Mindfulness and resilience in higher education: Concepts, consequences, and best practices recommendations

In recent years there has been a great increase in the amount of academic and professional literature focusing on the benefits of an attitude of mindfulness and resilience. In higher education, an embrace of these concepts can create a place where faculty and students are “present, focused and capable of the kind of thinking that education requires” (Misha, 2026, para. 12). This article, aligned conceptually with Construal Level Theory, offers a brief review and summary of academic and professional works affirming the beneficial practices of mindfulness and resilience. Five recommendations are presented for applying mindfulness and resilience in the higher education environment. The recommendations are especially applicable to online programs that are often found to be deficient in terms of faculty engagement and student satisfaction with learning (Schwartz, 2020).