77+ Jon Kabat-Zinn Quotes That Will Inspire You To Let Go

Reading Time: 11 minutes

Kabat-Zinn’s quote reminds us that even when times are tough, we can still take comfort in the things we do.

It’s a reminder to stay positive and keep going, even when things seem insurmountable. So let’s all remember these wise words as we face today and tomorrow’s challenges.

 

  • “Wherever you go, there you are.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn.

This quote reminds us that we always take ourselves with us, no matter where we go. We are the only constant in our lives, and we should focus on taking care of ourselves first and foremost. If we can do that, then everything else will fall into place.

 

  • “The best way out is always through.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn.

No matter what situation we find ourselves in, the best way to deal with it is to face it head-on. There’s no point in escaping our problems because they will always catch up with us. It’s better to deal with them now so we can move on with our lives.

 

Jon Kabat-zinn Quotes Letting Go

  • “Meditation is not about feeling a certain way. It’s about feeling the way you feel.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Arriving someplace more desirable at some future time is an illusion. This is it.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Maybe the fear is that we are less than we think we are, when the actuality of it is that we are much much more.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are the same word.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Generosity is another quality which, like patience, letting go, non-judging, and trust, provides a solid foundation for mindfulness practice.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “All the suffering, stress, and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “We call the effort to cultivate our ability to be in the present moment ‘practice’ or ‘meditation practice.’” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Even the tiniest manifestation of mindfulness in any moment might give rise to an intuition or insight that could be hugely transforming.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “It is healing simply to be heard, to be met, to be seen, to be known.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “There are a lot of different ways to talk about mindfulness, but what it really means is awareness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

  • “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn.

This is one of my favourite Jon Kabat-Zinn quotes because it beautifully captures the essence of living with intention and finding peace amidst the storm. Life will always throw challenges our way – that’s inevitable. But what we can control is how we respond to these challenges. Do we let them define and overwhelm us, or do we face them with courage and grace?

 

  • “There is no coming to consciousness without pain.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Change is never easy – growth seldom is. But if we want to evolve and become better versions of ourselves, we must be willing to go through tough times, feel the pain, and learn from our mistakes. This quote from Jon Kabat-Zinn reminds us that there is value in the struggle – that it is through adversity that we often find our greatest strength.

 

Jon Kabat-zinn On Mindfulness

  • “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindfulness means being awake. It means knowing what you are doing.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The little things? The little moments? They aren’t little.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “We take care of the future best by taking care of the present now.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “It is indeed a radical act of love just to sit down and be quiet for a time by yourself.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “By grounding yourself in mindfulness early in the morning, you are reminding yourself that things are always changing, that good and bad things come and go, and that it is possible to embody a perspective of of constancy, wisdom, and inner peace as you face any conditions that present themselves.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Can we be in touch with our own life unfolding? Can we rise to the occasion of our own humanity? Can we take on the challenges we meet, even seeking them out to test ourselves, to grow, to act in a principled way, to be true to ourselves, to find our own way, and ultimately not only have it but, more importantly, live it?” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “If you stop trying to make yourself more than you are, out of fear that you are less than you are, whoever you really are will be a lot lighter and happier and easier to live with, too.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Just stopping, is a radical act of sanity and love.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “To drop into being means to recognize your interconnectedness with all life, and with being itself. Your very nature is being part of larger and larger spheres of wholeness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The only time that any of us have to grow or change or feel or learn anything is in the present moment. But we’re continually missing our present moments, almost willfully, by not paying attention.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Meditation is really a non-doing. It is the only human endeavor I know of being where you already are.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindfulness is a way of befriending ourselves and our experience.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

