How does mindfulness differ from meditation?

Mindfulness and meditation are so closely intermingled nowadays that the two are often thought to be interchangeable. Mindfulness is the ability to notice, with full presence of mind, that you are eating or sleeping or walking down the street or stressed out by a traffic jam. Meditation is about sitting down to notice your thoughts more deeply. Mindfulness meditation develops our capacity to attend non-judgmentally to thoughts, and other types rely on a mantra or a vivid mental image.

Mindfulness meditation covers both bases, training your observational skills during formal practice. You train to notice your thoughts like clouds, internalizing notes without playing, and you carry that awareness into life's unscripted moments of mindfulness. Other forms of meditation employ different scaffolding, sweetening the mind rather than spotlighting it with loving-kindness.

Think of mindfulness as the quality of your attention to work or conversation. Meditation is like going to the gym to sharpen your mind. Mindfulness meditation is like training in a gym, with each having its own distinct nuances and applications.

Start bringing these together by combining the two. After just five minutes of breath-focused meditation, use your phone notifications for reminders and touchstones of mindfulness throughout the day. The two practices complement one another and train the same neural pathways from different angles.

Read the full article: 10 Essential Mindfulness Practices for Everyday Life