Mindfulness quotes can be used to re-direct focus and to bring you back to the task in front of you. They can be a source of optimism, positivity and overall happiness, when self-confidence and self-acceptance is low.
Mindfulness quotes have the power to inspire and motivate.
Over-eating and poor diet choices are usually the consequence of mindlessness - the opposite of mindfulness. Having a go-to list of phrases that evoke strength and resilience when a craving hits can hold great power.
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness can be described as being aware of your actions and your surroundings. It's about being present in the moment and taking note of what's going on around you. Being mindful is about noticing the distant sound of a car, or the feel of the breeze against your skin. It's about being aware of what you are doing and not being overly reactive or overwhelmed by what's going on around you.
Spirituality and mindfulness have been intertwined throughout human history. Many religions make use of mindfulness practices and have done so for thousands of years. Mindfulness has been associated with Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
Why Is Mindfulness Important?
Distractions are everywhere. Have you ever found yourself scrolling mindlessly on your phone while watching Netflix?
With all these modern distractions, redirecting your focus and training your mind so that you can focus on a single task is sometimes needed.
Mindfulness training can be a handy strategy for people who mindlessly eat at their desks at work, or in the evenings while watching YouTube videos.
Mindfulness Techniques
Mindfulness techniques can be incorporated in your daily routine. They can be used to calm stress, clear the mind, reduce anxiety and improve happiness. If you're a health coach, fitness coach, teacher or parent, understanding how to use mindfulness strategies can be very useful.
Some handy mindfulness techniques include:
- Meditation
- Yoga
- Reciting daily affirmations
- Breathing techniques
- Grounding
- Exercise
- Journaling
69 Powerful Mindfulness Quotes
If you're a coach, trainer, teacher or mentor, being able to say the right thing to inspire and motivate is a powerful tool. Here we've collected the following quotes from Buddha, Thich Nhat Hanh and Eckhart Tolle and many more mindfulness gurus and authors.
Our hand-picked quotes have been selected to direct focus, clear the mind and bring calm to your day.
We've categorized our mindfulness quotes into different sub-groups, so you can easily find the quote to suit your situation and mood.
Mindfulness Quotes for Healthy Living
Healthy living is about making healthy choices and creating healthy habits. We've hand-picked these mindfulness quotes to guide you towards healthy living:
- 1“Training your mind to be in the present moment is the number one key to making healthier choices.” - Susan Albers
- 2“One who is patient glows with an inner radiance.” - Allan Lokos
- 3“Wherever you are, be there totally.” - Eckhart Tolle
- 4“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn
- 5“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” - Dalai Lama
- 6“Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves—slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future; live the actual moment. Only this moment is life.” - Thich Nhat Hạnh
- 7“In today’s rush, we all think too much, seek too much, want too much– and forget the joy of just being.” - Eckhart Tolle
- 8“The most precious gift we can offer anyone is our attention. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
- 9“Every time we ponder a thought, act on an impulse, or dwell on a desire, we are setting in motion a cause that will have a future effect. Mindfulness enables us to choose wisely.” - Tamara Levitt
- 10“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself” - Henry Miller
Mindfulness Quotes for Work
Work stress can have a major impact on your mental and physical well-being. Focus on the task ahead with these mindfulness quotes for work:
- 11“To produce at your peak level, you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction.” - Cal Newport
- 12“Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion. What you perceive as precious is not time but the one point that is out of time: the Now. That is precious indeed. The more you are focused on time — past and future — the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is.” - Eckhart Tolle
- 13“If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then is an empty desk a sign?” - Albert Einstein
- 14“Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you. Never excuse yourself. Never pity yourself. Be a hard master to yourself-and be lenient to everybody else.” - Henry Ward Beecher
- 15“A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.” - Frank Zappa
- 16“Visualize your highest self and start showing up as him/her.” - Ali Owens
- 17“We cannot become what we want by remaining what we are.” - Max Depree
- 18“Practicing a mindful moment in the middle of the day, helps to bring you back to center, reset, and move into the rest of your day with greater clarity and focus.” - Christine Agro
Mindfulness Quotes for Meditation
Meditation is one of the most effective mindfulness strategies. Refocus your mind with these mindfulness quotes for meditation:
- 19“Be where you are; otherwise, you will miss your life.” - Buddha
- 20“Our thinking minds deprive us of the happiness that comes when we are living fully in the moment.” - Ram Dass
- 21“Mindfulness is the aware, balanced acceptance of the present experience. It isn’t more complicated than that. It is opening to or receiving the present moment, pleasant or unpleasant, just as it is, without either clinging to it or rejecting it.” - Sylvia Boorstein
- 22“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” - Hermann Hesse
- 23“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
- 24“Look past your thoughts, so you may drink the pure nectar of This Moment.” - Rumi
- 25“Cultivating a generous spirit starts with mindfulness. Mindfulness, simply stated, means paying attention to what is happening; it’s about what is really going on.” - Nell Newman
- 26“The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.” - Tara Brach
- 27“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. The latter procedure, however, is disagreeable and therefore not popular.” - C.G. Jung
- 28“Mindfulness meditation doesn’t change life. Life remains as fragile and unpredictable as ever. Meditation changes the heart’s capacity to accept life as it is.” - Sylvia Boorstein
- 29“Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” - Aristotle
