What is State Mindfulness

It is likely safe to assume that nearly all students are coming to, and engaging in, school settings with multiple stressors and personal challenges. Moreover, the global pandemic has likely exacerbated these mental health issues. As such, the general problem is that many students are not adequately prepared to handle stress and emotional challenges in conjunction with everyday life and in school. This has the potential to derail both their personal well-being and their academic success. Mindfulness is a viable resource in PK-12 school systems to guide the acquisition and development of emotion regulation. This chapter describes the conceptual underpinnings that make up mindfulness. More specifically, the purpose of this chapter is to delineate how mindfulness in PK-12 classrooms may be used to promote students' emotion regulation, and to provide clear and specific examples and strategies of mindfulness practices that facilitate the development of empathy and sound emotion regulation.