If you’re feeling anxiety, quotes can often help calm your mind. It’s safe to say just about everyone felt stress and anxiety in a year like 2020. As we’re wrapping up, you may find it helpful to reflect on the past year. It may have felt stagnant and still, or like a rollercoaster. No matter how your year went, notice what comes up for you, what stands out, and take time to honor your personal experiences — for example, appreciating the ups, and learning from the downs. Keep reading for a list of anxiety quotes to help in your reflection of the past year.
If you’re looking for support during this time of reflection, Wellin5’s team of experienced counselors can help. Wellin5 matches you to a counselor that meets your specific needs — so you can ring in the new year in a positive way.
100 quotes for mental wellness
Let’s end 2020 on a high note, together. Here are 100 quotes about anxiety, happiness, finding our path, and overcoming the toughest parts of life, to help you kickstart this coming year.
- “Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know that there is something inside of you that is greater than any obstacle.” – Christian D Larson
- “Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.” — Pema Chodron
- “Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming.” — Robert Tew
- “If you want to be happy, be.” — Leo Tolstoy
- “Don’t believe every worried thought you have. Worried thoughts are notoriously inaccurate.” — Renee Jain
- “The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one.” — John C. Maxwell
- “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” — Henry Ford
- “We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell
- “The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.” — William James
- “Everything you have ever wanted, is sitting on the other side of fear.” — George Addair
- Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries. — Astrid Alauda
- “The best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” —Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “Many of us feel stress and get overwhelmed not because we’re taking on too much, but because we’re taking on too little of what really strengthens us.” — Marcus Buckingham
- “If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” — Amit Ray
- “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
- “If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.” – Mary Engelbreit
- “Physical comforts cannot subdue mental suffering, and if we look closely, we can see that those who have many possessions are not necessarily happy. In fact, being wealthy often brings even more anxiety.” — Dalai Lama
- “It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.” — Lucy Maud Montgomery
- “Anxiety happens when you think you have to figure out everything all at once. Breathe. You’re strong. You got this. Take it day by day.” — Karen Salmansohn
- “In our daily lives, we must see that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but the gratefulness that makes us happy.” — Albert Clarke
- “Anxiety is a lot like a toddler. It never stops talking, tells you you’re wrong about everything, and wakes you up at 3am.” — Anonymous
- “Don’t be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “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
- “In order to move on, you must understand why you felt what you did and why you no longer need to feel it.” — Mitch Albom
- “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” — Jim Rohn
- “You don’t drown by falling into water. You only drown if you stay there.” —Zig Ziglar
- “Just when the caterpillar thought the world was ending, he turned into a butterfly.” — Proverb
- “Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the most wonderful things that will ever happen to us.” —Nicole Reed
- “No amount of anxiety can change the future. No amount of regret can change the past.” — Karen Salmansohn
- “Happiness is not a brilliant climax to years of grim struggle and anxiety. It is a long succession of little decisions simply to be happy in the moment.” —J. Donald Walters
- “Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight.” — Benjamin Franklin
- “For fast acting relief, try slowing down.” — Lily Tomlin
- “We all have anxiety about things. We all have little insecurities, but eventually you have to face your fears if you want to be successful, and everybody has some fear of failure.” — Nick Saban
- “By being yourself, you put something wonderful in the world that was not there before.” —
- Edwin Elliot
- “Most people are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.” — Abraham Lincoln
- “You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.” — Dan Millman
- “Don’t settle: Don’t finish crappy books. If you don’t like the menu, leave the restaurant. If you’re not on the right path, get off it.” — Chris Brogan
- “We live only a few conscious decades, and we fret ourselves enough for several lifetimes.” — Christopher Hitchens
- “Our stresses, anxieties, pains and problems arise because we do not see the world, others or even ourselves as worthy of love.” — Prem Prakash
- “I know but one freedom and that is the freedom of the mind.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupery
- “Nothing diminishes anxiety faster than action.” — Walter Anderson
- Life is ten percent what you experience and ninety percent how you respond to it. — Dorothy M. Neddermeyer
- “If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.
