Decentering Mindfulness: Toward Greater Meditative Diversity in Global Public Health

Abstract

In this commentary on “Mindfulness for Global Public Health: Critical Analysis and Agenda,” the authors affirm Oman’s emphasis on the need for alternative religious-derived meditative programs and interventions, placed alongside Buddhist-derived mindfulness, for global public health. To begin, we highlight areas of agreement with Oman, then provide a metaphor we believe fittingly captures the current dilemma faced by those ambitiously attempting to globalize mindfulness for public health. Next, we advocate for the decentering of mindfulness, via developing and distributing evidence-based meditative practices derived from other religions, so public health strategies can be more diverse for global consumption. To do so, we offer examples from our own efforts to operationalize and experimentally investigate meditative and contemplative practices housed within the millennia-old Christian religious tradition for contemporary Christian communities experiencing psychological and spiritual suffering. Such examples include contemplation within the classic Medieval work The Cloud of Unknowing, the Jesus Prayer in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Puritan meditation in Protestant Christianity, and Ignatian meditation and contemplation in Catholic Christianity. To conclude, we offer basic steps for the further development of such alternative religious-derived meditative practices, along with a more detailed account of a recent empirical study of our own. Overall, our hope is to promote greater meditative diversity in the noble pursuit of global public health, with mindfulness offered alongside a plethora of other religious meditative practices, which can provide local communities around the world with a broader range of worldview-dependent and -sensitive options.