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Mindfulness is the practice of paying attention to the present moment on purpose, without judgment. It involves observing your thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they arise, cultivating awareness rather than reactivity.
Meditation is a mental training practice that involves focusing your mind on a particular object, thought, or activity to develop attention, awareness, and emotional clarity. It has been practiced for thousands of years across many cultures.
Meditation originated in ancient India around 5,000–3,500 BCE, with the earliest written records found in Hindu traditions of Vedantism. It later spread through Buddhist and Taoist practices across Asia.
Jon Kabat-Zinn is widely credited with bringing mindfulness to Western medicine and mainstream culture. He founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center in 1979.
Buddhism, founded around 500 BCE, made meditation a central practice for achieving enlightenment. The Buddha taught specific techniques like Vipassana and Samatha that remain widely practiced today.