- Trust yourself. You’ve survived a lot, and you’ll survive whatever is coming. — Robert Tew
- “For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.” —T.S. Eliot
- “Actually spending ten minutes clearing off one shelf is better than fantasizing about spending a weekend cleaning out the basement.” —Gretchen Rubin
- “Everything you have ever wanted, is sitting on the other side of fear.” — George Addair
- Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.” —Madeleine L’Engle
- “Every moment is a fresh beginning.” — T.S. Eliot
- “Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.” — Mahatma Gandhi
- “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens.” — Carl Jung
- “The universe doesn’t allow perfection.” — Stephen Hawking
- “It isn’t what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.” — Dale Carnegie
- “Sometimes letting things go is an act of far greater power than defending or hanging on.” — Eckhart Tolle
- “Smile, breathe, and go slowly.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
- “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.”– Lao Tzu
- “We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.” — Mother Teresa
- “You must learn to let go. Release the stress. You were never in control anyway.” — Steve Maraboli
- “Rule number one: Don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two: It’s all small stuff.” — Robert S. Eliot
- “Be grateful for the home you have, knowing that at this moment, all you have is all you need.” — Sarah Bon Breathnach
- “At the end of the day, tell yourself gently: ‘I love you, you did the best you could today, and even if you didn’t accomplish all you had planned, I love you anyway.” — Anonymous
- “You have dug your soul out of the dark, you have fought to be here; do not go back to what buried you.” — Bianca Sparacino
- “Surrender to what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be.” — Sonia Ricotti
- “Worrying is carrying tomorrow’s load with today’s strength- carrying two days at once. It is moving into tomorrow ahead of time. Worrying doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength.” ― Corrie Ten Boom
- “Anxiety’s like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it doesn’t get you very far.” ― Jodi Picoult
- “It’s OKAY to be scared. Being scared means you’re about to do something really, really brave.” ― Mandy Hale,
- “Anxiety was born in the very same moment as mankind. And since we will never be able to master it, we will have to learn to live with it—just as we have learned to live with storms.” ― Paulo Coelho,
- “When you feel overwhelmed, remember: A little at a time is how it gets done. One thing, one task, one moment at a time.” — Anonymous
- “The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.” — Sydney J. Harris
- “Some days, doing ‘the best we can’ may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do, but life isn’t perfect—on any front—and doing what we can with what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves or anyone else.” — Fred Rogers
- “Self-observation is the first step of inner unfolding.” ― Amit Ray,
- I promise you nothing is as chaotic as it seems. Nothing is worth diminishing your health. Nothing is worth poisoning yourself into stress, anxiety, and fear.” ― Steve Maraboli
- “He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.” — Marcus Aurelius
- Once you realize there is life after mistakes, you gain a self-confidence that never goes away.” ― Bob Schieffer,
- “The more honest you are, the more open, the less fear you will have, because there’s no anxiety about being exposed or revealed to others.” ― Dalai Lama
- “Relax; the world’s not watching that closely. It’s too busy contemplating itself in the mirror.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich,
- “Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.” ― Kahlil Gibran
- “Happiness is not something readymade. It comes from your own actions.” — Dalai Lama
- A positive attitude gives you power over your circumstances instead of your circumstances having power over you.” —Joyce Meyer
- “Present fears are less than horrible imaginings.” ― William Shakespeare
- “Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
- “I just give myself permission to suck. I find this hugely liberating.” — John Green
- “Be happy with what you have. Be excited about what you want.” — Alan Cohen
- “Stress is an ignorant state. It believes everything is an emergency.” — Natalie Goldberg
- “Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future.” – Deepak Chopra
- “You can’t always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” – Wayne Dyer
- “Do not let your difficulties fill you with anxiety; after all it is only in the darkest nights that stars shine more brightly.” – Ali Ibn Abi Talib
- “Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest taken between two deep breaths.” — Etty Hillesum
- “Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety.” – Plato
- “Never fear shadows. They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.” Ruth E. Renkel
- “Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” — Henry Ward Beecher
- Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity. — T. S. Eliot
- “Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present.” — Marcus Aurelius
- “What people in the world think of you is really none of your business.” — Martha Graham
- “Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” — William S. Burroughs
- “People become attached to their burdens sometimes more than the burdens are attached to them.” — George Bernard Shaw
- “You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” — Maya Angelou
- “Instead of worrying about what you cannot control, shift your energy to what you can create.” — Roy Bennett
- “Difficult roads often lead to beautiful destinations. The best is yet to come.” — Zig Ziglar
Take these anxiety quotes and run with them
However you feel about entering 2021, we hope that these anxiety quotes will help calm your mind as we welcome in a new chapter. If they resonated with you, try to implement them into your life. For example, we recommend writing them down these anxiety quotes or printing them out, and putting them somewhere you’ll see them often.
In short, take this coming year as a clean slate. Above all, remember to stay patient with yourself, and take good care. It’s true that new beginnings can be exciting, but they can also feel unsteady and nerve wracking.
If you’re looking for extra support during this time, Wellin5’s counselors are always ready to offer support, and help you meet your personal goals.