What’s the difference between meditation, mindfulness & visualisation?
Lots of people use them interchangeably.
Here’s your guide to learning the difference between them.
Meditation
Meditation is the practice of focusing your mind on one thing for an extended period of time. You can meditate on your breath, on a thought, on a chant (or mantra) and many other things. And you can meditate for moments or hours at a time.
This means that there are many types of meditation, similar to how there are many different types of sports. The most popular meditation technique in western cultures is mindfulness meditation.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a state of awareness of the present moment including your thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations & environment. Meditation is a practice and mindfulness is a state of being. You can become more mindful through mindfulness meditations.
The two main types are Open Monitoring and Focused Attention. In Open Monitoring, you notice thoughts, feelings or things in your environment but you don’t interact with them. The aim isn’t to clear you mind, it is to train your mind to be an independent observer of your mental & emotional state - a skill known as meta-cognition. In Focused Attention, you place your focus on a sole thing such as your breath or bodily sensations. This trains your minds ability to focus which can improve performance & decision making.
Visualisation
Visualisation is the process of pre-experiencing thoughts, feelings and environments in your mind. It is a constructive practice, whereas mindfulness meditation is a deconstructive practice.
In mindfulness meditation, you learn to understand patterns of thought & behaviour. In visualisation you are actively rewiring your brain to improve your default patterns of thought & behaviour. It works because your mind is malleable, so you can train it just like a muscle. And because your mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is vividly imagined. So you can mentally rehearse for a sports game, a presentation, how you want to feel in a relationship in the same way you can learn through physical practice.
Visualisation is a technique that has been used for decades by athletes, business leaders and clinical psychologists. It is incredibly powerful and it’s benefits are wide-ranging.
How to use them in combination.
Deconstructive practices, like mindfulness meditation, are fantastic for developing your meta-cognition and self-understanding. They provide a basis to knowing your values & your how you want to live your life. Constructive practices, like visualisation, rewire your brain to promote you to take consistent action to work towards those goals.
Together they are a winning strategy for anyone and everyone. Whether you want to build a life of peace or chase big dreams. These are the mental practices that will boost your chances of making it a reality.
