We must sometimes stop, breathe, and live in the moment for our mental health and overall healthy living. We must feel the sounds, sights, and every other sense there is to feel in the moment. Here are 67 mindfulness quotes that can inspire consciousness and trigger deliberate actions toward living mindfully.
We tie many of the decisions we make and the actions we take to memories. As humans, we dwell so much on what has happened and what will happen that we sometimes forget “what is.”
What is mindfulness? It brings us to that point where our thoughts are weightless; they come and go without any implications. And we can connect ourselves freely and easily to our present environment.
Read on for our curated selection of some of the best mindfulness quotes that reflect on the practice, benefits, and relevance of mindfulness as we go about our daily lives. You can also check out our selection of mindfulness talks for a bit more pep in your day or our mental health quotes exploring lived experience in a related field.
We need enlightenment, not just individually but collectively, to save the planet. We need to awaken ourselves. We need to practice mindfulness if we want to have a future, if we want to save ourselves and the planet.
Thich Nhat is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk and peace activist. He has influenced many people around the globe through his active engagements in peace movements. In 2017, the Education University of Hong Kong conferred him with an honorary degree for his contributions to the history of mindfulness, peace, and happiness across the world. Nhat is also the author of over one hundred books promoting the individual’s active role in creating change.
Nhat uses his experiences to spread his message of peace through travels, talks, and books to a world that needs plenty of it. For him, beyond ourselves, we need to work towards that goal together for our future and our happiness.
As perhaps one of the more famous and most quoted mindfulness practitioners, Tich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness quotes inspire us to live in the present moment.
Mindfulness practices enhance the connection between our body, our mind and everything else that is around us. Mindful living is the key to understanding our struggles with weight and to empowering us to control our weight.
With mindfulness, you can establish yourself in the present in order to touch the wonders of life that are available in that moment.
If every day you practice walking and sitting meditation and generate the energy of mindfulness and concentration and peace, you are a cell in the body of the new Buddha. This is not a dream but is possible today and tomorrow.
"The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it."
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
~ Thich Nhat Hanh
“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 Hanh
Related: Tich Nhat Hanh’s "The Miracle of Mindfulness" features in the top spot on our list of mindfulness books - grab his or any of the other recommendations to learn more about practicing mindfulness.
I really love yoga. I love the mindfulness of it, where not only are you exercising your body, but you're also building that mind/body connection as far as being aware of every movement - what your body's doing, how your body's feeling.
As an American television actress, Miranda started her career at a local stage production and high school. Before she made her television debut, she began as a model. She starred as Lacey Briggs in Blood and Oil, a 2015 movie, and now she’s starring as Firefighter Stella Kid in Chicago Fire (both on Amazon), filmed in Chicago. Miranda once told the Chicago Sun-Times that she feels there’s a magical undercurrent to life that connects us all.
Miranda’s mindfulness quotes reflect on the mind-clearing abilities of Yoga. Yoga calms you and ensures you focus on being in the present moment.
I've always been interested in mindfulness and alternative ways of seeing the world.
British English actor, Finn Jones, is famous for his role as Loras Tyrell in the HBO series Game of Thrones (Amazon). He trained on a three-year acting course leading to his appearance in movie scenes and has since then been a fairly regular face on TV.
Jones believes mindfulness can help you keep the proper perspective on global issues. Mindfulness enables you to focus on the present, allowing you to see the world in a new light.
“Mindful and creative, a child who has neither a past, nor examples to follow, nor value judgments, simply lives, speaks and plays in freedom.”
~ Arnaud Desjardins
I think I approach pressure by having discipline and learning to be calm in everyday life. I do this with a daily mindfulness practice and commitment.
Press is an American soccer player for Utah Royals FC, a United States women’s national soccer team division, who has an excellent career in this path she chose. She has made 138 appearances and accrued about 58 goals to her credits. She was awarded the Golden Ball as the 2020 CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying tournament best player in keeping up her accolades-full career.
Press’ mindfulness quotes give us an insight into how she deals with the pressures of being a professional sportsperson. Practicing mindfulness helps to improve focus and has a range of health benefits, but it also encourages discipline and commitment, traits that are essential in the sports world.
