Which is better, mindfulness or meditation therapy?

In fact, there is no absolute superiority or inferiority. The two have the same origin but each has its own emphasis. Suitability for your own needs is the core judgment criterion.

I have been practicing psychological intervention for almost 6 years, and eight out of ten new clients will ask this question. Many people default to mindfulness as a more "advanced" form of meditation, while others think that meditation is an IQ tax that coaxes people to relax. These misunderstandings do not actually touch the essence of either. Speaking of which, the academic community has not yet completely unified its definition: one school of thought believes that mindfulness itself is a modern branch of meditation and is a de-religious meditation intervention technology. ； The other group believes that after so many years of clinical standardized development, especially after the completion of the complete system of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT), mindfulness has become a completely independent intervention school. It is far from the scope of application of traditional meditation, and there is no conclusion yet.

Last year, I worked for an e-commerce operator who graduated from 985. I stayed up for more than 20 consecutive days during the Double 11 period. Afterwards, I lay in bed and my mind couldn’t stop thinking about sales and return activities. I kept my eyes open the whole night until dawn. At the beginning, I arranged mindfulness awareness exercises for him, but he couldn't sit still for five minutes. He always said, "I'm almost sleepy and I have to be aware of whether my mind is wandering. Isn't this frustrating?" Later, I switched to the meditation guide of progressive body scanning and asked him to lie down and follow the audio without deliberately controlling his thoughts. In the third week, he reported that he could fall asleep after lying down for more than 20 minutes. During that time, he told everyone he met that meditation was much better than mindfulness.

But with another visitor, the conclusion is completely reversed. I once had a visitor who was a middle school teacher and had a history of mild panic attacks. Whenever she encountered conflicts between students or parents looking for trouble, her heart would beat so fast that she would be out of breath. She had been following the APP to relax and meditate for almost half a year, but it didn't help at all when she really encountered trouble. She couldn't remember to relax emotionally. Later, I took her to practice mindfulness for more than three months. The core is to practice "awareness of the current state without judgment". There is no need to deliberately suppress emotions. She just notices "Oh, my heartbeat has started to speed up, I am a little nervous now" for the first time. Gradually, she can do three minutes of breathing anchoring when emotions first arise. It is now almost 8 months and she has never had a panic attack again. Instead, she said that mindfulness is the way to really solve the problem.

You see, the adaptation scenarios of these two are inherently different, so there is no need to compete head-to-head. If you are just tired from working overtime and under great pressure, and want to find a way to quickly relax and improve your sleep, just find a comfortable meditation guide and follow it. There is no need to chew on the theory of mindfulness, and there is no need to force yourself to "not let your mind wander."” ； But if you have been consumed by internal emotions all year round, can’t help but dwell on old scores, worry about things that haven’t happened, or even have clinical symptoms of anxiety and depression, then mindfulness therapy led by a well-trained counselor will be much more suitable.

I usually catch up on plans and sit in meetings for three or four hours straight, and I will sit down for 5 minutes of white noise meditation to relax. When I get really emotional and want to argue with someone, I quietly do 10 seconds of mindful breathing anchoring. I use both, and I don’t think one is necessarily better than the other. To put it bluntly, these two are like lozenges and anti-inflammatory drugs. If you have a dry, itchy throat, a lozenge will make you feel better. If your tonsils really become inflamed and suppurative, you will definitely need to take anti-inflammatory drugs. There is no point in wondering which one is better. Just adapt to the current needs.