47 Mindfulness Quotes to Help You Hit the Pause Button

47 Mindfulness Quotes to Help You Hit the Pause Button

Here are 47 mindfulness quotes to help you remember why it’s so important to accept the present, embrace your feelings, and welcome the gifts that mindfulness offers us.

Mindfulness is…

• • “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

• • “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

• • “Meditation is to be aware of what is going on: in your body, in your feelings, in your mind, and in the world.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

• • “Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t).” – James Baraz

• • “Mindfulness practice means that we commit fully in each moment to be present; inviting ourselves to interface with this moment in full awareness, with the intention to embody as best we can an orientation of calmness, mindfulness, and equanimity right here and right now.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

• • “Meditation is essentially training our attention so that we can be more aware— not only of our own inner workings but also of what’s happening around us in the here & now.” – Sharon Salzberg

Finding balance with mindfulness

• • “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

• • “We might begin by scanning our body . . . and then asking, “What is happening?” We might also ask, “What wants my attention right now?” or, “What is asking for acceptance?” – Tara Brach

• • “Mindfulness isn’t difficult, we just need to remember to do it.” – Sharon Salzberg

• • “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

• • “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

• • “Emotion arises at the place where mind & body meet. It is the body’s reaction to mind.” – Eckhart Tolle

On distractions

• • “Use every distraction as an object of meditation and they cease to be distractions.” – Mingyur Rinpoche

• • “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

• • “The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

The movie in your head

• • “We cannot be present and run our story-line at the same time.” – Pema Chödrön

• • “To diminish the suffering of pain, we need to make a crucial distinction between the pain of pain, and the pain we create by our thoughts about the pain. Fear, anger, guilt, loneliness and helplessness are all mental and emotional responses that can intensify pain.” – Howard Cutler

• • “Everything is created twice, first in the mind and then in reality.” – Robin S. Sharma

• • “Mindfulness, also called wise attention, helps us see what we’re adding to our experiences, not only during meditation sessions but also elsewhere.” – Sharon Salzberg

• • “What is it about our expectations, plans, or ideas that hold such sway over us? It is as if we’ve written a script for a play of our lives that runs about a month ahead of actual life; if reality varies from what we’ve created in our minds we disengage or pout.” – Holly Sprink

• • “My experience is that many things are not as bad as I thought they would be.” – Mary Doria Russell

Stress and mental health

• • “We must be willing to encounter darkness and despair when they come up and face them, over and over again if need be, without running away or numbing ourselves in the thousands of ways we conjure up to avoid the unavoidable.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

• • “Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.” – Tara Brach

• • “The standard way of reducing stress in our culture is to put as much energy as possible into trying to arrive at a moment that matches our preferences. This ensures that we feel some level of stress until we get there (assuming we ever will) and worse, it makes the present moment into an unacceptable place to be.” – David Cain

• • “We do so much, we run so quickly, the situation is difficult, and many people say, “Don’t just sit there, do something.” But doing more things may make the situation worse. So you should say, “Don’t just do something, sit there.” Sit there, stop, be yourself first, and begin from there.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

• • “We withdraw from our experience of the present moment. We pull away from the raw feelings of fear and shame by incessantly telling ourselves stories about what is happening in our life.” – Tara Brach

Accepting (Even Loving) the Present

• • “Rejoicing in ordinary things is not sentimental or trite. It actually takes guts.”  -Pema Chödrön

• • “Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. He is rich who owns the day, and no one owns the day who allows it to be invaded with fret and anxiety.”  – Ralph Waldo Emerson

• • “Now is the future that you promised yourself last year, last month, last week. Now is the only moment you’ll ever really have. Mindfulness is about waking up to this.” – Mark Williams

• • “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

• • “In today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.” – Eckhart Tolle

• • “In this moment, there is infinite possibility.” – Victoria Moran

• • “We have only now, only this single eternal moment opening and unfolding before us, day and night.” – Jack Kornfield

• • “Without giving up hope—that there’s somewhere better to be, that there’s someone better to be, we will never relax with where we are or who we are.” – Pema Chodron

• • “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn






Embracing our Feelings

• • “By learning to allow different types of discomfort to simply stay in the room with you, without your scrambling for a button to push (real or metaphorical), you make discomfort matter less. The pool of things you’re afraid of shrinks. It becomes a lot less important to control circumstances because you know you can handle moments of uncertainty or awkwardness or disappointment without an escape plan.” – David Cain

• • “Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.” – Jack Kornfield

• • “We might begin by scanning our body . . . and then asking, “What is happening?” We might also ask, “What wants my attention right now?” or, “What is asking for acceptance?” – Tara Brach

• • “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

• • “We spend a lot of time judging ourselves for feelings that we had no role in summoning. The only thing you can control is how you handle it.” – Dan Harris






The Gifts of Mindfulness

• • “Today, you can decide to walk in freedom. You can choose to walk differently. You can walk as a free person, enjoying every step.”  – Thich Nhat Hanh

• • “Stepping out of the busyness, stopping our endless pursuit of getting somewhere else, is perhaps the most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.”  – Tara Brach

• • “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.”  – Carl Jung

• • “When we stop dwelling on the past or worrying about the future, we’re open to rich sources of information that we’ve been missing out on – information that can keep us out of the downward spiral and poised for a richer life.” – Mark Williams

• • “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

• • “Above all, we cannot afford not to live in the present. He is blessed over all mortals who loses no moment of the passing life in remembering the past.”  – Henry David Thoreau

• • “A crowded mind leaves no space for a peaceful heart.” – Christine Evangelou

What are your favorite mindfulness quotes?






We hope these mindfulness quotes have given you some inspiration!  Which of these quotes resonated with you? Did a favorite quote not make the list? Let us know in the comments.