What's the difference between mindfulness and meditation?

Meditation: many practices

Meditation includes focused attention (on the breath, a mantra or an image), open awareness, loving-kindness, visualization, self-inquiry and movement practices like walking meditation or qigong. Some aim at calm, some at insight, some at compassion or devotion. Contemplative

Mindfulness: a way of paying attention

Jon Kabat-Zinn, who created Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, describes mindfulness as paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, without judgment. It has roots in the Buddhist term sati, which also carries a sense of remembering. You can be mindful while washing dishes, listening to a friend or feeling an emotion.

Where they overlap

Mindfulness meditation uses formal sitting time to strengthen mindful attention, so it's easier to call on during the day. Many other meditations also build it, even if that isn't their main aim. Established Structured programs combining both, such as MBSR and MBCT, have the strongest research base.

Practising both

• Formal: 10 minutes of breath awareness each morning.
• Informal: choose one daily activity (making tea, the first steps outside, brushing your teeth) and do it with full attention.
• In difficulty: pause, name what you feel ("this is anxiety"), feel where it lives in the body, and take one slow breath before responding.

About the labels

The Journey In tags every claim: Established backed by strong research, Emerging early or mixed evidence, Contemplative meaningful in a tradition but not a scientific claim, and Speculative symbolic or unproven. This page is general information, not medical or mental-health advice.