This is part of a series of posts on common misconceptions about mindfulness.
Read the introduction here.
Eyes tired? You can listen to this post (and others) HERE.
Mindfulness is not meditation
It is common for mindfulness and meditation to be used interchangeably but there is an important distinction between them.
The first documented use of meditation (Latin, meaning "to ponder") was in a 12th-century catholic monastic rule book and it referred to contemplation in the sense of thinking about something. This meaning is still in use in phrases such as "meditating on the consequences of a decision".
But when European language was used to signify cultural practices from Asia meditation was suddenly used to denote markedly different practices seen in religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam and Judaism.
Although the meditation of the Dark Ages often involved sitting in silence this is about all it shares with many types of practices now held under the umbrella term meditation. Diverse practices include visualisation, walking and chanting which are very different to the original meaning. And what is happening in the internal life of meditators is also very different. Many of these newly encountered practices turned out to not be contemplation at all in the original sense of the word meditation. Many were about finding ways to be with experiences without thinking about them.
Meditation is a word that covers such a wide set of practices that it needs qualification either explicitly (e.g. mantra, loving-kindness or mindfulness meditation) or implicitly (e.g. featuring on this mindfulness blog!). Mindfulness meditation is one style of meditation among many. This involves practices, such as sitting, lying, walking or interacting with others that aim to cultivate a particular quality of mind - mindfulness.
It should now be clear that mindfulness is a quality that can be developed in meditation. But is meditation the only way to develop mindfulness? Some argue that deliberately engaging in an activity to be more mindful (such as walking in nature or washing the dishes) makes this practice a form of meditation. Another way to answer this question is that some activities reveal a natural mindfulness within us. In other words, mindfulness is an innate quality of mind that certain activities reveal. My opinion is that this becomes semantic quickly and given the vague, catch-all, definition of meditation is ultimately unanswerable. However, there is a different feel to allowing mindfulness to emerge effortlessly from experience and I would encourage you to experiment with this.
READ PART 3 HERE
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