“In practicing meditation, we’re not trying to live up to some kind of ideal — quite the opposite. We’re just being with our experience, whatever it is.”
~ Pema Chödrön
“Like all explorers, we are drawn to discover what’s out there without knowing yet, if we have the courage to face it.”
~ Pema Chödrön
Pema Chodron is a Buddhist teacher and author of several books that reflect on peace and self-compassion. Her mindfulness quotes draw on years of experience inspiring people with her teachings. Today she practices mindfulness and holds the role of spiritual director of the Gampo Abbey monastery in Nova Scotia.
“Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.”
~ Robin S. Sharma
"Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different than they are."
~ Allan Lokos
“True patience is grounded in wisdom & compassion.”
~ Allan Lokos
Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.
Emeritus professor of medicine Kabat-Zinn is the creator of the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health care and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Having been a student of Buddhist teachers, he practices yoga while also integrating teachings from Buddhism with science. According to him, he teaches mindfulness, which can help deal with stress, anxiety, pain, and illness. Several medical centers, hospitals, and health maintenance organizations offer his Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program (MBSR).
Jon Kabat-Zinn rejects the label Buddhist preferring to apply mindfulness within a science rather than a religious frame. In this mindfulness quote, he opines that meditation helps you achieve mindfulness, which is all that matters.
Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is irrelevant.
Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that.
In Asian languages, the word for 'mind' and the word for 'heart' are same. So if you're not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you're not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness towards oneself are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
"The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness. Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
“You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
~ Jon Kabat-Zinn
Central to our work and our goal of finding solutions to global problems is the concept of mindfulness, a technique for focusing attention objectively on the here and now.
American actress, singer, dancer, and producer Goldie Hawn rose to fame in the late ’60s. She has won awards to her credit for her striking performances at various times. Having studied meditation, In a 2012 interview, Hawn stated, “I don’t think of myself as a Buddhist. I was born Jewish, and I consider my religion”. She also added, “It’s not the idea of a particular religion that’s important; it’s the development of spiritual life.”
Hawn owns a non-profit foundation called the Hawn Foundation. They provide youths with an education program to positively impact their academic performances while also engaging in life-enhancing strategies for their well-being. Hawn is a mindfulness advocate because she believes it helps you focus on the now and all that matters.
“Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life .”
~ Marcus Aurelius
“The way to live in the present is to remember that ‘This too shall pass.' When you experience joy, remembering that ‘This too shall pass' helps you savor the here and now. When you experience pain and sorrow, remembering that ‘This too shall pass' reminds you that grief, like joy, is only temporary.”
~ Joey Green
We can have skills training in mindfulness so that we are using our attention to perceive something in the present moment. This perception is not so latent by fears or projections into the future, or old habits, and then I can actually stir loving-kindness or compassion in skills training too, which can be sort of provocative, I found.
“Mindfulness isn't difficult, we just need to remember to do it.”
~ Sharon Salzberg
Born in New York, Sharon Salzberg has authored 11 books related to mindfulness and meditation practice championing approaches to life and happiness. A New York Times bestseller, Salzburg is well placed to share mindfulness quotes that inspire us to be happy in the moment and not to dwell in the past.
Related: Happiness Quotes to inspire a great day
“We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.”
~ Jack Kornfield
"Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it."
~ Eckhart Tolle
Self-compassion encourages mindfulness, or noticing your feelings without judgment; self-kindness, or talking to yourself in a soothing way; and common humanity, or thinking about how others might be suffering similarly.
Rachel Simmons is an American author who started studying female aggression as a Rhodes scholar at Lincoln College, Oxford. One of her major books is Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls, published in 2002 (Amazon). We can say that she is interested in developing young women, and empowering and educating them.
Simmons' mindfulness quote reiterates her belief that mindfulness stems from self-compassion. You have to realize that your emotions are valid. According to Simmons, this realization not only triggers mindfulness but also promotes empathy.
It takes a little bit of mindfulness and a little bit of attention to others to be a good listener, which helps cultivate emotional nurturing and engagement.
As a prominent person in the new age movement, Indian-born American author and alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra (Amazon) is quite popular. He has written best-selling books and directed videos in alternative medicine. Chopra is the owner and supervisor of the Mind-Body Medical Group. He offers personalized advice about nutrition, stress management, sleep-wake cycles, and the standard treatment.
