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I had an interesting conversation last week with some friends who told me they wanted to be more mindful, but weren’t interested in meditating. Most of them believe in the benefits of mindfulness and want to “just do it,” but think meditation is boring, time-consuming, and unnecessary. So, what role does meditation play in mindfulness practice?

It’s true that mindfulness can be practiced directly, without including formal sitting meditation. Mindfulness is simply awareness without judgement and you can be mindful of any activity. I like to practice mindful showering, walking, driving, and dishwashing among other things, and I particularly strive to be mindful when involved in conversations (which I find highly challenging, but incredibly rewarding).

You can apply mindfulness whether the experience is positive, negative, or neutral. You can put your full attention on anything - blowing out birthday candles, sitting in a chair, feeling pain, anything.

All it takes is to focus your attention completely on what you are doing or what is happening to you and experience the activity or event as it unfolds, without getting caught up in your opinions, beliefs, values, and judgements about it. When your attention wanders from what you’re doing, just bring it back. Of course, you also have to remember to apply mindfulness in the first place.

But, it’s very likely that mindfulness is not your natural state. If you’re like most people, your mind constantly generates thoughts, and you have likely spent a lifetime mindlessly allowing your attention to follow those thoughts. This is completely normal. In fact, it’s mindfulness that is not normal.

Unless you create a strategy for remembering, you’re likely to forget to be mindful, especially if the activity is routine. Without some sort of reminder, you’ll likely proceed on autopilot.

And, as you practice being mindful, you’ll have to be quite focused and diligent. You’ll need to monitor your attention so that you can notice when it wanders and redirect it.

These things are doable, but they take effort and persistence. Mindfulness is a skill and, like any skill, it cannot be built without regular practice.

How mindfulness benefits from meditation

Meditation allows you to practice mindfulness in ideal, or almost ideal, conditions. I mentioned that you can argue mindfully, but imagine how hard it is to be non-judgemental during an argument. Forget something as difficult as an argument, even mindful dishwashing can be a challenge. All sorts of things might come up as you wash dishes. Your boyfriend might be watching a loud TV show, your kids might be squabbling, your phone might issue a text alert, you might get frustrated with the burned-in grime on the pan you’re washing… To be mindful, you’d attend to all of these things, being fully aware of them and your reactions to them, and then you would let your reactions go and bring your attention back to dishwashing. It’s difficult.

In meditation, you practice the same skills. You sit and attend to your breath and when something comes up - a thought, an itch, a pain, a feeling, etc. - you become aware of it and your reactions to it, and let your reactions go. The difference is that, in meditation, you eliminate some of the distractions, making it easier to focus inward on your attention and your reactions. You find a quiet place, sit in a grounded, comfortable posture, and put your attention on something that is fairly straight-forward, your breath*.

Simply put, meditation makes it easier to build mindfulness skills. Personally, I believe most people are unlikely to succeed at being mindful in daily life without a regular meditat...