With the prevalence of an always-on-the-go culture, the ability to get into the present moment is more important than ever.
Each moment is a gift of time that will never exist again. Appreciating the beauty of each moment is one of the best gifts you can give yourself.
Mindfulness is being fully present for all the feelings and emotions that occur inside your heart, mind and soul, all at the same time. You have an entire world to explore inside of you.
You can make the absolute most of each precious moment by asking your mind to acknowledge the beauty in the here and now.
Here are 40 of our favorite mindfulness quotes to help you get in the present moment
1. Eckhart Tolle
All you really need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.
2. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Always hold fast to the present. Every situation, indeed every moment, is of infinite value, for it is the representative of a whole eternity.
3. Henry David Thoreau
Let us spend one day as deliberately as Nature, and not be thrown off track by every nutshell and mosquito’s wing that falls on the rails. Let us rise early and fast, or break fast, gently and without perturbation; let company come and let company go, let the bells ring and the children cry, determined to make a day of it.
4. Buddha
Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.
5. James Allen
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
6. Marcus Aurelius
Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.
7. Thich Nhat Hanh
Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.
8. Charlotte Eriksson
I don’t need anyone else to distract me from myself anymore, like I always thought I would.
9. Joey Green, quoting The Wizard of Oz
Dorothy tries to sum it all up before leaving Oz. “It’s that if ever I go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard,” she tells Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. “Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with. Is that it?” “That’s all it is,” confirms Glinda.
10. Anne Dillard
How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.
11. Louis L’Amour
Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.
12. Unknown
Water if you don’t stir it will become clear; the mind left unaltered will find its own natural peace.
13. Pema Chödrön
In meditation, we discover our inherent restlessness. Sometimes we get up and leave. Sometimes we sit there but our bodies wiggle and squirm and our minds go far away. This can be so uncomfortable that we feel’s it’s impossible to stay. Yet this feeling can teach us not just about ourselves but what it is to be human… we really don’t want to stay with the nakedness of our present experience. It goes against the grain to stay present. These are the times when only gentleness and a sense of humor can give us the strength to settle down… so whenever we wander off, we gently encourage ourselves to “stay” and settle down. Are we experiencing restlessness? Stay! Are fear and loathing out of control? Stay! Aching knees and throbbing back? Stay! What’s for lunch? Stay! I can’t stand this another minute! Stay!
14. Buddha
As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise you will miss most of your life.
15. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Finish every day and be done with it.
You have done what you could.
Some blunders and absurdities, no doubt, crept in.
Forget them as soon as you can,
tomorrow is a new day;
begin it well and serenely,
with too high a spirit to be cumbered
with your old nonsense.
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16. Stephen Levine
Why do so many of us not give ourselves permission to be alive until we are absolutely assured that we will die? …If we are not in [this present millisecond of life and conscious experience], we are not alive; we are merely thinking our lives. Yet we have seen so many die, looking back over their shoulders at their lives, shaking their heads and muttering in bewilderment, “What was that all about?
17. Sharon Salzberg
Metta is the ability to embrace all parts of ourselves, as well as all parts of the world. Practicing metta illuminates our inner integrity because it relieves us of the need to deny different aspects of ourselves.
18. Unknown
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.
19. Jack Kornfield
In the end, just three things matter: how well we have lived, how well we have loved, how well we have learned to let go.
20. Matthieu Ricard
The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favorable.
21. Mother Teresa
Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.
22. Lao Tzu
When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
23. Victoria Moran
In this moment, there is plenty of time. In this moment, you are precisely as you should be. In this moment, there is infinite possibility.
24. Hugh Jackman
Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It’s like the ultimate rest. It’s better than the best sleep you’ve ever had. It’s a quieting of the mind. It sharpens everything, especially your appreciation of your surroundings. It keeps life fresh.
25. Sam Harris
The habit of spending nearly every waking moment lost in thought leaves us at the mercy of whatever our thoughts happen to be. Meditation is a way of breaking this spell.
26. James Baraz
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).
27. Ralph Waldo Emerson
I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred. I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.
28. Amit Ray
If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.
29. Allan Lokos
So what is a good meditator? A good meditator meditates.
30. Osho
If you clean the floor with love, you have given the world an invisible painting.
31. Masaru Emoto
If you feel lost, disappointed, hesitant, or weak, return to yourself, to who you are, here and now and when you get there, you will discover yourself, like a lotus flower in full bloom, even in a muddy pond, beautiful and strong.
32. Amit Ray
Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.
33. Amit Ray
There are two types of seeds in the mind: those that create anger, fear, frustration, jealousy, hatred and those that create love, compassion, equanimity and joy. Spirituality is germination and sprouting of the second group and transforming the first group.
34. Henry David Thoreau
You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.
35. American Proverb
Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
36. Henepola Gunaratana
Mindfulness helps us freeze the frame so that we can become aware of our sensations and experiences as they are, without the distorting coloration of socially conditioned responses or habitual reactions.
37. Unknown
Most of us spend our time seeking happiness and security without acknowledging the underlying purpose of our search. Each of us is looking for a path back to the present: We are trying to find good enough reasons to be satisfied now.
38. Sam Harris
Acknowledging that this is the structure of the game we are playing allows us to play it differently. How we pay attention to the present moment largely determines the character of our experience and, therefore, the quality of our lives.
39. Adyashanti
The world’s problems are, by and large, human problems—the unavoidable consequence of egoic sleepwalking. If we care to look, all the signs are present to suggest that we are not only sleepwalking, but at times borderline insane as well.
40. Eckhart Tolle
Not to be able to stop thinking is an affliction, but we don’t realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it.
Last thoughts
Mindfulness is the key to living fully and appreciating the things that are happening in your life.
When you are open to experiencing the world in a more present, aware manner, you open up so many more possibilities. Do your mind the favor and cater to its need for more time and attention.