At his center, Chopra and physicians practice integrative medicine, combining the medical model of conventional western medicine with alternatives like yoga, mindfulness meditation, and Ayurveda. From his experience, Chopra has since noticed, as his mindfulness quote reflects, that mindfulness helps in the emotional nurturing of his patients.
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”
~ Amit Ray
Mindfulness helps you to be where you are when you're there. When I'm interacting with constituents who are suffering, that matters.
Democrat American politician Timothy Ryan was a former presidential candidate who served as the U.S. Representative from Ohio’s 13th congressional district since 2003. He was a member of the 30-something Working group organized by the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, to engage younger people in politics by focusing on important issues.
Ryan’s book, A Mindful Nation (Amazon), was published in March 2012, and it addresses the practice of mindfulness in private and public life, which is the theme of this mindfulness quote. While interacting with people, mindfulness helps you connect. People can tell if your mind is somewhere else during a conversation; being mindful helps you avoid that.
I'm pretty much done with mindfulness. I'm just going to start paying attention.
Gina Barreca is an American academic and humorist who has authored ten books and edited several as well. Her students and audience know her for her lectures around humor, women’s comedy, everybody’s stress, and gender issues in the workplace. As of 2018, she received the American Association of University Professors Excellence in Research and Creativity. Her university also named her the board of trustees distinguished professor of English Literature.
Barreca’s mindfulness quote points out that there are so many things we miss out on simply because we no longer notice the world around us. When it comes to mindfulness, paying attention is key.
“The only way to live is by accepting each minute as an unrepeatable miracle.”
~ Tara Brach
Tara Brach is the founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, one of the largest non-residential mediation centers in the US. Her podcast is hugely popular, with over 3m listeners tuning in every month, and she has written a number of books related to mindfulness practice. Her work revolves around spiritual awakening, emotional healing, and mindful awareness.
What I'm trying to do is maintain some mindfulness about being popular - I wasn't so great at that last time around.
Micheal Posner is an American singer, songwriter, rapper, poet, and record producer who released his debut album ten years ago and has written songs for several artists too. He started a walk across America on the 15th of April 2019, setting out from Asbury, New Jersey, and completed it on the 18th of October of the same year in California.
The glamour of fame for a pop star like Posner is not without its downsides. Posner finds that being mindful helps him cope with the pressures of fame. Being mindful helps you enjoy the moment while also keeping you conscious of how your thoughts are evolving.
Mindfulness has helped me succeed in almost every dimension of my life. By stopping regularly to look inward and become aware of my mental state, I stay connected to the source of my actions and thoughts and can guide them with considerably more intention.
Listed in Forbes as one of the world's youngest self-made billionaires, Dustin is an American Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg alongside three other friends. He owns a private philanthropic foundation which he operates with his wife.
In his mindfulness quote, Moskovitz attributes his actions to more of the deliberate process of mindfulness which he describes as looking inward. Like Moskovitz, we can engage mindfulness in all areas of our lives to guide our thoughts and intentions and birth our actions.
Beyond doubt, as these mindfulness quotes show, mindfulness brings out the best qualities in us as humans, either as individuals or collectively as a people. It leads to improved well-being for a satisfying life. While not limited to a particular religion or career, mindfulness is for the benefit of all. It would help us organize our thoughts, accept our sensations and feelings, and appreciate our environment.
If you’d like to give mindfulness a go, you can try our fun mindfulness exercises or perhaps do some group mindfulness work.
When we practice mindfulness, we begin to see everything with an eye focused on the present, not the regrets of the past, not the future worries.
Mindfulness can help people of any age. That's because we become what we think.
When you have children, you realize how easy it is to not see them fully, and perhaps miss all those early years. If you are not careful, you can be too absorbed in work, and they will be only too happy to tell you about it later. Being a parent is one of greatest mindfulness practices of all.
Jen’s a passionate environmentalist and sustainability expert. With a science degree from Babcock University Jen loves applying her research skills to craft editorial that connects with our global changemaker and readership audiences centered around topics including zero waste, sustainability, climate change, and biodiversity.
Elsewhere Jen’s interests include the role that future technology and data have in helping us solve some of the planet’s biggest challenges.
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