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Sometimes, when I talk with people about meditation, I realize they think to meditate means to contemplate a problem or to introspect, that is to analyze thoughts and feelings. This is an honest mistake, because one dictionary definition of meditation is: To contemplate or ponder one’s thoughts and feelings. For example, someone struggling with a problem might say they need to “meditate on it.” But this definition doesn’t apply to mindfulness meditation.
Introspection is an analytical activity. It is inherently evaluative and most often judgemental. Mindful awareness, on the other hand, is seeing things for what they are without evaluating or judging them.
I’m not saying that introspection is a bad thing. It can bring helpful insights, but it’s not what we’re doing during meditation. In meditation, we embrace the present moment. Introspection takes us away from the present moment, most often to ponder the past.
Introspection can be problematic, though, in much the same way that thinking can become problematic - something we talked about last week. 
Thinking in a deliberate, mindful way can help us solve problems and reach goals. Introspection can bring insight. But it can sometimes bring useless conclusions and unhelpful, perhaps even harmful, judgment and self-judgement. It can also launch us into harmful recursive thinking.
For example, if I sit down to ponder the poor eating habits that have led to being overweight, I realize that, as a child, whenever I was feeling bad, my mother tried to make me feel better by feeding me sweet things. My mother is partially (not completely) responsible for my habit of using sweets to manage negative emotions.

Peaceful Moment of the Week: Two Jack Lake, Banff National Park, Alberta
 

But what good does it do to know this? It doesn’t help me break the bad habit. And, it’s possible that this introspection might lead me to blame my mother and even to ruminate over past events where I think she caused me harm. Such recursive thinking isn’t just purposeless. It could cause me harm by generating negative emotions, and it could jeopardize my relationship with my mother. (Thankfully, this story is just an example. My mother did contribute to my habit formation, but I mindfully accept the situation and take full responsibility for my own behaviour.)
In contrast to introspection, awareness helps you see what’s happening to you and how you’re reacting to it with clarity and focus. It can help you accept the situation and notice the way in which your behaviour might be affecting you. 
To continue my example, if I want to address my weight challenges, it would be helpful to become aware of the emotions, feelings, and thoughts that arise when I eat or make food choices. I might notice, for example, that I reach for sweets automatically whenever I feel stressed. Realizing that, I might try to become more aware of how I react to stress. I might practice sitting with stress, fully exploring how it feels in my body and learning to tolerate and accept it without eating in response. With practice, I might be able to teach myself that stress is simply the way in which I react to certain kinds of situations and I might create some space in which I could choose to respond differently.
Whereas being fully present almost always assists in problem-solving, analyzing the past isn’t always necessary, and is sometimes counter-productive. Knowing what caused a situation doesn’t necessarily help correct or im...