Community Mindfulness Theory for Health Education, Public Health and Conflict Resolution

Public health and health education face many challenges which can be compounded by conflicting views and bias. Constructs and tools of mindfulness theory may offer avenues for addressing these challenges. The field of mindfulness developed as an individual practice involving meditation for stress reduction. The field of business extended principles of mindfulness to organizational behavior as “collective mindfulness,” which includes a mindful state separate from the practice of meditation. Principles of mindfulness can be applied at the community level to foster unbiased non-judgmental awareness and action through a dimensional and social-ecological approach, to address conflicting views at the individual, inter-personal, organizational/community, and policy/societal levels. Community mindfulness moderator training can foster neutral non-judgmental awareness of all factors involved in public health decisions and health education efforts, including trustworthiness of sources, potential bias, and short term and long term implications. Five processes of community mindfulness theory are presented which include: Creating a neutral nonjudgmental state of mind for objective analysis of evidence; Fostering trust, common ground, and a safe environment for discussion; Incorporation of a social-ecological perspective; Addressing dimensional and long range perspectives; and Inclusion of mindfully-based social media.