Bringing it All Together:

Mindfulness, Meditation and Yoga

By: Carol Blanchard, Master Wellness Volunteer

Do you feel a little confused about these terms? Maybe you should be practicing mindfulness instead of meditation? Or maybe yoga is different from mindfulness and meditation because it involves those body movements?

While we use these words to describe aspects of stress management, they actually all are part of the very same process. We could say that it is all mindfulness, or even all meditation or yoga, but that might be more confusing. Let’s see what the words mean and how they work together.

Mindfulness, is all about slowing down to be fully alive in the present moment. We breath, walk, prepare our food or just about any activity by noticing and feeling what we are doing. By being mindful, we can catch the beginning or end of a thought or experience an emotion, even a strong one, without judgment. It is a practice that teaches observation, feeling, letting go and patience.

Yoga is actually quite similar to what we just distinguished about mindfulness. The postures, breathing with the movements slow us down so that we can experience our bodies, our thoughts and feelings. When our breathing pattern changes, so does our capacity to move smoothly into our yoga postures. Yoga comes from the sanskrit word “yoke” and implies a harnessing together of our body and mind. Yoga is a mindful practice.

Finally, meditation really refers to a state of being, not so much an activity, though the activities such as mindfully sitting and being aware of our breath in yoga is a mindful practice that leads to the state of meditation. Deep mindfulness in any activity leads to the meditative state.

Now all there is to do is just enjoy your practices, no worries!