Life’s hustle and bustle can get the best of us.
Many of us live on autopilot, caught in thought loops, routines, and stresses that don’t serve us well.
Instead of taking time to relax, we keep pushing ourselves until we reach the point of burnout.
Vast volumes of research explain that stress is toxic to the body.
While some stress in one’s life is natural and even healthy, it can quickly become too much.
According to research, stress is one of the leading causes of illness worldwide. While it’s true that the society in which we live is not a relaxing one, that doesn’t mean it’s normal.
Each of us needs to take a step back from the day-to-day now and again and allow ourselves to breathe, let go, and relax.
Doing so does not make you lazy or unproductive.
In fact, taking adequate rest time and letting go of stress and tension makes us healthier, happier, and more authentically productive people overall.
Below we’ve compiled a list of calming quotes and reminders to slow down and relax.
Calming quotes
Below you’ll find a list of quotes about calming down, letting go, and allowing yourself to relax.
Of course, reading quotes won’t completely eliminate stress, but those we’ve included below should remind you to take a step back.
Peace of mind quotes
“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is rather than as you think it should be. – Wayne W. Dyer
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
Confucius
“It is the mind that can learn to stay calm, resourceful, compassionate, and effective. Everything depends on our state of mind – the one thing in life we can do something about.” – Eknath Easwaran
“If the mind is calm, your spontaneity and honest thoughts appear. You become more spontaneous.” – Chade-Meng Tan
“True peace cannot be achieved by force or by merely invoking the word “peace.” It can only be attained by training the mind and learning to cultivate inner peace. Peace is a calm and gentle state of mind.” – 17th Karmapa
“Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it.” – Ram Dass
A man of calm is like a shady tree. People who need shelter come to it.”
Toba Beta
“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.” – James Allen
“The mind is like water. When it’s turbulent, it’s difficult to see. When it’s calm, everything becomes clear.” – Prasad Mahes
“Your strength is your calmness, in the clarity of your mind. Strength comes from putting the negative aside without reacting. Win in calmness, in consciousness, in balance.” – Yogi Amrit Desai
“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answers.” – William S. Burroughs
“The elimination diet: Remove anger, regret, resentment, guilt, blame, and worry. Then watch your health, and your life, improve.”
Charles F. Glassman
“Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.” – Brian Tracey
“You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather.” – Pema Chodron
“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Relax quotes
“Opportunity seldom rises with blood pressure.” – Jarod Kintz
“Don’t try to force anything. Let life be a deep let-go. God opens millions of flowers every day without forcing their buds.” – Osho
“Rule number one is, don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two is, it’s all small stuff.” – Robert Eliot
“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.”
Oprah Winfrey
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.” – Chinese Proverb
“For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” – Lily Tomlin
“Be patient. Life will offer you another chance as soon as you find calm within, for abundance is born out of calmness.” – Leon Brown
“A crust eaten in peace is better than a banquet partaken in anxiety.“ – Aesop
“90% of what you’re stressing about right now won’t even matter a year from now. Take a deep breath.”
Mel Robbins
“If you feel “burnout” setting in, if you feel demoralized and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.” – Dalai Lama
“When in doubt, chill out.” – Tim Fargo
“When people ask me what the most important thing is in life, I answer: ‘Just breathe.'” – Yoko Ono
“Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.” – Alan Watts
Serenity quotes
“You cannot perceive beauty, but with a serene mind.” – Henry David Thoreau
“Within you, there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.” – Hermann Hesse
“There are times when we stop, we sit still. We listen and breezes from a whole other world begin to whisper.” – James Carroll
“Simply let experience take place very freely, so that your open heart is suffused with the tenderness of true compassion.” -Tsoknyi Rinpoche
“When you realize how perfect everything is you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.” -Buddha
“Inner peace is beyond victory or defeat.” – Bhagavad Gita
“There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy.”
Ralph H. Blum
“To be calm is the highest achievement of the self.” – Zen proverb
“Pleasure is always derived from something outside you, whereas joy arises from within.” – Eckhart Tolle
“The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.” – Cyril Connolly
“Tranquility is found by abandoning our desires for things that are not in our control and focusing our efforts on those things that are in our control.” – Marc Libre, Morning Meditations
“Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.” – Thomas Carlyle
“The quieter you become, the more you can hear.” – Ram Dass
“The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.” – Jules Renard
Let go of stress quotes
“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” – William James
“More smiling, less worrying. More compassion, less judgment. More blessed, less stressed. More love, less hate.” – Roy T. Bennett
“Stress is caused by being ‘here’ but wanting to be ‘there.'” – Eckhart Tolle
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” – Maya Angelou
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows. It empties today of its strength.”
Corrie Ten Boom
“A samurai must remain calm at all times even in the face of danger” – Chris Bradford
“One of the best ways to reduce stress is to accept the things that you cannot control.” – M.P. Neary
“Give your stress wings and let it fly away.” – Terri Guillemets
“Be like a duck, paddling and working very hard inside the water, but what everyone sees is a smiling and calm face”
Manoj Arora
“We do not “come into” this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree.” – Alan Watts
“Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we’re frantic, life will be frantic. If we’re peaceful, life will be peaceful.” – Marianne Williamson
“Muddy water is best cleared by leaving it alone.” – Alan Watts
Mindfulness quotes
“Yesterday is ashes, tomorrow wood. Only today does the fire burn brightly.” – Old Eskimo Proverb
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” – Thích Nhất Hạnh
“It is important to expect nothing, to take every experience, including the negative ones, as merely steps on the path, and to proceed.” – Ram Dass
“It’s always the mind that needs quieting and the heart that needs listening to.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.” – Siddhārtha Gautama
“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”
Dan Millman
“As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can’t see how it is.” – Ram Dass
“Tomorrow and plans for tomorrow can have no significance at all unless you are in full contact with the reality of the present, since it is in the present and only in the present that you live.” – Alan Watts
“Sometimes there is no time to wait for the sea to calm down! If you have to reach your target, let your voyage start and let the storm be your path!” – Mehmet Murat Ildan
“When you swim you don’t grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead, you relax, and float.”
Alan Watts
“Things are as they are. Looking out into the universe at night, we make no comparisons between right and wrong stars, nor between well and badly arranged constellations.” – Alan Watts
Acceptance quotes
“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.” – Ram Dass
“The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.” – Ram Dass
“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu
“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”- Ann Landers
“Calm seas never made a smooth sailor.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
Conclusion
Reclaim your right to relax.
We live in a society that almost fetishizes productivity, one in which relaxation has negative connotations.
‘The ability to keep a sense of calm amidst a world full of noise is becoming more and more difficult to achieve.’
Dane Krauss
It’s a courageous act to let go and choose your peace of mind over the demands and expectations of the world around you. Understand that calmness is just a state of mind that we can cultivate with practice.
In your practice, it’s wise to let go of what you can’t control and train your mind to focus on those things that you can.
If you’re feeling stressed lately, show yourself some loving self-compassion and do whatever you need to relax.
Sometimes that may look like taking time away from people. It may also look like finding people you love and spending quality time with them.
As mentioned earlier, stress is incredibly harmful. Left unchecked, stress can deteriorate your physical and mental health and well-being to the degree that you’re not yourself and less able to be a source of love and support for those around you.
As such, if you want to live a happy life with healthy relationships and a sense of joy, prioritize rest and relaxation.
