What’s the Difference in Mindfulness/Meditation/Guided Breathing Anyway?
A quick guide to mindful practices and their differences
Hello everyone, I’m Jenna B. Neece, author/producer/host of Magical Manifestations Podcast. I’ve been practicing meditation and mindfulness for about twelve years now. I found meditation as a way to cope with my chronic illnesses.
I know that there is quite the debate about the usefulness of meditation in general society. I can assure you it is scientifically proven to be benefical to most people.
But that’s not the point, today at least.
I want to break down the differences in mindfulness, meditation, and guided breathing while sharing some of the benefits of each. I know that when I first started out, I saw them all as one conglomerate. While all three are practices that can improve your well-being, they should not be used synonymously.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is about awareness of the present moment, including but not limited to awareness of breath, mind, and bodily sensation. It can be practiced in your day to day life by slowing down and doing one thing at a time, more thoughtfully.
For example, one can mindfully wash dishes if they focus on the body and sensations while completing the task. It could be you mindfully eat your food, slowly and deliberately, if you struggle with food. There are endless ways to practice mindfulness in day to day life.
And science has proven that mindfulness helps with stress, anxiety and depression, sleep, pain management, and much more.
Guided Breathing
Guided breathing is a technique used in mindfulness and meditation. It draws the attention to the breath, forcing us to focus on how we are breathing. The mind can only focus fully on one thing at a time, so this allows us to let go of other swirling thoughts. And as we pace our breathing, we slow our heart rate, creating a sense of calm.
Mindful Meditation
![woman sitting on sand woman sitting on sand](https://images.unsplash.com/reserve/YEc7WB6ASDydBTw6GDlF_antalya-beach-lulu.jpg?crop=entropy&cs=tinysrgb&fit=max&fm=jpg&ixid=M3wzMDAzMzh8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxtZWRpdGF0aW9ufGVufDB8fHx8MTcyMTc0MjYxMXww&ixlib=rb-4.0.3&q=80&w=1080)
This practice focuses on calming the mind and zooming in on one specific thought at a time. The purpose is to slow the thoughts, sift through them, accept or let go of negativity, and find inner peace. Common techniques include guided breathing, body scans, mindful practices, repeating mantras, etc. One typically needs to be in a quiet space to go completely into a meditative state.
Meditation has also been proven to help with stress, memory, mood, empathy, and self-awareness.
Final Thoughts
These practices can help almost everyone. They say 12 minutes of meditation a day can prove extremely beneficial. It doesn’t have to be scary or take forever. There are tons of guided meditations on podcast.
For example, my podcast practices guided breathing and other mindful meditation practices and the beginning and end of each session. The middle is meant to create space to meditate, clearing your mind of everything but the story and the sensations that occur.
So you can’t meditate wrong, if it’s helping you. And meditation is a practice. And practice makes perfect.
I can’t wait to share more soon!
These are 3 similar but distinct practices that can overlap. I like how you separate them out.
Great break down of three practices that can often overlap! The differences were really clear :)
When I do breathwork we use both in most sessions, starting with mindfulness as we become aware of the present, moving into a meditation and then the guided breathing. At the end of the session we go the opposite way out - letting go of the breath and coming back and becoming aware of the body.