- 30“Mindfulness is a simple practice, but not an easy one… but you are worth doing hard things.” - Nicole Davis
Calming Mindfulness Quotes
Calm your mind and negative thoughts with these soothing quotes:
- 31“Step outside for a while – calm your mind. It is better to hug a tree than to bang your head against a wall continually.” - Rasheed Ogunlaru
- 32“The mind is like water. When it is turbulent it’s difficult to see. When it’s calm, everything becomes clear.” - Prasad Mahes
- 33“Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
- 34“Awareness is like the sun. When it shines on things, they are transformed.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
- 35“It's a funny thing about life, once you begin to take note of the things you are grateful for, you begin to lose sight of the things that you lack.” - Germany Kent
- 36“Worrying is stupid, it’s like walking around with an umbrella waiting for it to rain.” - Unknown
- 37“Be happy in the moment. That is enough.” - Mother Teresa
- 38“Mindfulness is deliberately paying full attention to what is happening around you– in your body, heart, and mind. Mindfulness is awareness without criticism or judgment.” - Jan Chozen Bays
- 39“Cultivating a generous spirit starts with mindfulness. Mindfulness, simply stated, means paying attention to what is actually happening; it’s about what is really going on.” - Nell Newman
Mindfulness Quotes for Mental Health
These mindful quotes for mental health were hand-picked to soothe anxiety, relieve stress, build confidence and to encourage positive thinking:
- 40“The first and best victory is to conquer self.” - Plato
- 41“The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering.” - C.G. Jung
- 42“The body benefits from movement, and the mind benefits from stillness.” – Sakyong Mipham
- 43“See if you can allow gentle self-acceptance to coexist with the active drive for self-improvement.” - Kristin Neff
- 44“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance.” - Jodi Picoult
- 45"In our times, it is radical to choose to sit still and be silent, to resist an identity of busyness, ceaseless motion, and noise, and to reclaim our sanity and humanity by coming home to ourselves." - Sumi Loundon Kim
- 46“The mind is our most precious resource, through which we experience every single moment of life. Are you looking after yours?” - Headspace
- 47“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” - Amit Ray
- 48“Our own worst enemy cannot harm us as much as our unwise thoughts. No one can help us as much as our own compassionate thoughts.” - Buddha
Mindfulness Quotes for Everyday Life
Sometimes we need a little push to get us through our everyday life. These quotes are sure to help you get from A-to-B:
- 49“Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn
- 50“You might be tempted to avoid the messiness of daily living for the tranquility of stillness and peacefulness. This of course would be an attachment to stillness, and like any strong attachment, it leads to delusion. It arrests development and short-circuits the cultivation of wisdom.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn
- 51“If your heart is broken, make art with the pieces." - Shane Koyczan
- 52“Sweetheart, you are in pain. Relax. Take a breath. Let’s pay attention to what is happening; then we’ll figure out what to do.” - Sylvia Boorstein
- 53“There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.” - Tara Brach
- 54“Mindfulness is a way of being present: paying attention to and accepting what is happening in our lives. It helps us to be aware of and step away from our automatic and habitual reactions to our everyday experiences.” - Elizabeth Thornton
- 55“For what it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- 56“Be where you are; otherwise you will miss your life.” - Siddhartha Gautama
- 57“Our life is shaped by our mind, for we become what we think.” - Siddhartha Gautama
- 58“As soon as we wish to be happier, we are no longer happy.” - Walter Landor
- 59"Life is an endurance sport, but endurance without compassion is torture. Living mindfully, we bring our whole heart to the event of being alive so that we can be present from beginning to end." - Lauren Eckstrom
- 60“You must not hate those who do wrong or harmful things, but with compassion, you must do what you can to stop them – for they are harming themselves, as well as those who suffer from their actions.” - Dalai Lama
- 61“The most fundamental aggression to ourselves, the most fundamental harm we can do to ourselves, is to remain ignorant by not having the courage and the respect to look at ourselves honestly and gently.”- Pema Chödrön
- 62“Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don’t even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child—our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” - Thich Nhat Hanh
Mindfulness Quotes for Resilience
The following mindfulness quotes for resilience will help you persevere through the tough times:
- 63“What helps you persevere is your resilience and commitment.” - Roy T. Bennett
- 64“Life doesn’t get easier or more forgiving, we get stronger and more resilient.” - Steve Maraboli
- 65“Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before. You can fight it, you can do nothing but scream about what you've lost, or you can accept that and try to put together something that's good.” - Elizabeth Edwards
- 66“Do the things that interest you and do them with all your heart. Don't be concerned about whether people are watching you or criticizing you. The chances are that they aren't paying any attention to you. It's your attention to yourself that is so stultifying. But you have to disregard yourself as completely as possible. If you fail the first time then you'll just have to try harder the second time. After all, there's no real reason why you should fail. Just stop thinking about yourself.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
- 67“No matter how much falls on us, we keep plowing ahead. That's the only way to keep the roads clear.” - Greg Kincaid
- 68“No matter how difficult the past, you can always begin again today.” - Jack Kornfield
- 69“Mindfulness is about being fully awake in our lives. It is about perceiving the exquisite vividness of each moment. We also gain immediate access to our own powerful inner resources for insight, transformation, and healing.” - Jon Kabat-Zinn
Conclusion
We hope you've enjoyed our list of 69 powerful mindfulness quotes.
Whether you're a coach, mentor, teacher or parent, you're sure to find the right words to inspire and guide yourself and others amongst our comprehensive list of mindfulness quotes.
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