Whether you practice meditation or mindfulness, these practices help relieve stress, clear your mind, and good cognitive skills. Are they different? Meditation and Mindfulness are like waves on the beach, you can’t take both away from each other, Meditation is like a mirror reflection of Mindfulness.
Meditation is a pathway through which an individual can learn to live mindfully. While, Mindfulness is best describe as a specific way of living that can be cultivated through intentional practice.
Hence, as Meditation broaden and enhances Mindfulness, Mindfulness on the other hand promotes and assists Meditation to be very effective. Meditation requires a specific amount of time, Mindfulness can be done all through the day.
“Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think”.
Buddha
Mindfulness requires intentional practices and deliberate conscious efforts, that’s why we have mindful eating, mindful walking, mindful listening, mindful talking, mindful learning, and lots more. These mindful exercises can be carried out all day, unlike Meditation.
The sole aim of mindfulness is to awake to the inner workings of our cognitive, emotional, social and physical processes.
Meditation is like a mind trip. It requires a certain amount of time, a place; a serene surrounding, and things to ponder on. Meditation is like a special place to escape the stress of reality for a short period. Every moment in this practice is special.
When we practice meditation, we put our minds, senses, emotions, and thoughts to work.
How to Start Practicing Meditation or Mindfulness.
As you go about practicing mindfulness and meditation, you will probably find yourself feeling different; kinder, optimistic, calmer, and more patient. These new shifts in your experience will likely generate changes in other aspects of your life as well.
How to practice mindfulness
Practicing Mindfulness can be like;
- Not operating your Phone while eating or rushing to pick your phone as soon as you get up from bed in the morning.
- Taking daily walks to improve your overall health.
- Eating healthy food like veggies, low fat food, cutting down on sugary food and unhealthy carbs and lots more.
- Working out in the morning or evening to keep fit.
- Practicing a good skincare routine and many more.
- Taking time to listen to a conversation before speaking.
- Joining social groups and volunteering.
Mindfulness helps us put some space between ourselves and our reactions, breaking down our conditioned responses towards the things we do.
How to practice meditation.
Meditation focuses on the rhythm of our breathing, this is to draw consciousness from within and guide us back to reality and our mind.
To start meditating, first you’ll need:
A serene place: This is to avoid distraction, and it could be under the tree, your living room, your bedroom, the beach side etc.
A comfortable position: This could be on your cushion, yoga mat, your bed or any thing you find comfortable sitting on.
Set a Limit: If you are beginner, you could set a limit with a timer in your device. It could be 10 mins or 20 mins for a start.
Feel your breathe; as you inhale and exhale, you could count in sequence until you are deep in thoughts
Eyes closed: to help you focus properly.
Observe what your mind is thinking and be kind to your wandering: observe your thoughts and pay attention, you could fall back to the rhythm of your breathe over again and mutter few positive words and ponder on them if you noticed you have wandered away from your initial thoughts.
Gently open your eyes when you are ready: as you gently open your eyes, carefully observe your surroundings with your ears now, if there’s a music or sound from the winds. Do not rush to open them
Benefits of Practicing Meditation or Mindfulness
There are about three proven benefits of practicing meditation and mindfulness
1. To Improve cognitive skills:
In a recent 2010 study published in Consciousness and Cognition Journal, researchers believed that four days of meditation training can enhance the ability to sustain attention.These benefits that have previously been reported with long-term meditators.
2. To enhance good focus and limit brain distraction:
When we train the mind to focus and concentrate, we become more critical than ever in this 24/7 world where our attention is being pulled in 100 different direction at once.
A recent Harvard study, shows that “the brain cells use particular frequencies, or waves, to regulate the flow of information in much the same way that radio stations broadcast at specific frequencies.
3. Meditation for Anxiety:
Practicing mindful meditation can help alleviate anxiety and stress as well. It also eases the body off daily tension from work, at school even at home.
Interesting 🙌🏽
thank you!
Good one!