Would you like to be more mindful but get distracted by the reality of everyday life? 

Or maybe you were excited by the idea of mindfulness and all its benefits, but hit a rough patch. Now you need some inspiration to revitalize your enthusiasm and reconnect to a more mindful life.

Quotes can be a powerful way to keep mindfulness foremost in your mind.

In the morning, start with a mindfulness quote to infuse your first hours with the perfume of presence. Read a quote mid-day to re-ignite your awareness. Review a quote at bedtime to instill your dreamtime with intentionality.

Use the same quote throughout the day or change it up as much as you wish.

I wanted the quotes I share in this piece to help snap you back to the present moment. But, I didn’t choose random ones. I selected quotes that will also be reminders of the essential principles of mindfulness. I hope they’ll you remember your so much more than your thinking mind too.

Mindfulness is one of the very best ways to bring peace, equanimity, and joy into your everyday life. That’s what I want for you.

Let’s begin.

1. Plant the right seeds

“The heart is like a garden: it can grow compassion or fear, resentment or love. What seeds will you plant there?”— Jack Kornfield

The mind is also like a garden. We plant seeds in our mental and emotional garden with every thought we have, every word we speak, every action we take.

Are you planting seeds intentionally? 

Or do you feel you have no control? 

If you feel constantly swept away by recurring thoughts and unpleasant emotions, it might seem like there’s little you can do to change the ambiance of your mind.

The practice of mindfulness however can restore your sovereignty.

At first, when you attempt to sit still, the landscape of your mind might look overgrown with brambles, weeds, and prickly plants.

But you can simply notice its current state without responding, without adding new thoughts. And when you find your mind has wandered off, just bring it back to the present moment. 

That’s how you plant the seeds of peace, kindness, and joy.

Your new shoots will need nurturing and care. But with time and the simplicity of presence, they’ll overtake the weeds and brambles and make your mind more beautiful than ever.

You can’t control all the externals of life. But you can control what you plant in the garden of your heart and mind.

2. You’re not your thoughts and emotions

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

As we practice mindfulness we come to see there are two aspects of mind:

• The arisings or projections of mind, meaning thoughts and emotions.

• The awareness of mind, meaning the part of mind that is aware of thoughts, emotions, and sensations.

The sky and the clouds are a commonly used metaphor to describe consciousness and what arises in consciousness, hence Pema Chödrön’s spot on quote.

The contemporary spiritual teacher, Adyashanti uses the terms “context” and “content” for consciousness and the arisings within it.

Most people spend 99.9% of their time focused on the content of mind, and almost none simply resting in the awareness or context of mind

Most of the content we invest in will not be important in a year—maybe not even in a week or a month. And when you die, the content disappears. 

So why do we spend so much time on the content?

The vast majority of our suffering comes from fixating on the content of mind. What an extraordinary waste of time and pure potential, don’t you think?

Mindfulness is a continual shift from content to context. The practice increases the amount of time spent in awareness and lessens time entangled in useless and sometimes horribly painful bits of content.

That’s not to say all content is bad. Most is simply unnecessary. And a goodly amount is dangerous because it constantly draws you toward suffering rather than happiness.

So, as you go about your day, remember, you are the sky, not the clouds. You are the context, not the content.

Let you mind remain in the awareness of what is.

3. Use an anchor to calm your mind

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

Mindfulness means paying attention in the present moment. 

That’s simple to do, but not easy to maintain because we have a long-held habit of distraction. The mind is typically lost in thoughts about the past or future, or spaced out in nowhere land.

That’s why most people find it useful to use an anchor when they begin mindfulness practice. 

An anchor is where we place our attention during mindfulness practice. It’s also the point we return to when we discover our mind has wandered.

The breath is a commonly used anchor in mindfulness practice as described in Thich Nhat Hanh’s beautiful quote.

But there are several other anchors, often called “objects,” that can be used to stabilize your mindfulness practice. They include, starting with the breath:

• Noticing the sensation of the breath as it enters and leaves your nose or as it raises and deflates your chest or belly.