Motivational Jon Kabat-zinn

  • “Most people don’t realize that the mind constantly chatters. And yet, that chatter winds up being the force that drives us much of the day in terms of what we do, what we react to, and how we feel.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Breathing is central to every aspect of meditation training. It’s a wonderful place to focus in training the mind to be calm and concentrated.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Meditation is the only intentional, systematic human activity which at bottom is about not trying to improve yourself or get anywhere else, but simply to realize where you already are.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The funny thing about stopping is that as soon as you do it, here you are.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The real meditative practice is to open up to the full range of what happens in life. And parenting is a fantastic arena for doing that kind of spiritual training. It’s as much a potential door into enlightenment as anything else.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Just watch this moment, without trying to change it at all. What is happening? What do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear?” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Nourishing the soul is the process of drinking at the life stream, coming back to one’s true self, embracing the whole of one’s experience – good, bad, or ugly; painful or exalted; dull or boring.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “In any given moment we are either practicing mindfulness, or defacto, we are practicing mindlessness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “In the beginner’s mind, there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s there are few.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “You are whole and also part of larger and larger circles of wholeness you many not even know about. You are never alone. And you already belong. You belong to humanity. You belong to life. You belong to this moment, this breath.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Writing can be an incredible mindfulness practice.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The mind that has not been developed or trained is very scattered. That’s the normal state of affairs, but it leaves us out of touch with a great deal in life, including our bodies.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “If we are honest with ourselves, most of us will have to admit that we live out our lives in an ocean of fear.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The awareness is not part of the darkness or the pain; it holds the pain, and knows it, so it has to be more fundamental, and closer to what is healthy and strong and golden within you.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “But you cannot have harmony without a commitment to ethical behavior. It’s the fence that keeps out the goats that will eat all the young shoots in your garden.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “There is just this moment. We are not trying to improve or to get anywhere else.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindfulness is so powerful that the fact that it comes out of Buddhism is irrelevant.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Perhaps we just need little reminders from time to time that we are already dignified, deserving, worthy.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Can you question who you are? And are you comfortable with not knowing?” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “It’s not a matter of letting go – you would if you could. Instead of “Let it go,” we should probably say “Let it be.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Living in a chronic state of unawareness can cause us to miss much of what is most beautiful and meaningful in our lives.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The habit of ignoring our present moments in favor of others yet to come leads directly to a pervasive lack of awareness of the web of life in which we are embedded. This includes a lack of awareness and understanding of our own mind and how it influences our perceptions and our actions. It severely limits our perspective on what it means to be a person and how we are connected to each other and the world around us.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “See for yourself whether letting go when a part of you really wants to hold on doesn’t bring a deeper satisfaction than clinging.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “How we see and hold the full range of our experiences in our minds and in our hearts makes an enormous difference in the quality of this journey we are on and what it means to us. It can influence where we go, what happens, what we learn, and how we feel along the way.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “See If You Can Give Yourself Gifts That May Be True Blessings, Such As Self-Acceptance.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “From the perspective of meditation, every state is a special state, every moment a special moment.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “One practical way to do this is to look at other people and ask yourself if you are really seeing them of just your thought about them. Sometimes our thoughts act like dream glasses. When we have them on, we see dream children, dream husband, dream wife, dream ob, dream colleagues, dream partners, dream friends. We can live in a dream present for a dream future… But if we take off the glasses, maybe, just maybe, we might see a little more accurately what is actually here.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “If we hope to go anywhere or develop ourselves in any way, we can only step from where we are standing. If we don’t really know where we are standing… We may only go in circles…” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Meditation is a way of being, not a technique. Meditation is not about trying to get anywhere else. It is about allowing yourself to be exactly where you are and as you are, and the world to be exactly as it is in this moment, as well.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Everything is related to everything else and, in a way, simultaneously contains everything else and is contained by everything else. What is more, everything is in flux.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Knowing what you are doing while you are doing it is the essence of mindfulness practice.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Socrates was famous in Athens for saying, “Know thyself.” It is said that one of his students said to him: “Socrates, you go around saying ‘Know thyself,’ but do you know yourself?” Socrates was said to have replied, “No, but I understand something about this not knowing.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “To break out of this trap of always being driven by our own desires, it is not a bad exercise to ask yourself from time to time, “What is my own way?” “What do I really want?” “Would I know it if I got it?” “Does everything have to be perfect right now, or under my total control right now, for me to be happy?” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “There are certain ways in which I cultivate awareness, both through mindful yoga and taking care of my body and taking time to actually drop as deeply as possible into stillness, into whatever is unfolding in the present moment.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that’s what you’ve wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that’s what’s on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are you going to handle it? In other words, “Now what?” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “If we are to grasp the reality of our life while we have it, we will need to wake up to our moments. Otherwise, whole days, even a whole life, could slip past unnoticed.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “When experience is viewed in a certain way, it presents nothing but doorways into the soul.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Meditation is simply about being yourself and knowing something about who that is. It is about coming to realize that you are on a path whether you like it or not, namely, the path that is your life. Meditation may help us see that this path we call our life has direction; that it is always unfolding, moment by moment; and that what happens now, in this moment, influences what happens next.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Because of this inner busyness, which is going on almost all the time, we are liable either to miss a lot of the texture of our life experience or to discount its value and meaning.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Experiment with giving away this energy – in little ways at first – directing it toward yourself and toward others with no thought of gain or return. Give more than you think you can, trusting that you are richer than you think. Celebrate this richness. Give as if you had inexhaustible wealth. This is called “kingly giving.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “You make problem, you have problem.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Sometimes shutting off the sound on the television can allow you to actually watch the game and take it in in an entirely different and more direct way – a first-order, first-person experience – rather than filtered through the mind of another.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “A lot of harm has come in all eras from people attached to one view of ‘spiritual’ truth.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Meditation means learning how to get out of this current, sit by its bank and listen to it, learn from it, and then use its energies to guide us.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Too much of the education system orients students toward becoming better thinkers, but there is almost no focus on our capacity to pay attention and cultivate awareness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “If we are not careful, it is all too easy to fall into becoming more of a human doing than a human being, and forget who is doing all the doing, and why.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “When you have children, you realize how easy it is to not see them fully, and perhaps miss all those early years. If you are not careful, you can be too absorbed in work, and they will be only too happy to tell you about it later. Being a parent is one of greatest mindfulness practices of all.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life, and your actions happen in accordance with that.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindfulness meditation is the embrace of any and all mind states in awareness, without preferring one to another.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Practice moment to moment non-judgemental awareness.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “In letting go of wanting something special to occur, maybe we can realize that something special is already occurring.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

