38 Mindfulness Quotes That Will Keep You In The Moment

No matter how established your personal mindfulness practice is, there are still times that you can use a little extra inspiration.

Fortunately, when it comes to mindfulness – there is no shortage of inspirational quotes you can use to give yourself that extra set of motivation.

We have listed below some of our favorite quotes about being mindful in general. These quotes should inspire your mindfulness practice in one way or another without having to be too specific and these may also help you define mindfulness in a way you had not previously thought of.

1. “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.” – Eckhart Tolle

2. “I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred. I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. “Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.” – Amit Ray

4. “Water if you don’t stir it will become clear; the mind left unaltered will find its own natural peace.” – Unknown

5. “Always hold fast to the present. Every situation, indeed every moment, is of infinite value, for it is the representative of a whole eternity.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

6. “Be happy in the moment, that’s enough. Each moment is all we need, not more.”– Mother Teresa

7. “If you clean the floor with love, you have given the world an invisible painting.” – Osho

8. “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.” – Sharon Salzberg

9. “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 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!” – Pema Chödrön

10. “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.” – Henry David Thoreau

11. “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 a company go, let the bells ring and the children cry, determined to make a day of it.” – Henry David Thoreau

12. “Each morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.” – Buddha

13. “A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” – James Allen

14. “Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life.” – Marcus Aurelius

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

16. “I don’t need anyone else to distract me from myself anymore like I always thought I would.” – Charlotte Eriksson

17. “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.” – Joey Green, quoting from Wizard of Oz

18. “How we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives.” – Anne Dillard

19. “Few of us ever live in the present. We are forever anticipating what is to come or remembering what has gone.” – Louis L’Amour

20. “As you walk and eat and travel, be where you are. Otherwise, you will miss most of your life.” – Buddha

21. “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.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

22. “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 dies, looking back over their shoulders at their lives, shaking their heads and muttering in bewilderment, “What was that all about?” – Stephen Levine

23. “The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.” -Unknown

24. “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”
– Jack Kornfield

25. “The basic root of happiness lies in our minds; outer circumstances are nothing more than adverse or favorable.” – Matthieu Ricard

26. “When you realize nothing is lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” -Lao Tzu

27. “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.” -Victoria Moran

28. “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.” – Hugh Jackman

29. “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.”– Sam Harris

30. “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

31. “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.”– Amit Ray

32. “So what is a good meditator? A good meditator meditates.” -Allan Lokos

33. “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.“ – Masaru Emoto

34. “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.”– Amit Ray

35. “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” – American Proverb

36. “The best way to capture moments is to pay attention. This is how we cultivate mindfulness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

37. “Many people are alive but don’t touch the miracle of being alive” – Thích Nhất Hạnh

38. “You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” – Pema Chödrön

We hope that at least some of the above quotes have inspired you in any way, and we genuinely hope that they have given you something new to consider for your mindfulness practice.

Let us know in the comments which one you like most or if you have your own favorite mindfulness quote(s) that aren't listed above! We'd love to hear them ♥ Namaste.