If you have heard anything about positive psychology, you have caught wind of the word “mindfulness.”
Critical for mental wellness, mindfulness is being fully present and nonjudgmentally aware of the current moment. Mindfulness has countless positive benefits on mental health, including decreased stress, anxiety, and depression levels and improved sleep, relationships, and job performance.
Whether these advantages don’t convince you, or you just want to learn more about mindfulness, we have created a comprehensive list of procured mindfulness quotes from an in-depth review of the literature and research studies. We even included a few gems from the Buddha himself!
Whether you want to pursue a mindfulness routine or assist clients in beginning this healthful practice, these mindfulness quotes will inspire you.
Before you continue, we thought you might like to download our three Mindfulness Exercises for free. These science-based, comprehensive exercises will help you cultivate a sense of inner peace throughout your daily life and give you the tools to enhance the mindfulness of your clients, students, or employees.
What Is Mindfulness?
Mindfulness is a form of meditative practice that elevates present-moment awareness (Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008).
The mental and physical benefits of this type of exercise are well documented within the literature and practiced worldwide. The following mindfulness quotes will help to solidify your understanding of mindfulness.
One specific aspect of mindfulness is awareness.
Reb at el., 2015, p. 111
To cultivate the healing power of mindfulness requires much more than mechanically following a recipe or a set of instructions.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 31
Mindfulness is a deceptively simple way of relating to all experience that can reduce suffering and set the stage for positive personal transformation.
Siegel et al., 2009, p. 17
We can talk about mindfulness or write at length about it, but to truly understand mindfulness, we have to experience it directly.
Siegel et al., 2009, p. 17
Mindfulness Quotes
As we mentioned, the benefits of mindfulness are plentiful. Mindfulness can promote whole-person health by positively affecting a person’s mind, body, and behavior (Greeson, 2009). The following quotes will help shed light on mindfulness’s benefits.
Most of the time our perception is limited by our attention span; fragmented by continuous distractions; distorted by our biases, assumptions, and expectations; and regularly hijacked by our emotional reactivity.
Hyland et al., 2015, p. 578
Mindfulness is the capacity to perceive our world clearly, without adulteration or manipulation.
Hyland et al., 2015, p. 578
We are all mindful to one degree or another, moment by moment. It is an inherent human capacity.
Kabat-Zinn, 2003, pp. 145–146
It is only when the mind is open and receptive that learning and seeing and change can occur.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 31
The richness of present-moment experience is the richness of life itself. Too often we let our thinking and our beliefs about what we ‘know’ prevent us from seeing things as they really are.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 35
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These detailed, science-based exercises will help you or your clients enjoy the benefits of mindfulness and create positive shifts in their mental, physical, and emotional health.
Mindful Thoughts
Mindfulness is a personal journey. Although our process in this practice may vary, we must remember to keep our thoughts of awareness nonjudgmental, nonconceptual, and accepting (Frewen et al., 2008).
To help prepare you for mindfulness practice, you may wish to review the following mindfulness quotes.
Mindfulness is often spoken of synonymously as ‘insight’ meditation, which means a deep, penetrative non-conceptual seeing into the nature of mind and world.
Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 146
This seeing requires a spirit of perpetual and persistent inquiry—as in, “What is this?”—toward whatever arises in awareness, and toward ‘who is attending,’ ‘who is seeing,’ ‘who is meditating.’
Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 146
When we begin practicing paying attention to the activity of our own mind, it is common to discover and to be surprised by the fact that we are constantly generating judgments about our experience.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 33
Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 34
Although it takes a lot of work and energy of a certain kind, ultimately meditation is non-doing. It has no goal other than for you to be yourself.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 37
In the meditation practice, we cultivate acceptance by taking each moment as it comes and being with it fully, as it is.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 39
The moment. Stop regretting the past and fearing the future. Today is all you have. Make the most of it. Make it worth remembering.
