By Leo Babauta I was boarding an airplane today, and the woman ahead of me had a huge travel pillow, a blanket, and a few other items designed to give her maximum comfort on the flight. Someone I know was about to go on a trip, and they spent a month worrying about whether they […]
Author: zenhabits
Traveling Lightly & Being Grounded in the Middle of Chaos
By Leo Babauta Today Eva and I decided at the last minute to move our round-the-world trip up two days early, to avoid running into a strong typhoon that was headed our way. Luckily, we travel lightly and are flexible enough that the switch in plans wasn’t too difficult. We put up some typhoon shutters, […]
How to Let Go of Any Possession
By Leo Babauta Over the years, I’ve come to be very good at letting go of just about anything. In fact, I’ve come to relish the joy of letting go of possessions. It’s liberating and delicious! But most people I know struggle with letting go of the possessions they hold onto most tightly. There’s nothing […]
A Simple Technique for Launching Your Project in 20 Minutes
By Leo Babauta I ran across a friend who’s been dreaming about starting his business for years … and he feels stuck. Like many people who want to start a business, write a book or a blog, or launch some other kind of creative or entrepreneurial venture … he’s stuck in overwhelm, indecision, inaction. I’m […]
Unprocrastination Challenge: Train Yourself with Daily Sessions
By Leo Babauta I’ve never met a human who was immune to procrastination — we do it when we’re feeling overwhelmed, faced with something difficult or uncomfortable, or when we just don’t have the mental energy to be focused. But while we can’t “cure” our procrastination, we can train our mind to overcome it when […]
Fearlessness: How to Stop Running from Space
By Leo Babauta We spend our days filling in every available space, cramming in more tasks, responding to messages, checking social media and online sites, watching videos. We are afraid of empty space in our lives. The result is often a continual busyness, constant distraction and avoidance, lack of focus, lack of satisfaction with our […]
A Case Against Optimizing Your Life
By Leo Babauta Many people I know are on a quest to optimize their lives — some of my favorite people in the world will spend days trying to perfect a productivity system, get things automated, or find the perfect software for anything they’re doing. They are on a continual search for the perfect diet, […]
How to Be Mindful All the Time
By Leo Babauta I often get asked about how to remember to be mindful more of the time — how can we remember to not only be present more, but to be compassionate, to drop into our bodies when we’re feeling difficult emotions, to have a beginner’s mind, to relax into the chaos of the […]
Herding Cats: A Simple Method for Working with the Disorder of Our Lives
By Leo Babauta When we’re trying to change our habits and our lives, even if you have some success, you’ll notice two longer-term difficulties: Habit efforts get sidetracked, you are constantly in a state of transition, things are always in flux, and it can all feel completely out of control. What you really want is […]
The Practice of Vast Open Sky
Body like a mountain Breath like the wind Mind like the sky ~Tibetan Meditation Instruction By Leo Babauta A number of meditation traditions have practices that are a dropping of the ego into wide open awareness. I’d like to share this kind of practice with you, because it is one of the most powerful experiences […]