by Beth Staats
Quick Summary
May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and it's never too early to learn about mindfulness to help keep us calm, focused, and healthy.
![Mindfulness and my emotions Worried looking child on a sailboat in stormy seas.](/sites/default/files/styles/manual_crop_16_9/public/images/2024-05/81v7slSAp-L._SY466_.jpg?h=80fb4bd4&itok=DfPNtMwM)
Ebooks Minnesota recently gained, from Mayo Clinic Press Kids, the Mindful Spaces series. These four books, for grades 1-3, introduce young readers to the concept of mindfulness. Each book includes simple activities, pleasant illustrations, and inviting text. These titles also align with SEL (Social-Emotional Learning) and CASEL (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning) competencies of self-awareness and self-management.
Mindfulness and me offers an introduction to mindfulness and why it is beneficial, and explains how children can use mindfulness to slow down and pay attention to their minds, bodies, feelings, and emotions, as they find ways to calm down and become more focused.
Mindfulness and my body explains how children can use mindfulness to slow down and pay attention to their bodies in the present moment.
Mindfulness and my emotions explains how to use mindfulness to identify and manage difficult emotions and feelings.
Mindfulness and nature shares information on using mindfulness to pay attention to nature and the world outside as our bodies and minds experience it.
Also from Mayo Clinic Press Kids, The spaces in between, for preschool through grade 2, offers rhyming text and vibrant illustrations. It follows a day in the life of a young girl in a city who becomes anxious and stressed by all the noise and commotion as she learns to relax and manage these feelings by using mindfulness.