With the words ‘mindfulness’ and ‘meditation’ weaving their way into conversations daily, they’ve become familiar terms and yet, I do get asked if they mean the same thing, or if there’s a difference between them and if so, what?

Simply, mindfulness is a way of practicing meditation. I’ve written a little about what meditation is in this blog.

One of my meditation teachers wrote a 300-page book explaining mindfulness and the gist of it is that mindfulness is a way of practicing meditation, basically knowing what you’re doing, thinking, or feeling in the moment and being able to describe it to yourself.

Ok, so is being mindful the same as being ‘in the moment’?

My favourite way of explaining the difference between being mindful and being in the moment is to say they’re same-same, but different. As a crazy dog lady, dogs feature in my metaphors and examples, and this is one of them.

Have you ever watched a dog laying on the carpet chewing on its favourite toy or a special tasty treat? Well, that dog is totally absorbed in that experience, it’s tail may wag a bit, or its eyes may roll around. That dog is totally in the moment but not necessarily aware that its tail thumps in joy or that it’s eyes are rolling around because the treat is so delicious. If the dog was being mindful, it would be aware of the texture, smell, and taste of the treat as well as have an awareness of what it’s thinking and feeling.

Basically, mindfulness is about consciously paying attention to something and it’s a way of practicing meditation.