What is the difference between mindfulness and meditation therapy

Essentially, meditation is a general category that encompasses dozens of different mental training paths, while mindfulness therapy is a specialized psychological technology derived from traditional mindfulness meditation, scientifically de-religious, and with clear clinical intervention goals. It is an independent clinical intervention system developed under the category of meditation. The goals, processes, and evaluation standards of ordinary meditation practice are completely different.

You'll understand with an analogy: Meditation is like the general term for all ball sports. You can play badminton, basketball, and table tennis. The purpose can be to keep fit, to win a professional championship, or even just to have fun with your family after dinner. There is no unified standard.； Mindfulness therapy is like rehabilitative basketball training specially designed for people with knee injuries. There are strict standards for movements, duration, and training intensity. The goal is very clear, which is to help you restore your motor functions. It is not the same thing as casual basketball.

Many people may be confused when talking about it. After all, there are too many courses on the market that tie the two words together and sell them. I have met many clients who have just started to practice. When I first arrived, they said that they had been meditating at home for more than half a year, but their anxiety was still not cured. When I asked them, I found out that they practiced focused meditation that pursues "complete relaxation." The current mainstream mindfulness therapy is actually Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) founded by Dr. Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s, and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) developed on this basis. All practice sessions and intervention procedures are standardized, and you are not required to "have no distracting thoughts" at all. When your mind wanders, just gently bring your attention back. Even if your mind wanders throughout the entire exercise, "awareness that your mind wanders" itself is part of the practice.

Nowadays, many practitioners of traditional meditation are controversial about clinical mindfulness. They feel that it removes the core of "compassion" and "insight wisdom" in traditional mindfulness and can only deal with surface emotions and cannot bring about deeper mental growth. However, the general consensus in the clinical academic circle is that standardized mindfulness therapy has undergone nearly 50 years of evidence-based research and has a clear intervention effect on emotional problems associated with depression recurrence, generalized anxiety, and chronic pain. The original target audiences of the two are different, and there is no need to compare them together.

I once met a junior student who had insomnia all night due to anxiety about the postgraduate entrance examination. He found a lot of meditation audios on the Internet and practiced. Every time he had distracting thoughts, he scolded himself for not paying attention. If you go to an offline spiritual meditation retreat, the teacher may ask you to meditate for an hour or two without moving during the process, in order to pursue experiences such as "flow" and "enlightenment." However, if you go to a hospital psychology department or a formal psychological consultation room for mindfulness therapy, each practice in the eight-week course will only last for 45 minutes at most. It will not guide you to pursue any special experience. Instead, it will teach you that even if it is uncomfortable feelings such as irritability and pain, you don’t have to push them away, just look at them without judgment. The core is to help you apply the awareness skills in practice to real life, so that you will not be subconsciously carried away by emotions when you encounter troubles.

Of course, this does not mean that ordinary meditation is not good. If you just want to relax on a daily basis, you can find a favorite meditation audio and follow it, or go to a retreat camp for meditation. The goals of meditation practice are very open. Some people pursue spiritual improvement, and some just want to take 10 minutes to catch fish. It is no problem. However, if you clearly have emotional distress, sleep problems, or even have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression, it is best to find a registered mindfulness therapist for systematic intervention. Don't practice blindly on your own, which will add extra pressure.

I have been doing this for almost ten years. I usually do both kinds of exercises. When I am in a good state, I will do half an hour of traditional Vipassana meditation to slowly sort out my state. If I catch up with the middle of the week when my case schedule is full, I will do a 10-minute mindfulness body scan at noon every day to quickly bring my wandering attention back to the present moment and avoid emotional exhaustion. For me, both are good tools, but they are used in different places.