Thinking through the Complexities of Mindfulness and Meditation

My name is Kimberly Hoover, and I am a 5th-year PhD student in the English Department. My dissertation, “What Are We Integrating? A Grounded Theory Approach to Integrative Medicine,” asks what power vested stakeholders have to control national and global narratives about healing, and therefore, who gets to decide what is worth “integrating” into the US healthcare system(s). I am currently writing a chapter that argues for the need to deconstruct influential definitions of IM, as well as the distinctions between “Western” and “alternative” medicine(s), in order to expose which dominant ways of knowing are reinforced through these narratives, as well as what (and who) gets elided or appropriated in the process of defining. As my doctoral research focuses on the momentum of Western institutions adopting “alternative medicine” concepts, such as mindfulness, meditation, and viewing the patient holistically--mind, body, and spirit--I was immediately interested in applying to the Humanities Engage Summer Immersive fellowship to work with Awaken Pittsburgh this summer. Awaken Pittsburgh is a non-profit that teaches mindfulness at the programmatic level, backed by the latest evidence-based research, to the community of Pittsburgh and beyond. Cultivating awareness about trauma-informed delivery; sensitivity to racial, gender, and other cultural biases; and even how to connect to youth early on with skills of mindfulness are just some of the focal areas Dr. Stephanie Romero, founder of Awaken and Pitt alumna, and her team address.

The connection between my doctoral research and working with Awaken is largely based in my belief that mindfulness and meditation skills are integral to not just human health, but the social health of our society at large. I was curious to see how mindfulness was taught in action, as well as what nature of research validated and supported the work being done there. I worked for two months as a research assistant to Dr. Romero and was able to start and complete three separate research projects that culminated in the proposition of final instruments she will go on to use to measure the efficacy of her mindfulness training programs. One example of a fascinating question that arose during my time at Awaken that mirrored a question in my doctoral work was, “How does one objectively measure an elevation or transformation in someone’s consciousness?”  The problem, you see, is that consciousness/mindfulness is an inherently subjective phenomenon, which to this date is assumed, not proven, to be generated through the brain. Because of this, we have very little sense of how to objectively measure what a leap in mindfulness looks like because we cannot simply turn to a fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and point out the growth. Sticky points like this make measuring the efficacy of mindfulness training programs tricky and also makes mindfulness difficult to measure in the typical standards of objectivity required of Western medicine, as I argue in my dissertation.

One of the solutions I offered to this problem included mixing more quantitative measures, such as Likert scales, with more subjective questions that couldn’t be quantified but showed us a window into the individual’s awareness pre- and post- training. I know that my training in the Humanities guided me to suggest moving beyond purely quantifiable measures as access to “useful” data, though I am all too aware the former is preferable for cases where consistent results need to be shown, such as grant-writing. This experience gave me yet another layer of evidence, based in my own practical work experience now, that though consciousness resists objective measurement, it is still tangibly important. It reminds us that the mind, despite its intractable subjectivity, belongs in medicine as a crucial aspect of study for human health; in fact, perhaps it is medicine that will have to alter its distinctions of the standard of evidence to one day include subjective information. I will be citing the anecdotal evidence of my work with Awaken to support this argument in my dissertation.

Ultimately, at the end of my summer, I was able to find and propose at least 5 instruments for each of the mindfulness programs I was assigned to support, including trauma-informed delivery; prejudice of race, gender, ESL, and disability; and finally, teaching mindfulness to youths. Some of the skills I was able to transfer from my doctoral work into this research assistantship included trouble-shooting difficult research questions, building confidence to propose alternative solutions, and simply executing thorough and helpful research that will foster concrete results when the clock ticks down. I shared the responsibility of coordinating certain tasks between my fellow research assistant and me, and we consciously adapted to each other’s strengths to finalize what we would then present to Dr. Romero. Teamwork and communication were essential to our successful proposals that, at times, we had weeks, and at others, much shorter turn-arounds, to produce. I became a more efficient researcher through this process, combing through databases outside my field very quickly, collecting dozens of materials, organizing and sorting them coherently for a new assistant to also be able to interpret, and testing unusual key-word searches to get closer and closer to our target. I also learned to trust my contribution over time and felt genuine satisfaction for being able to help this incredible mission in some small way. I believe being a part of this assistantship especially helped me professionalize by working with goals and deadlines that were not just about my own research progress but affecting the success of others as well. I am grateful for the opportunity this immersive fellowship and organization provided me to envision the applicability of my degree outside the academy, as well as for the practical evidence and combined data that I can now use to further support my own dissertation.

Kimberly Hoover
English
October 14, 2020

Learn about all the Summer 2020 Immersive Fellows and their experiences with their host organizations.