García & Miralles, 2017, p. 185
Quotes About Meditation and Mindfulness
Meditation and mindfulness practices have advantageous effects on the human psyche and physical body. Combine these two, and you have one immensely powerful tool.
Simply put, mindfulness meditation is observing one’s experiences while sitting quietly. Benefits include improved concentration, clarity, stress release, and greater wellbeing (Eberth & Sedlmeir, 2012).
The following quotes will familiarize you with this complementary combination.
Mindfulness, however, is more than meditation. It […] involves consciously attending to one’s moment-to-moment experience.
Shapiro et al., 2006, p. 374
Mindfulness may hold promise as a potential way to help prevent and treat disease, increase ability to cope with pain and chronic illness, reduce stress in patients and practitioners, foster compassion, improve quality of care and reduce medical errors.
Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008, p. 1352
Mindfulness meditation practice is a form of cognitive training aimed at learning how and where to guide one’s attention.
Kang et al., 2013, p. 193
Researchers theorize that mindfulness meditation promotes metacognitive awareness, decreases rumination via disengagement from perseverative cognitive activities and enhances attentional capacities through gains in working memory. These cognitive gains, in turn, contribute to effective emotion-regulation strategies.
Davis & Hayes, 2007, p. 64
Mindfulness is cultivated by assuming the stance of an impartial witness to your own experience. To do this requires that you become aware of the constant stream of judging and reacting to inner and outer experiences that we are all normally caught up in, and learn to step back from it.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 33
The best quotes for bringing mindfulness into your life
Mindfulness Sayings
Mindfulness, which has been practiced for thousands of years, has roots in Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Trousselard et al., 2014).
Regardless of origins of mindfulness, the following collection of quotes will elicit some deep thinking and philosophical thoughts.
It is far better to trust in your intuition and your own authority, even if you make some ‘mistakes’ along the way, than always to look outside of yourself for guidance.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 36
It is impossible to become like somebody else. Your only hope is to become more fully yourself. That is the reason for practicing meditation in the first place.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 36
Buddhist Mindfulness Quotes & Buddha Quotes on Mindfulness
In the practice of Buddhism, the original purpose of mindfulness is to alleviate suffering and cultivate compassion (Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008).
Buddha’s prescription for relief is the eightfold path, which can be divided into three training areas (Huxter, 2015). The meditation or concentration area of training is directly correlated to mindfulness.
Read on to hear more of the Enlightened One’s teachings concerning mindfulness.
This is the only way, monks, for the purification of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the destruction of suffering and grief, for reaching the right path, for the attainment of Nibbana, namely the four foundations of mindfulness.
MN 10 Satipatthana Sutta: The Foundations of Mindfulness
Delight in heedfulness! Guard well your thoughts!
Dhammapada 327
Whatever has the nature of arising has the nature of ceasing.
SN 35.204 Kimsuka Sutta: The Riddle Tree
As a water bead on a lotus leaf, as water on a red lily, does not adhere, so the sage does not adhere to the seen, the heard, or the sensed.
SN 4.6 Jara Sutta: Old Age
Know from the rivers in clefts and in crevices: those in small channels flow noisily, the great flow silent. Whatever’s not full makes noise. Whatever is full is quiet.
SN 3.11 Nalaka Sutta: To Nalaka
In Buddhism mindfulness, or bare attention, is in the very first perception – a fleeting moment of open awareness, before the conceptual, thinking mind takes over.
Goodman & Greenland, 2009, p. 419
Mindfulness Quotes for Work
If you work, chances are you have experienced some type of work-related stress. Work-related stress can lead to high employee turnover and absenteeism, decreased job satisfaction, and organizational inefficiency (AbuAlRub, 2004).
Mindfulness may be just what you need to combat this phenomenon.
A growing body of research shows that mindfulness can decrease stress, increase mental and physical health and cognitive functioning, and improve performance and wellbeing. As a result, a number of organizations have started to implement mindfulness programs for their employees.
Hyland et al., 2015, p. 595
Mindfulness seems to address important issues organizations and employees are struggling with in a time of attention overload, multi-tasking, and stressors from increasingly complex work arrangements and 24/7 connectivity.
