtless responses to experiences.

What Is Meditation?

Meditation is an umbrella term that covers any practice that trains attention &awareness in some way or that can establish a desired state of mind and experience with training. Meditations comes in many varieties–Some meditate on the breath; some use meditation with mantra, sound, one of their sense experiences, an object, an act of love and others use open awareness. Different forms of mediation may range from spiritual and religious to secular.

The National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health website defines meditation as “a group of mind and body practices used to relax and better focus the mind to reduce stress and improve general well-being.” The most elementary of which is breath meditation, which, the simplest version I’ve come across, involves sitting still with the breath for 5-10 minutes a day while gently redirecting attention to the breath if it drifts. The point: Meditation is a verb; the experience of life (being) is a verb also.

What Is the Difference?

Let’s make this simple: Meditation is the practice of what to do during training, and mindfulness is your new skill for the rest of the day. Meditation usually takes a specific amount of time. Whether or not it’s sitting straight up, shutting your eyes, counting your breaths, or doing a mindless exercise similar to focusing on your respiration, you might discover it occurs throughout a particular time. Mindfulness, nevertheless, is something that you can do once you are walking through the park, washing clothes, and even sitting with a pal.

Mindfulness and meditation can also be used to develop greater awareness of thoughts and emotions. Our mindfulness guide for anxiety provides additional practices to explore.

You don’t have to go to a specific place or take a particular posture to meditate.

Also there are not all types of meditating in a “mindful” direction. We can spend time mindfully using a phrase/word, by cultivating care, by concentrating on an item, so we generally bring some mindfulness to the body, mind, thoughts, and feelings without giving any thought/decision or judgment to it.

A Simple Example

You find yourself in a quiet room; with effort, concentrate on the breath for 10 minutes, observe when the mind drifts, and gently bring it back. You are doing meditation.

Subsequently, you are walking to work.

Instead of churning over and over with an argument you had, you bring your awareness to your footfalls, to the motion of your body, the ambient noise, and the feel of the air on your skin. You are mindful. They are closely intertwined but are not always the same.

Similarities Between Mindfulness and Meditation

Although they are distinct, there are lots of similarities between meditation and mindfulness practice. Both offer people a way to take time in their lives to experience and become more aware of the things in their bodies and heads. Both require the ability to direct attention, and mindfulness meditation is one of the types of meditation we hear about most often.

1. Both Encourage Present-Moment Awareness

When the mind is wandering, it bounces around from the past to the future. Mindfulness and much of the world of meditation is about helping you recognize when you’ve been doing it and bring yourself back into the present. That does not mean don’t think about the future at all – that has its uses – just catch yourself when you’ve become stuck in unhelpful patterns.

A calming meditation practice can also be incorporated into an evening routine. Explore our mindfulness practices for better sleep for ideas that may fit into your nighttime routine.

2. Both Can Support Stress Management

Stress can also arise not from the circumstances alone, but from thinking about what might happen, did happen, or what didn’t happen, again and again. Mindful meditation helps to create a brief pause or “space” between the event or thought and our reaction. An NCCIH review indicated that people interested in trying mindfulness-based approaches for anxiety or depression might benefit, and evidence for the effectiveness of meditation and mindfulness practice for sleep and well-being is also growing.

3. Both Require Practice

Neither mindfulness nor meditation is a magic switch.

Your attention will wander. You may feel restless. Some days will be easier than others.

That is normal.

The real practice is noticing what happened and gently returning your attention instead of becoming frustrated with yourself.

4. Both Can Be Adapted

I do not need a beautiful meditation room or hour of free space.
A beginning practitioner may begin by practicing a five-minute breathing meditation one day, and by performing one mindful action every day another day. With time, the practice of mindful behavior can be made as natural as it seems.

Benefits of Each Practice

There may be some benefits that would be the same whether one practices mindfulness or meditate but the experiences may not be the same. Depending on what the practice focuses on, it could create a different feeling than the other does.

Meditation is one of several ways to practice mindfulness, and different exercises can suit different preferences. Explore our mindfulness techniques and exercises to discover different approaches.

Keep expectations reasonable. It’s also helpful to manage your expectations.

Some research on mindfulness and meditation suggests that the practices might be helpful in a variety of different areas.

However, these studies differ significantly, and for some-or many-of the suggested advantages, more research is required.

Benefits of Mindfulness

Better Awareness of Thoughts

Practicing mindfulness may help you observe your thoughts without always accepting them as facts and automatically reacting. For example, rather than saying to yourself, “I’m going to fail,” and thinking this is the honest-to-goodness truth, you might say to yourself, “I’m having a thought that I might fail.” This subtle difference can put space between you and your thinking.

Greater Emotional Awareness

With mindfulness, you begin to notice your feelings as they arise and don’t jump to react automatically before you acknowledge them. Perhaps your shoulders are tensed, your voice tight, your stomach knotted – awareness brings with it a natural response, rather than an automatic reaction.

More Intentional Daily Living

With the help of mindfulness, you can: Mindfulness can transform ordinary chores into life practices; any period you spend eating, moving, preparing for bed, cooking breakfast, walking, or even listening to music can offer to exercise your mindful muscle.

