Meditation Personal Trainer

Mindfulness & Meditation

What is Mindfulness

There are many definitions of ‘Mindfulness’. Together with the two definitions in the sidebar, Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says that mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment.

It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us. It’s also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living ‘in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behaviour,” he says.

“An important part of mindfulness is reconnecting with our bodies and the sensations they experience.

“This means waking up to the sights, sounds, smells and tastes of the present moment. That might be something as simple as the feel of a bannister as we walk upstairs.

“Another important part of mindfulness is an awareness of our thoughts and feelings as they happen moment to moment.

“It’s about allowing ourselves to see the present moment clearly. When we do that, it can positively change the way we see ourselves and our lives.”

Ruby Wax is a comedian and author, in her excellent and highly recommended book about mindfulness ‘Frazzled’ she explains that it is ‘exercising your ability to pay attention, when you can bring focus to something like on a sense.’ For one example, she talks about smelling the cup of coffee we are drinking.

For my more astute students amongst us, please notice she used the word exercise.

The difference between Mindfulness and Meditation:

Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment and it can be done anytime and all the time.

Any time you have a focal point, or you’re directing your mind in a particular way – this is mindfulness. It is the ability of bringing your awareness into the present moment.

Mediation is similar; i.e. is also the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment. These definitions can be confusing. BUT and it’s a big BUT, Mediation is only ever done at specific points during the day, normally 1 or 23 times a day unp to 20 minutes, the recommended maximum for each session.

Another difference is being mindful, all day long, can be exhausting for often already very tired minds. Whereas Mediation, when done correctly, has the power to refresh you.

Additionally, Mediation is simple to learn and to do for a set session. It is far, far harder to be constantly living our lives moment by moment, as in being in the present moment all of the time!

But would it not be the same with physical fitness? Surely it would be totally exhausting trying to be fit and exercise all the time! Well for me anyway and this is actually from someone who loves being fit.

The irony is good Meditators find MIndfulness easy to do. Whereas, non-mediators find it really hard! This is because as Meditators, we are already training our minds to be still.