Reb et al., 2020, p. 3
By uncovering how attention and mindfulness ‘work’ and can be systematically taught, developed, and increased at work, we are convinced that this research area has the potential to substantially reduce suffering and increase flourishing at workplaces throughout the world.
Reb et al., 2020, p. 6
Overall, the results provide considerable support for the idea that employee mindfulness is beneficial for both employee well-being and performance.
Reb et al., 2015, p. 119
Workplace mindfulness is not only positively related to job performance, but also predictive of the degree to which individuals are attached to their employer.
Dane & Brummel, 2014, p. 16
Many people either do not enjoy their work or at the least could enjoy it more. Mindfulness theory suggests at least two possible solutions. One is to vary the perspective from which workplace tasks are viewed by the persons performing them. The other is to design interventions that allow people to become more engaged with the tasks they already perform.
Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000, p. 132
Mindful Quotes About Life
Life can be quite the roller coaster with its ups and downs. Mindfulness has been found to correlate positively with life satisfaction (Bajaj & Pande, 2016). The following quotes emphasize the relevance of mindfulness in everyday life.
Inasmuch awareness and absent-mindedness are aspects of mindfulness, one could expect the former to be positively and the latter to be negatively associated with relationship quality and well-being.
Reb et al., 2015, p. 112
Mindfulness theory suggests the possibility and benefits of discerning alternative interpretations.
Langer & Moldoveanu, 2000, p. 130
Mindfulness meditation is not simply a method that one encounters for a brief time at a professional seminar and then passes on to others for use as needed when they find themselves tense or stressed. It is a way of being that takes ongoing effort to develop and refine.
Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 149
Thus, mindfulness can always be large enough to include whatever arises if it can be seen, felt, and known nonconceptually.
Kabat-Zinn, 2003, p. 150
When practicing mindfulness, it is important to recognize this judging quality of mind when it appears and to intentionally assume the stance of an impartial witness by reminding yourself to just observe it.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 34
Top 17 Exercises for Mindfulness & Meditation
Use these 17 Mindfulness & Meditation Exercises [PDF] to help others build life-changing habits and enhance their wellbeing with the physical and psychological benefits of mindfulness.
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Positive Mindfulness Quotes
Mindfulness has a distinct niche within positive psychology. Recent studies demonstrate that positive psychology interventions that involve mindfulness produce promising outcomes (Allen et al., 2021).
So, here are a few quotes to whet your appetite.
Loving-kindness meditation practices focus on the explicit generation of positive feelings toward the self and others, whereas mindfulness meditation practices aim to foster an open awareness of experience.
Creswell, 2017, p. 503
Historically a Buddhist practice, mindfulness can be considered a universal human capacity proposed to foster clear thinking and open-heartedness.
Ludwig & Kabat-Zinn, 2008, p. 1350
In practicing mindfulness you will have to bring your whole being to the process. You can’t just assume a meditative posture and think something will happen or play a tape and think that the tape is going to ‘do something’ for you.
Kabat-Zinn, 2005, p. 31
Just as we can improve physical fitness through regular physical exercise, we can develop mindfulness through deliberate mental practices.
Siegel et al., 2009, p. 21
There is rapidly accumulating evidence in the field of complementary health practices that greater mindfulness can not only reduce stress and stress-related medical symptoms, but can also enhance positive emotions and quality of life.
Greeson, 2009, p. 10
Cutting-edge laboratory research is beginning to reveal some of the biological pathways through which mindfulness training may positively affect physical health and healing processes.
Greeson, 2009, p. 14
A Take-Home Message
We hope these mindfulness quotes inspired you and gave you new insight into this instrumental tool for mental wellness.
If one of your favorite mindfulness quotes was not on this list, please feel free to share it with us in the comments below.
Essentially, mindfulness practice is a deeply personal thing, and each of us will connect differently with this quintessential positive psychology practice.
