I have a thing about words.
If I hear one I’m familiar with but I’m not exactly sure how to use it, I have to Google its meaning and read all the examples until I’m clear.
The last two I heard were ‘hubris ’ and ‘detritus ’, thanks to Lucinda Riley novels.
I learnt many new terms whilst in A & E with my friend this week and, recently, I’ve also become familiar with everything to do with external house insulation!
We all tend to know the vocabulary or jargon in our own field of work don’t we and sometimes we forget that other people don’t know what we know.
There’s so much information online about Mindfulness and Meditation that I thought I’d just clarify the difference between them, in my own words.
So, in a nutshell…
MINDFULNESS is paying attention to what is happening now, in this moment, without judging it. Mindfulness means being aware of our thoughts, feelings and sensations in our body, accepting them as they are, in this moment. Mindfulness can be practised throughout the day, whatever we are doing, whether we are paying attention to the water on our hands as we wash them or the butterflies in our stomach as we have a worrying thought.
MEDITATION is more of a formal practice, that we do at certain times of the day or night, either sitting, lying down, even standing or walking. It involves choosing to focus our mind on something, whether that’s our breath, the sounds around us, our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations or a guided meditation. It helps to be quite still as we meditate and it is called a ‘practice’ because we are practising bringing the spotlight of our attention back to where we want it, over and over again.
A GUIDED MEDITATION is an audio recording, either on an app, YouTube or another source, and listening to it can help us focus our attention more easily. It can also help us to relax our body and bring us clarity, focus and peace of mind, not to mention better sleep.
A PERSONALISED MEDITATION is unique, a ‘one off ’ audio recording that has been written and recorded especially for you alone. It will have your name throughout it and personal references to you and your experiences. These Personalised Meditations are more effective in helping us to feel relaxed, calm, focused and empowered because they are far more relevant to us than generic ones.
I’m sure you’ll find more technical definitions online, but those are just my own words and how I understand Mindfulness and Meditation after many years of practising both. If you’d like to have your own Personalised Meditation to help you navigate through difficult feelings or a challenging situation, please contact me in any way that suits you. Please feel free to ask me questions too.
Love and joy, Juliet. x