Famous Jon Kabat-zinn

  • “You are only here now; you’re only alive in this moment.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindful parenting is the hardest job on the planet, but it’s also one that has the potential for the deepest kinds of satisfactions over the life span, and the greatest feelings of interconnectedness and community and belonging.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “He who dies before he dies does not die when he dies.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Practice sharing the fullness of your being, your best self, your enthusiasm, your vitality, your spirit, your trust, your openness, above all, your presence. Share it with yourself, with your family, with the world.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Zen has an expression, “nothing special.” When you understand “nothing special,” you realize that everything is special. Everything’s special and nothing’s special. Everything’s spiritual and nothing’s spiritual. It’s how you see, it’s what eyes you’re looking through, that matters.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Meditation is simply about being yourself and know about who that is.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Nothing is to be clung to as I, me, or mine.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “For men and women alike, this journey is a the trajectory between birth and death, a human life lived. No one escapes the adventure. We only work with it differently.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “When we spend some time each day in non-doing, resting in awareness, observing the flow of the breath and the activity of our mind and body without getting caught up in that activity, we are cultivating calmness and mindfulness hand in hand.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Engel’s biopsychosocial model proposed that psychological and social factors could either protect a person from illness or increase his or her susceptibility to it. Such factors include a person’s beliefs and attitudes, how supported and loved a person feels by family and friends, the psychological and environmental stresses to which one is exposed, and personal health behaviors.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “There are always waves on the water. Sometimes they are big, sometimes they are small, and sometimes they are almost imperceptible. The water’s waves are churned up by the winds, which come and go and vary in direction and intensity, just as do the winds of stress and change in our lives, which stir up the waves in our minds.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Be a light unto yourself.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn
  • “Kabir says: Student, tell me, what is God? He is the breath inside the breath. KABIR.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

 

Jon Kabat-Zinn is a renowned meditation teacher and author who has popularized the concept of mindfulness. His quotes on letting go, mindfulness, and redefining success are inspiring and thought-provoking.

Hope you enjoyed these Famous Quotes, Share these HappyLives360 Quotes with your friends and family.
Share