Support for Stress and Mental Well-Being

Areas in which mindfulness practices are being researched or are already being utilized include anxiety, depression, stress, sleep issues, and others that affect our well-being. Studies are showing promise but not to the exact same level for all people.

Benefits of Meditation

Improved Attention

By meditating, you develop a disciplined means of returning your attention to a specific subject (in this case, your breath), and, in point of fact, each time your mind drifts away, you gently redirect it to the meditation object you are practicing attention on.

Relaxation

A time to hit pause for the 10 minutes from your day that you may desperately need. Yes, a quick meditation may not take away everything, but it can, and often does, create some much-needed separation between you and all of the action.

Better Sleep for Some People

Sleep and mindfulness meditation. Sleep quality. Research suggests that mindfulness meditation may help improve quality of sleep, as well as the presence of insomnia; however, the effectiveness of any mindfulness intervention varies based on the intervention design and control group being investigated, according to NCCIH.

Support for Anxiety and Depression Symptoms

Such mindfulness-based therapies can be beneficial as supportive practices in helping those struggling with some symptoms of depression and anxiety. The practice of meditation should never be promoted as a panacea.

You can also use brief mindful practices throughout your working day rather than limiting mindfulness to dedicated meditation sessions. Our mindfulness practices for work offers ideas for incorporating mindfulness into a professional routine.

Mindfulness vs Meditation: Benefits at a Glance

Which One is Right for You?

There is no universal winner in the mindfulness vs meditation debate.

The better choice is the one you can practice consistently and comfortably.

Choose mindfulness if:

• You have a busy schedule.
• You dislike sitting still for long periods.
• You want something you can use during everyday activities.
• You want to become more aware of your reactions.
• You prefer a flexible practice.

Choose meditation if:

• You enjoy structured routines.
• You want dedicated quiet time.
• You want to train attention deliberately.
• You like guided exercises.
• You want to explore different meditation styles.

If you are completely new, there is no need to make the decision complicated.

Start with five minutes.

Find a comfortable seat and become aware of your breath. Watch what arises in your mind. When thoughts come up, notice the thought, and gently redirect attention back to your breath. This can itself be mindful meditation.

Combining Both for Better Results

For many, this combination of mindfulness and meditation is what makes the most sense. To visualize it, you could imagine meditation as the gym and mindfulness as the ability you bring outside the gym and back to the ‘real world’. So you could meditate for ten minutes in the morning, where you work on noticing your breathing and bringing your awareness back when it strays.

But then in everyday scenarios you practice mindfulness.

Notice how you’re feeling when you see an angry message. Practice noticing the flavors in your mouth while eating lunch, with the phone put away. While you’re in an overwhelming meeting, notice your breath and how your body feels. In bed, before sleep, notice what you’re thinking without needing to solve all these problems right away.

This approach can make it a bit more one less thing I should be doing and a little more one more thing I am doing again.

A Simple 10-Minute Routine

The goal is not to have a perfectly empty mind.

That is one of the biggest misconceptions beginners have.

Meditation is not about eliminating thoughts. It is about changing your relationship with attention and experience.

Thoughts will come. Sounds will appear. Your body may feel restless. Your mind may wander to tomorrow’s responsibilities.

Notice it.

Return.

Begin again.

That simple cycle is much of the practice.

Are Mindfulness and Meditation the Same Thing?

Nope, they’re complementary, not the same thing. The way I’ve best been able to break it down is: ‘Mindfulness’ is having awareness of your experience of the present in an attitude of non-judgment. A meditation practice may or may not incorporate mindfulness principles, and there are at least a thousand different techniques of meditation.

Can You Practice Mindfulness Without Meditating?

Definitely. It can be mindful walking, mindful eating, mindful showering, mindful exercising, mindful chatting, mindful tidying up of the house. Basically, everything where your attention does not automatically get distracted to another thing while you are in the process of doing another thing.

How Long Should You Meditate?

There’s no magic number. The key here for beginners is to start with something that feels manageable instead of intimidating, like 5 to 10 minutes, as opposed to 30 to 60 minutes. Consistency is normally a better guide than trying to push yourself into a meditation length you aren’t keen on long-term.

Is Mindfulness Good for Stress?

Some research shows that mindfulness-based approaches are helpful in decreasing psychological stress. They are often taught for the psychological effects of anxiety and depression and may help improve elements of sleep. Unfortunately, some research shows that mindfulness can’t actually help you and shouldn’t be used as a panacea.

Final Thoughts

Mindfulness vs. Meditation Winner-win: Actually, the “winner” question of mindfulness vs. Meditation is less relevant, or perhaps doesn’t need a definitive winner. The point of mindfulness is awareness of what is unfolding during your actual life (while it’s happening and moving). Meditation gives you the structure to focus your attention and see what is transpiring in your mind.
In many cases, they work together in a way that comes together naturally.
How it looks: If you’re just starting, begin in bite-sized pieces. Simply devote 5 minutes of the day to sitting quietly and focusing on the breath, for example. Then integrate focus into an ordinary, routine activity.