It's World Mental Health Day: 10 quotes from James Baldwin ...

10 Oct 2024

Encouraging words from insightful people can help you feel empowered and ready to take on a new day.

World Mental Health Day 2024 - Figure 1
Photo CNBC

For World Mental Health Day 2024, which is Oct. 10th, we've compiled quotes from advocates, experts and authors who've discussed mental health over the past six decades.

Here are 10 quotes that speak to the challenges of mental health and the tools you can use to improve your own.

You are not alone in your feelings

"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read." 

- James Baldwin, Life Magazine (1963)

Feelings ebb and flow

"Loneliness will come and go, quite often as it chooses, over the course of human life."

- Sam Carr, the self-proclaimed scholar of loneliness, told CNBC Make It (2024)

Things can get better

"Twenty-five years ago, we did not dream that people might someday be able actually to recover from mental illnesses. Today it is a very real possibility."

- Rosalynn Carter, said at a mental health symposium (2003)

Ask for help when you need it

"Healing takes time, and asking for help is a courageous step." 

- Mariska Hargitay

Your work is not your worth

"You are not the work you do; you are the person you are." 

- Toni Morrison, "The Work You Do, The Person You Are" in The New Yorker (2017)

Take a day away from the busy work 

"Each person deserves a day away in which no problems are confronted, no solutions searched for. Each of us needs to withdraw from the cares which will not withdraw from us." 

- Maya Angelou, "Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now" (1993)

Set boundaries

"We have to have boundaries in order to prevent burnout." 

- Molly Burrets, a licensed clinical psychologist, told CNBC Make It (2024)

Be kind to yourself

"Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love." 

- Brené Brown

Live in the present moment

"It doesn't have to be in meditation, but in quiet periods, slowing down, we can understand what's coming, we can feel and we can make the conscious choice to live in the present moment."

- Floyd "Ski" Chilton, author of "There is Another Way to Happiness," told CNBC Make It (2024)

Remain hopeful

"There is hope, even when your brain tells you there isn't." 

- John Green, "Turtles All the Way Down" (2017)

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