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Explore over 120 mental health quotes, each one chosen to inspire hope, provide comfort, and encourage resilience in the face of challenges. Experience the transformative power of words in your quest for well-being.
For many individuals, the journey to achieve mental health is an ongoing endeavor that lasts a lifetime. Whether someone is dealing with a diagnosed mental illness, personal blind spots and shortcomings, struggling to accept their true self or their present circumstances, maintaining a positive mindset is an important part of the battle.
To help break the stigma that certain mental health conditions can carry, we’ve put together a list of over 120 quotes to encourage and inspire you.
Positive and Inspiring Quotes About Mental Health
“And still, I rise.” Maya Angelou
“Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.” – Maya Angelou
“You will smile again.” – Unknown
“I am inspired by people who are willing to confront the shadows of themselves and find light.” – Brittany Burgunder
“The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.” – Brene Brown
“Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are.” – Brene Brown
“I keep moving ahead, as always, knowing deep down inside that I am a good person and that I am worthy of a good life.” – Jonathan Harnisch
“You are not your illness. You have an individual story to tell.” – Dr. Julian Seifter
“Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together.” – Brene Brown
“There is no right time; there is only right now.” – Mel Robbins
“Breathe. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be magical.” – Rachel Marie Martin
“When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person that walked in. That’s what the storm is all about.” – Haruki Murakami
“I choose to feel optimistic because I don’t think I could get out of bed if I didn’t.” – Kerry Washington
“Take a deep breath to remember you are the child who lived through survival mode and the empowered adult who chose their healing.” – Dr. Nicole Le Pera
“Part of my identity is saying no to things I don’t want to do… I check in with myself throughout the day and I say, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ and if the answer is no, then I don’t do it. And you shouldn’t either.” – Lady Gaga
In the middle of winter I at last discovered that there was in me an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus
“What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” – Glenn Close
“I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.” – Louisa May Alcott (Amy March, Little Women)
“Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” -Christopher Robin
Encouraging Mental Health Awareness Quotes
“You are more precious to this world than you’ll ever know.” – Lili Rhinehart
“Mental health… is not a destination but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.” – Noam Shpancer
“Things to remember: setbacks don’t equal failure, you are allowed to set boundaries, it’s okay to rest, and not everything you think is true.” – Unknown
“Don’t let people discourage you… just fluff out your tutu and dance away.” – Unknown
“Even if we don’t have the power to choose where we come from, we can still choose where we go from there.” – Stephen Chbosky
“The strongest people are not those who show strength in front of the world but those who fight and win battles that others do not know anything about.” – Jonathan Harnisch
“You are the one thing in this world, above all other things, that you must never give up on.” – Lili Reinhart
“Life is like a piano; the white key represent happiness and the black show sadness. But as you go through life’s journey, remember that the black keys also create music.” – Ehssan
“Life doesn’t make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.” – Erik Erikson
“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise again.” – Victor Hugo
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.” -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
” Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.” – Joubert Botha
“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing YOU can be.” – Maya Angelou
“You are valuable just because you exist. Not because of what you do or what you have done, but simply because you are.” – Max Lucado
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.” – Aristotle Onassis
“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” – Albus Dumbledore
“My dark days make me strong. Or maybe I already was strong, and they made me prove it.” – Emery Lord
“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.” – Brene Brown
“There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in.” – Leonard Cohen
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” – Henry David Thoreau
Mental Health Quotes About Self-Care
“Women have to take the time to focus on our mental health – take time for self, for the spiritual, without feeling guilty or selfish. The world will see you the way you see you, and treat you the way you treat yourself.” – Beyonce
“What if you moved through the world as if you were easy to be loved? Because I promise you, you are easy to love.” – Sonalee Rashatwar, LCSW
“Set some time off for play.” – Mitta Xinindlu
“Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.” – Christopher Germer
“Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” – Max Ehrmann
“Start listening to the way you talk to yourself. These interactions will tell you how well you know yourself, how much you respect yourself, and what boundaries you are lacking.” – Sara Kuburic
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.” – Brene Brown
“By taking care of myself, I have so much more to offer the world than I do when I am running on empty.” – Ali Washington
“When you take care of yourself, you’re a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better.” – Solange Knowles
“And if you have the ability to love, love yourself first.” – Charles Bukowski
“You might not need to read another self-help book, attend another training, or bookmark another Instagram post as much as you need to listen to, trust, and practice what you already know. What if the answer you’re looking for is actually within you already?” – Lisa Olivera
“Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.” – Charlotte Eriksson
“Sometimes self-care is exercise and eating right. Sometimes it’s spending time with loved ones of taking a nap. And sometimes it’s watching an entire season of TV in one weekend while you lounge around in your pajamas. Whatever soothes your soul.” – Nanea Hoffman
“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha
“Self-care is how you take your power back.” – Lalah Delia
Mental Health Quotes About Anxiety
“No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past.” – Karen Salmansohn
“Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” – Walter Anderson
“My anxiety doesn’t come from thinking about the future but from wanting to control it.” – Hugh Prather
“When you think of the past or the future, you cannot enjoy the Now. Being in this very moment, the Now, helps us stay focused and happier, while reducing anxiety and stress.” – Sunita Rai
“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.” – Arthur Somers Roche
“What does your anxiety do? It does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, but it empties today of its strength. It does not make you escape the evil; it makes you unfit to cope with it if it comes.” – Raymond L. Cramer
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” – Amit Ray
“Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them—every day begin the task anew.” – Saint Francis de Sales
“Good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” – Grenville Kleiser
Mental Health Quotes About Depression
“I am bent, but not broken. I am scarred, but not disfigured. I am sad, but not hopeless. I am tired, but not powerless. I am angry, but not bitter. I am depressed, but not giving up.” – Anonymous
“Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength-carrying two days at once. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” – Corrie Ten Boom
“Don’t be a reflection of your depression, your dark, or your ugly. Reflect what you want. Your light, your beauty, & your strength. Aspire for greatness – reflect who you are; not which deficits you maintain. Showcase the hidden treasures.” – Tiffany Luard
“When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.” – Franklin D. Roosevelt
“Slow breathing is like an anchor in the midst of an emotional storm: the anchor won’t make the storm goes away, but it will hold you steady until it passes.” – Russ Harris
“We are not our trauma. We are not our brain chemistry. That’s part of who we are, but we’re so much more than that.” – Sam J. Miller
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” – Fredrick Douglass
“Change what you can, manage what you can’t.” – Raymond McCauley
“Anything that’s human is mentionable, and anything that is mentionable can be more manageable. When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting, and less scary.” – Fred Rogers
Mental Health Quotes About Healing
“Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step.” – Mariska Hargitay
“Much of your pain is self-chosen.” – Kahlil Gibran
“Take your time healing, as long as you want. Nobody else knows what you’ve been through. How could they know how long it will take to heal you?” – Abertoli
“There is no normal life that is free of pain. It’s the very wrestling with our problems that can be the impetus for our growth.” – Fred Rogers
“Be patient and tough; some day this pain will be useful to you.” – Ovid
“There’s nothing more inspiring than a person’s courage to heal.” – Brittany Burgunder
“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls, the most massive characters are seared with scars.” – Khalil Gibran
“Just because no one else can heal or do your inner work for you doesn’t mean you can, should, or need to do it alone.” – Lisa Olivera
Mental Health Quotes About Challenges And Struggles
“Sometimes it takes a wrong turn to get you to the right place.” – Mandy Hale
“Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” – Brene Brown
“Do not suffer in silence. Somebody somewhere is willing and prepared to help in any way to encourage, empower, and support you.” – Germany Kent
“Often, the gift of hitting rock bottom is that it persuades you to change and move forward.” – Brittany Burgunder
“Tough times never last, but tough people do!” – Robert Schuller
“The hardship is the pathway to holiness. The humility is that pathway to honor.” – Julie Busler
“Not all battles are visible and neither are the victories.” – Brittany Burgunder
“My story is not a sad story; it’s a real one. It’s a story about a girl who fought through a storm she thought would never end.” – Hannah Blum
“We are all jailors in a prison of our own creation.” – Chris Warren-Dickins
“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding. Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.” – Kahlil Gibran
“To experience the good you have to have seen the bad; plus if makes you appreciate blessings more. Tough times taught me to be a fighter.” – Alecia Beth Moore (Pink)
“Challenges are what make life interesting. Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.” – Joshua J. Marine
Mental Health Quotes About Our Thoughts
“Mental health problems don’t define who you are. They are something you experience. You walk in the rain and you feel the rain, but, importantly, YOU ARE NOT THE RAIN.” – Matt Haig
“Step away from the desk; let nature be your reset button. Always remember that a refreshed mind breeds unparalleled productivity.” – Enamul Haque
“Believe you can, and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt
“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” – Winnie the Pooh
“The mind can’t clean itself out. It continues to cry. There’s always an old, dusty file room. Even when hidden from view, it’s still there, in the cerebral folders. Affecting everything.” – Nicole T. Smith
“You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to fee sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human.” – Lori Deschene
“Attempting to remove thoughts from your mind is similar to expecting a highway to be empty of cars. The highway is meant for cars and we shouldn’t expect it to be otherwise.” –
