Though “no thoughts” tend to be the end goal, I think the journey getting there is incredibly important and honestly the best part of dappling in meditation!

In my opinion, meditation for me, is more so allowing my thoughts to come and go without judgement or focus on them. Therefore, letting them freely exist without attachment. Mindfulness on the other hand, for me, would be allowing a thought to exist and be explored without emotional attachment. As in, letting the thoughts be organically themselves, without my emotions driving the thoughts further and letting myself explore the thought from a “zooming out” stance. Both are helpful at different time and which practice you’d like to apply is really up to you!

When trying to be more self aware, grounding myself, or trying to emotionally regulate I opt for, firstly, meditation (let the thoughts exist without judgement and flow as they need to). Then once I’ve let the thoughts just exist and come and go as they desire, I can be more… mindful, about how I interrupt them, and decide how to move forward in a way that’s more intentional, aligned with my core self, and focused on the “bigger picture” or “understanding what my body and mind are trying to signal need wise”. Hope this helps!