• Placing your gaze lightly on an object like a candle, a flower, or a small statue

• Focusing on the repetition of a mantra—on the sound, the words, or the meaning

• Listening to sounds around you as they touch your ears—the fridge clicking into silence, the birds chattering

• Awareness of thoughts and emotions as they arise and dissolve in the mind

The mind likes to be active. Using an anchor can satisfying its need for busyness and facilitate calming the mind.

Once you master working with an anchor, you can move on to mindfulness without an object—simply being aware in the present moment.

Using an anchor allows the mind to settle into a calmer state. This makes it possible for you to see the transitory nature of thoughts and emotions. The same thoughts and emotions that once had the power to sweep you away now, after some time of practice, simply “come and go like clouds in a windy sky.”

This is how mindfulness brings greater mental and emotional stability.

4. Mindfulness means more freedom

“Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom.” — Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

When you decide to be mindful in the present moment, you naturally slow down. That doesn’t mean you become a tortoise. You’re just not running from one thought to the next or one task to another at breakneck speed.

Because you’re no longer on automatic, you take more in. That gives you more choices.

For example, instead of snapping at someone, you’re more likely to reply in a measured way.

Mindfulness also gives you time because there’s a gap between thoughts.

One recent study using MRI scans suggested humans have 6,400 thoughts per day. No wonder you feel there’s never a gap between thoughts. 

But there is.

And you can experience it through mindfulness practice. When the mind gradually slows down, you’ll discover the gap for yourself. What a relief!

This is freedom because you’ve broken the chains of harmful mental and emotional patterns that brought you suffering time and again, and may have caused you to act in ways that harmed others.

Now you have more time, more choices, and less suffering.

5. Remember to remember

“Mindfulness isn’t difficult. We just need to remember to do it.” — Sharon Salzberg

Again, mindfulness means paying attention in the present moment. And, when you notice you’re distracted, you bring your mind back to now.

Simple, right? But not easy for most of us.

The mind sees distraction as its default mode. So, it’s unable to stay in the present moment very long.

If you’re sitting still, trying your best to practice mindfulness, you could find your mind thinking about the undone dishes, a beach in Hawaii, or a looming bill.

That’s okay. You’re not doing anything wrong. In fact, when you catch yourself, that’s a moment of awareness. Just bring your mind back to the present moment.

It helps, however, to use an anchor, as mentioned above, which will help you remain in or return to the present moment.

But what about in daily life? Try one of these reminder methods:

• Set a gentle timer on your watch or electronic device to notify you every hour or two to pause and enjoy a mindful moment.

• Use a regular event as a reminder to be mindful. This could be the space between clients or patients, every time you drink water or a beverage, or whenever you get out of your car if you’re an on the go person. Pause for a moment of mindfulness.

• Place a sticky note on the fridge, on a mirror, or in your planner that says, “Remember to remember!” Or inscribe it with one of these mindfulness quotes.

These are just a few possible ways to remind yourself to be mindful during the day. Take a few moments to think of reminders that will work for you. Let them be fun, unique, and effective.

The more you use reminders, the more you mind begins to naturally remember in between the alerts.

Everyone forgets to be mindful, not just you. We have to be more clever than the distracting mind if we want to grow our mindfulness.

Closing Thoughts

Not every moment of life is beautiful. But there’s a beauty to being open to every moment as it is. The more present we become, the more we appreciate the wonder, possibility, and fragility of this gift called humanness.

Even though mindfulness is simple, after decades of distraction, it’s not easy to establish the habit of present moment awareness. Sprinkle these quotes, and any others that speak to you, in visible places to help you remember to be mindful.

Also use them to recall these main principles of mindfulness:

1. Plant the right seeds

2. You’re not you’re your thoughts and emotions

3. Use an anchor to calm your mind

4. Mindfulness means more choices and more freedom

5. Remember to remember.

Mindfulness adds up to so much more than paying attention in the moment, doesn’t it? It makes the experience of life more and more beautiful.

[Image by Samantha Gades on Pexels]

Thank you for your presence, I know your time is precious!  Don’t forget to  sign up for Wild Arisings, my twice monthly letters from the heart filled with insights, inspiration, and ideas to help you connect with and live from your truest self. 

You might also like to check out my  Living with Ease course or visit my Self-Care Shop. May you be happy, well, and safe – always.  With love, Sandra