“Our beliefs determine the type and quality of our thoughts, emotions and actions.” – Sunita Rai
“Increasing the strength of our minds is the only way to reduce the difficulty of life.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Many survivors insist they’re not courageous: ‘If I were courageous’… Most of us have it mixed up. You don’t start with courage and then face fear. You become courageous because you face your fear.” – Laura Davis
“Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.” – Astrid Alauda
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung
“Don’t believe everything you think.” – Unknown
“I thought about all the people that told me I couldn’t do it and told me I couldn’t get there.” – Russell Wilson
“What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.” – Plutarch
“There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn’t.” – John Green
“Make not your thoughts your prisons.” – William Shakespeare
“Your mental health is everything – prioritize it. Make the time like your life depends on it because it does.” – Mel Robbins
“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” – Dan Millman
“You gotta ask for help. There’s no shame in that.” – Dwayne Johnson
Mental Health Quotes About Emotions And Feelings
“The best thing you could do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire, you are the fire.” – Mama Indigo
“Fear resisted is fear amplified, fear embraced is fear relieved. Most fears are rooted in imagination, Observe yourself and all is revealed.” – Abhijit Naskar
“When regrets do happen? Well, I can count a few and when they do happen, I console myself with — at that time of making that decision, that was what I thought was best for me. So I forgive my old self for not knowing better but love her all the same and trust my future self to handle the pain and consequences.” – Mystqx Skye
“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” – Kahlil Gibran
“The appearance of things changes according to the emotions; and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty are really in ourselves.” – Kahlil Gibran
“By learning to pay attention to our breath, our bodily sensations as well as our thoughts and emotions, we learn to create a distance between the thoughts and ourselves.” – Sunita Rai
“As you reflect back on the previous weeks, months or year, look for moments you can celebrate too. There will be some, even if you have to look a little harder.” – Emily Coxhead
“This feeling will pass. The fear is real but the danger is not.” – Cammie McGovern
“You know your pain is coming from a childish place, but you are not a child anymore, you are an adult woman: a mature, strong, independent woman. And you know that problems are not solved by avoiding them. Avoidance strengthens the problem and weakens you.” – Noam Shpancer
“Positive vibes only isn’t a thing. Humans have a wide range of emotions and that’s OK.” – Molly Bahr, LMHC
Mental Health Quotes About Self-Care
“Women have to take the time to focus on our mental health – take time for self, for the spiritual, without feeling guilty or selfish. The world will see you the way you see you, and treat you the way you treat yourself.” – Beyonce
“What if you moved through the world as if you were easy to be loved? Because I promise you, you are easy to love.” – Sonalee Rashatwar, LCSW
“Set some time off for play.” – Mitta Xinindlu
“Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.” – Christopher Germer
“Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars. In the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.” – Max Ehrmann
“Start listening to the way you talk to yourself. These interactions will tell you how well you know yourself, how much you respect yourself, and what boundaries you are lacking.” – Sara Kuburic
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.” – Brene Brown
“By taking care of myself, I have so much more to offer the world than I do when I am running on empty.” – Ali Washington
“When you take care of yourself, you’re a better person for others. When you feel good about yourself, you treat others better.” – Solange Knowles
“You might not need to read another self-help book, attend another training, or bookmark another Instagram post as much as you need to listen to, trust, and practice what you already know. What if the answer you’re looking for is actually within you already?” – Lisa Olivera
“Take a shower, wash off the day. Drink a glass of water. Make the room dark. Lie down and close your eyes. Notice the silence. Notice your heart. Still beating. Still fighting. You made it, after all. You made it, another day. And you can make it one more. You’re doing just fine.” – Charlotte Eriksson
“Sometimes self-care is exercise and eating right. Sometimes it’s spending time with loved ones of taking a nap. And sometimes it’s watching an entire season of TV in one weekend while you lounge around in your pajamas. Whatever soothes your soul.” – Nanea Hoffman
“You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.” – Buddha
“Self-care is how you take your power back.” – Lalah Delia
Mental Health Quotes About Anxiety
“You don’t have to be positive all the time. It’s perfectly okay to feel sad, angry, annoyed, frustrated, scared and anxious. Having feelings doesn’t make you a negative person. It makes you human.” – Lori Deschene
“No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past.” – Karen Salmansohn
“Fear keeps us focused on the past or worried about the future. If we can acknowledge our fear, we can realize that right now we are okay. Right now, today, we are still alive, and our bodies are working marvelously. Our eyes can still see the beautiful sky. Our ears can still hear the voices of our loved ones.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Focusing on the most important things in your life and cultivating a positive mindset are the strongest components of good mental health. We hope these quotes help to inspire you, in both good and bad times, on your mental health journey.
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