The Shared Experiences of the Effectiveness of Christian Mindfulness Meditation for Adult Evangelical Christians in Florida Experiencing PTSD Symptomatology

Mindfulness meditation, though secular in origin, is a distinct Christian principle found in the Bible and are practices that Christians in general subconsciously subscribe to especially in times of traumatic stress. When adapted to reflect Christian principles, this practice should retain the basic concepts of mindfulness meditation while safeguarding the integrity of the biblical tenet. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe the shared experiences of the effectiveness of Christian mindfulness meditation of adult evangelical Christians in Florida suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder symptomology. A gap in literature exploring the topics of Christian rumination (meditation) and mindfulness skills as a means of religious coping amid trauma among Christian adults, using qualitative methods, was identified. The guiding theory for the study was the empowerment theory of Perkins and Zimmerman to understand the relationship between the traumatic lived experiences of evangelical Christians and the management and improvement of their symptoms through participation in Christian mindfulness meditation. Integrative phenomenological analysis was used to identify themes from the shared experiences of the participants associated with the effectiveness of Christian mindfulness meditation.