There’s no doubt that mindfulness and gratitude are good for you.
It’s been shown that practicing mindfulness and expressing gratitude can reduce stress, relieve anxiety, improve our sleep, and help us manage our focus and concentration.
If you’re new to the term, mindfulness is the state of being in the present moment. Put simply, it’s about paying attention. We’re not fixated on the past or worrying about what will happen in the future. Instead, we’re bringing our awareness to the current moment.
While meditation can help you achieve mindfulness, other simple tasks and activities can also help you reach this state. For example, coloring, taking a walk, knitting, gardening, even washing the dishes are mindful activities. They help you relax and bring your attention to the present.
Gratitude is about expressing our appreciation for what we have in our life. Practicing gratitude is a mindful act because it shifts your attention from what you don’t have, to all the gifts that you do have. You can practice gratitude by making a list or by simply being aware of what you’re grateful for.
Your gratitude can be for something profound, like family and community, or something mundane like your morning cup of coffee or new, cozy pajamas. You get to determine what you’re grateful for.
Below is a collection of mindfulness and gratitude quotes. You can turn to these quotes whenever you need a boost of inspiration or a reminder of all the good you have going on in your life. Recite them out loud or write them down in your favorite notebook or put them up around your workspace. These empowering quotes are sure to bring comfort and peace during times you need them most.
Quotes on mindfulness
- “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
- “Do every act of your life as though it were the very last act of your life.” – Marcus Aurelius
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou
- “Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “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
- “Life on earth is a whole, yet it expresses itself in unique time-bound bodies, microscopic or visible, plant or animal, extinct or living. So there can be no one place to be. There can be no one way to be, no one way to practice, no one way to learn, no one way to love, no one way to grow or to heal, no one way to live, no one way to feel, no one thing to know or be known. The particulars count.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion.” – Thích Nhất Hạnh
- “There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.” – Tara Brach
- “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” – Kahlil Gibran
- “Alone had always felt like an actual place to me, as if it weren’t a state of being, but rather a room where I could retreat to be who I really was.” – Cheryl Strayed
- “Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it.” – Eckhart Tolle
- “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.” – Thích Nhất Hạnh
Quotes on gratitude
- "Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough." – Oprah Winfrey
- “It is through gratitude for the present moment that the spiritual dimension of life opens up”. – Eckhart Tolle
- “You cannot do a kindness too soon because you never know how soon it will be too late.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson
- “A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue but the parent of all other virtues.” – Cicero
- “When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.” – Buddha
- “When we give cheerfully and accept gratefully, everyone is blessed.” – Maya Angelou
- “Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” – Voltaire
- “Be grateful in your own hearts. That suffices. Thanksgiving has wings, and flies to its right destination.” – Victor Hugo
- “I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness – it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.” – Brene Brown
- “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” – Buddha
- “I was complaining that I had no shoes till I met a man who had no feet.” – Confucius
- "We learned about gratitude and humility - that so many people had a hand in our success." – Michelle Obama
- “Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.” – Epicurus
