Think, Eat, Be Healthy

25 Quotes To Keep Positive And Moving Forward

ocean, blue water, sky, white clouds, blue sky

We live on a beautiful planet but to not keep going every day is to drown.

Maximum health is both physical and mental. A healthy whole food diet is necessary to give our bodies all of the nutrients they need. Positive mental attitude is just as important as physical nutrition to overall health. Research studies show again and again that people with positive mental outlooks are healthier and live longer.

I am an optimist, but it is not always easy. Life is not for sissies and sometimes it gets hard to believe that the universe isn’t trying to personally mess with us. This is when I run down a short mental checklist:

1. How we feel about any situation is our choice and depends on our interpretation – we can be angry, frustrated, depressed or ashamed, or not. When I start to feel any of these negative emotions I know it is time to stop and think about what I really know and don’t know. It is almost always the case that I don’t know enough about the situation to justify the negative emotion. It can be easy to get angry and think that a young child in a crowd of strangers is screaming just because she wants to distract us, but does that make any kind of sense?

2. The universe is not positive or negative and pays us no attention at all. We all have runs of “good luck” and “bad luck”. This is not the universe liking or hating us. It is just life. The same things happen to everyone in pretty much equal proportions. Getting angry or depressed when everything does not go our way is like getting angry at our own finger when we slam it in a door.

3. Everyone else on this planet is too busy with their own business and their own lives to pay very much attention to us. We are not important enough to anyone else for them to scheme against us, spy on us, try to frustrate us, etc… The waiter that forgets to bring silverware to the table does not know we are in a hurry today and is not trying to piss us off just because he doesn’t like us. He just forgot or is just a bad waiter, nothing personal.

Sometimes this mental checklist is not enough. Things start to seem overwhelming. Escape routes disappear into darkness. This is when the experience of others can come to the rescue. Because there are always plenty of other people who have been in worse situations and made it through and been stronger for it. So this is a list of quotes I turn to for inspiration and strength when life just isn’t going as well as I would like.

“He who cannot agree with his enemies is controlled by them.” – Chinese

“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

“If you are patient in a moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.” – Chinese

“If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your problems, you wouldn’t sit for a month.” – Theodore Roosevelt

“Don’t watch the clock; do what it does. Keep going.” – Sam Levinson

“Problems are not stop signs. They are guidelines.” – Robert H. Schuller

“To talk goodness is not good…only to do it is.” – Chinese

“It is our choices that show who we truly are, far more than our abilities.” – J. K. Rowling

“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you will never get it done.” – Bruce Lee

“Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

“A closed mind is like a closed book, just a block of wood.” – Chinese

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

“A goal is not always meant to be reached, it often serves simply as something to aim at.” – Bruce Lee

“With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes a silk gown.” – Chinese

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” – Confucius

“The more we do, the more we can do.” – William Hazlitt

“Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try just one more time.” – Thomas Edison

“Experience is a comb which nature gives to men when they are bald.” – Chinese

“After a storm comes a calm.” – Mathew Henry

“Well done is better than well said.” – Benjamin Franklin

“A quick temper will make a fool of you soon enough.” – Bruce Lee

“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.” – Walter Elliot

“Take a second look…it costs you nothing.” – Chinese

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.” – Elon Musk

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” – William James

seagulls, ocean, beach

Oh sunny day!

So try your best to stay positive. Don’t be angry or disappointed or become bitter. There are no real reasons to support these negative emotions and they are just as harmful to physical health as to mental health. We all feel negative emotions at times but we must find ways to let them go and move on with life. To hold on to negative emotions is to slowly kill ourselves.