A
lot of confusion exists about what meditation and mindfulness really are, is
there a difference between them, and what’s their purpose and benefits. So let
me take a few minutes of your time and bring some clarity.
Meditation
is an ancient path that consists of wisdom, techniques and practice, and allows
you to manifest the life that you choose. It also empowers you to create a life
full of happiness, inner freedom, fulfilment and purpose.
Meditation
is thousands of years old, predates the world’s major religions, is scientific
and systematic, and has been used by people and cultures across the ages.
Unfortunately, as religions become embedded in local populations, this ancient path
of living your highest life came to develop a strong religious flavour. The non-religious
masters retreated into the background and the religious teachers took centre
stage.
Many
great individuals used this wisdom, including the young prince Siddhartha
Gautama, who later went on to be known as the Buddha, the Awakened one. In his
years of teaching, he selected and used a few techniques from this vast
science, which continued even after his passing under the label of ‘Buddhist Meditation’.
These include vipasana, ana-pana-sati, and more, all of which existed before
Buddha, but now came to be packaged differently.
Buddhism
spread across the world and eventually found root in the fertile soil of young American
minds. A minute number of Americans were eager to try it, but the large
population stayed away from participating, because of the strong religious packaging
these techniques were presented in.
In
1979, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn secularized one particular
type of Buddhist meditation and renamed it mindfulness. Over the next 30 years,
that simple act successfully spread a small part of meditation to thousands of
individuals from all fields of life, and into hundreds of hospitals and other
medical facilities worldwide.
To
summarize, meditation is the whole book on how to live your intended life, with
many chapters, and mindfulness is one of the chapters in the book of
meditation.
A
little more on Mindfulness –
In
essence, mindfulness is about paying total attention and awareness to
something, without judgement. These can include our experience of the present
moment, our own bodies, our thoughts and emotions, our unseen assumptions and
our conditioned habits of mind and behaviour.
With the
hectic lives we lead today, when was the last time you were able to slow down
and breathe, much less pay attention to the present moment? I bet it’s been
awhile. In fact, on most days you’re probably feeling so overwhelmed, worried
and stressed that you’re happy just to make it through another day.
In the past
35 years, meditation in various forms (including mindfulness) has found its way
into the mainstream of medicine, health care, and psychology, where it has been
broadly applied and continues to be studied through clinical research and
neuroscience.
In
fact, in recent years, meditation and mindfulness have also begun to move into
business environments, sports performance, the armed forces and even
astronauts.
Mindfulness
is being conscious of what you’re feeling, more intentional about your
behaviors, and more attentive to the impact you have on others. Start using
mindfulness meditation and you will see benefits such as improved focus, greater
control over stress, balanced emotions, stronger immune system, a clear mind
and many more…
But don’t
just take my word for it. There’s plenty of scientific research that backs up
what I am saying, and I am happy to show you how to make the benefits real in
your life too!
SoulCentre is Asia’s Premier Personal Development Centre for meditation,
mindfulness and stress management.
Attend
our popular ‘Meditation Made Simple’
program and understand how meditation and mindfulness can benefit your life
tremendously.
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