On the Shortness of Life

“You live as if you were destined to live forever, no thought of your frailty ever enters your head, of how much time has already gone by you take no heed. You squander time as if you drew from a full and abundant supply, though all the while that day which you bestow on some person or thing is perhaps your last.”~Seneca By Leo Babauta ...

1w

A Guide to Practicing Trust

By Leo Babauta At the core of a lot of our difficulties is a lack of trust — especially trust in ourselves. Think about these common difficulties that most of us face: What to focus on: We don’t trust our hearts to choose what we’d like to work on right now.Indecision: We get stuck on indecision because we don’t trust...

2w

Getting to the Heart of Impulse Shopping

By Leo Babauta It’s a simple fact: the pandemic has increased the amount of impulse shopping most people have been doing. There are lots of stats proving it, but you can simply take a look at your own life and the lives of people you know to see that it’s true for you. Why have we been more compelled to shop for clothes, gadgets,...

3w

The Balanced Path: An Open Heart Without Taking on Suffering

By Leo Babauta I’ve had a few emails from readers who ask me how to be compassionate towards other people without taking on all of their suffering. Opening your heart to another person can be emotionally taxing if you are feeling all of their pain. It’s an incredible question, because it shows: An intention to be compassionate...

4w

We’re Always Training Something

By Leo Babauta Every day, we go through a set of actions that is training our minds in the long term. Sometimes we’re training intentionally: we meditate, practice focus, get ourselves to start a workout, resist temptations, etc. Mostly, though, we’re training unintentionally: when you press snooze on the alarm clock,...

4w

How to Have a Powerfully Effective Day

By Leo Babauta A lot of people I talk to are unhappy with their ability to get stuff done in their lives. They feel they’re wasting a lot of time, never really getting anything important done. What I like to play with is the idea of having a “powerfully effective day.” It’s a big topic, probably worthy of a whole book,...

Jul 2022

How to Tackle a Mountain of Tasks

By Leo Babauta This month I came back to my work after taking a full month off — I am a stand for taking time off and finding time for rest and replenishment. After a month off, it turns out I have a pile of tasks, emails and messages to go through! It’s daunting. It can be discouraging to face this overwhelming amount...

Jul 2022

3 Questions to Create Your Life

By Leo Babauta Very often, the way we live our lives is that we go through the motions — we do our work, try our best, tackle the things we have to do, take on our obligations, or we slack off on those obligations and find comforts where we can. What we often forget is that no matter what, we’re creating our lives. What...

Jul 2022

Where You Get Your Sense of Self-Worth

By Leo Babauta So much of our difficulties can be entangled with our sense of self worth — from whether we take care of ourselves with good habits to how we are in relationships to how much confidence we have at work. Think about your biggest difficulties (other than problems at a national or global level) … how many of them could...

Jun 2022

Being Balanced in Chaos

By Leo Babauta When we’re hit with uncertainty either suddenly or in large amounts, it can throw us off. We can get frustrated, overwhelmed, stressed, discouraged. This is normal and there’s nothing wrong with it. However, it’s my belief that we can train ourselves to stay more balanced when things get chaotic, stay level-headed...

Jun 2022