Self-Reflection Quotes For Your Mental Health Journey

I love motivational sayings (check out my Pinterest board here) so I thought I would put together a post of my favorite self-reflection quotes.

Self-reflection has been key in managing my mental health.

I am constantly evaluating how I am feeling so I can figure out what is working and what isn’t. In order to keep my depression and anxiety under control, I have to do a lot of self-reflection to make sure I am on the right path.

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting inward on my mental health journey and it’s taught me a lot about myself, how I view the world and my values.

I hope these self-reflection quotes inspire you to make self-reflection part of your daily routine.

Benefits of Self-Reflection

To learn more about how to use self-reflection for personal growth check out this article. Self-reflection basically means taking time to reflect on your thoughts, feelings and ideas to challenge them and evaluate how they are impacting you.

There are lots of benefits of self-reflection but here are a few:

Increased self-awareness
Deeper level of learning
New perspectives and insight
Higher level of emotional intelligence
Acting with Integrity
Making decisions that align with your values
Less impulsiveness

Exercises for Self-Reflection

I have a whole post of journal prompts you can use for self-reflection. Self-reflection is really any time you spend looking inward and evaluating your actions, thoughts and feelings. This can be done through journaling, meditation, therapy or any other process that allows you to gain insight. Here are a few journal prompts to help you get started.

My core values are _____ and they are important to me because______
My biggest strengths are _______ and my biggest weaknesses are ________
These things are going good in my life ________ and these are the areas I need to work on_______
I am thankful for these blessings _________
If I could change anything about myself it would be ________

Ideas For Using Quotes

Make one into your desktop background
Put them on post-it notes around your house
Write your favorites on a page in your journal
Make your favorite quote your email signature
Set quotes as alarms on your phone so you see them throughout the day
Put a whiteboard by your door and write a new quote on it every week
Change your passwords to something inspiring

Self-Reflection Quotes

“Income seldom exceeds personal development.” -Jim Rohn

“Every moment of one’s existence, one is growing into more or retreating into less.” -Norman Mailer

“Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead.” -Morihei Ueshiba
Viktor E. Frankl

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” –Eckhart Tolle

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.” –Mark Manson

“Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.
This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes.
To be happy we need something to solve. Happiness is, therefore, a form of action.”

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” -Mark Twain

“What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light.” -Albus Dumbledore

“It’s up to you today to start making healthy choices. Not choices that are just healthy for your body, but healthy for your mind.”- Steve Maraboli

“Sometimes the people around you won’t understand your journey. They don’t need to, it’s not for them.” -Joubert Botha

“I visualize where I wanted to be, what kind of player I wanted to become. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.” –Michael Jordan

“Make each day count by setting specific goals to succeed, then putting forth every effort to exceed your own expectations.”– Les Brown

“Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know myself, to know it completely.”-Kahlil Gibran

“Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.” -Maxwell Maltz

“One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it.” -Hermann Hesse

“I like solitude. It is when you truly hear and speak your natural, unadulterated mind, and outcomes your most stupid self as well as your most intelligent self. It is when you realize who you are and the extents of the good and the evils which you are capable of.” -Criss Jami

“The cosmos is evolving toward greater self-reflection, allowing us to open the eye of Spirit and see our source.” -Alex Grey

”The journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination… until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life.” -Iyanla Vanzant

”Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” -Carl Jung

”The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.” -William Makepeace Thackeray

”The cosmos is evolving toward greater self-reflection, allowing us to open the eye of Spirit and see our source.” -Alex Grey

”Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes.” -Lawrence Bossidy

”Honest self-reflection opens your mind to reprogramming, change, success and freedom.” -Unknown

”Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.” -Baltasar Gracian

“Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision and change.” —Richard Branson
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” -Abraham Maslow

“The great solution to all human problems is individual inner transformation.” -Vernon Howard

“If we don’t change, we don’t grow. If we don’t grow, we aren’t really living.” -Gail Sheehy

“Two things fill the heart with renewed and increasing awe and reverence the more often and the more steadily that they are meditated on: the starry skies above me and the moral law inside me.” -Immanuel Kant

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” -Alexander Graham Bell

“The outward freedom that we shall attain will only be in exact proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given moment. And if this is a correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be concentrated on achieving reform from within.” -Gandhi

“There is no greater journey than the one that you must take to discover all of the mysteries that lie within you.” -Michelle Sandlin

“Don’t believe everything you think.” -Byron Katie

“Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else.” – Judy Garland

“There is no satisfaction that can compare with looking back across the years and finding you’ve grown in self-control, judgment, generosity, and unselfishness.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox

“People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” – Tao Te Ching

“Never think you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning.” – Anthony Trollope

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” — Will Durant

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” — Viktor Frankl

Self-reflection has really helped me manage my depression and anxiety. I really suggest trying out journaling or the morning pages if you’re looking to get some more insight into why you feel the way you do and how to feel better. Spending some time reflecting on your own feelings and beliefs can help you figure out what you need to do to start healing and feeling better. If you’re struggling with mental health be sure to check out my other blog posts about self-care.