Founded in ancient religious and spiritual traditions, mediation has been used the world over to garner physical relaxation, guide spirituality, and above all else, improve our mind-body wellness. We tend to underestimate the possible health benefits that can be achieved by finding a quiet location, getting into a comfortable posture, and focusing our attention and attitude toward something positive. For example, many health care professionals recommend meditation as a treatment option for chronic pain, stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression, as well as symptoms of major chronic illness like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Here are 23 mediation quotes that promote mind-body wellness.

1. “If a person’s basic state of mind is serene and calm, then it is possible for this inner peace to overwhelm a painful physical experience.” — The Dalai Lama

2. “Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” — Voltaire

3. "In meditation, I can let go of everything. I'm not Hugh Jackman. I'm not a dad. I'm not a husband. I'm just dipping into that powerful source that creates everything. I take a little bath in it." — Hugh Jackman

4. “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.” — Rene Descartes

5. “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” — C.S. Lewis

6. “I’m a great supporter of transcendental meditation (TM). I’ve been using it for almost 40 years now — and I think it’s a great tool for anyone to have, to be able to utilize as a tool for stress. Stress, of course, comes with almost every business. I think there are enough studies out there that show that TM is something that could benefit anybody. It’s a great system to use. Otherwise, why would I’ve been doing it for all these years, for almost half of my life?” — Clint Eastwood

7. “Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” — Buddha

8. “Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.” — Aristotle

9. “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee

10. “In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty, poverty, nor weakness, weakness.” — Henry David Thoreau

11. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” — Albert Einstein

12. “In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. In speech, be true. In ruling, be just. In daily life, be competent. In action, be aware of the time and the season.” — Lao Tzu

13. “Sleep is the best meditation.” — Dalai Lama

14. “Do not train a child to learn by force or harshness; but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.” — Plato

15. “Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.” — Richard Gere

16. “The more man meditates upon good thoughts, the better will be his world and the world at large.” — Confucius

17. “The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is.” — Winston Churchill

18. “He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe.” — Marcus Aurelius

19. “Your mind is a powerful thing. When you filter it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.” — Buddha

20. “A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.” — Nelson Mandela

21. “If you wish to experience peace, provide peace for another. If you wish to know that you are safe, cause another to know that they are safe. If you wish to better understand seemingly incomprehensible things, help another to better understand. If you wish to heal your own sadness or anger, seek to heal the sadness or anger of another.” — Dalai Lama

22. “That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.” — Carl Jung

23. “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates