Create a Powerful Framing for the World

By Leo Babauta The way we view life is usually invisible to us, and yet it is probably the most powerful thing in our lives. For example, one person might hear the words of another person and feel incredibly hurt, stressed, angry, and then it ruins their entire week … while another person might hear the same words and feel compassion...

5d

Stillness & Curiosity

By Leo Babauta Much of our lives are lived on autopilot. We jump from one task to another, one message to another, one meeting to another, one browser tab to another. We react in habitual ways to other people, to situations. And we justify this as the way it should be. Nothing wrong with that — but what would it be like...

2w

Unrushed: How to Feel More Spaciousness in Your Day, Instead of Time Scarcity

By Leo Babauta Most people experience their day as busy, overwhelming, scattered, rushed. There isn’t enough time to do everything. There’s pressure and stress in this way of living. Now, there’s nothing wrong with experiencing life in this way. As I said, most people do it. But if you’d like a sense of spaciousness,...

4w

Practicing with the Complaining Habit

By Leo Babauta We often can spot complainers, when it’s other people — they’re the kind of people who always seem to be complaining, negative, stuck in victimhood. It’s harder to see it when we’re the ones who are complaining so often. And in fact, in my experience most of us are in the habit of complaining, either out loud or...

Sep 2021

The Tragedy & Liberation of Death

By Leo Babauta Last week, my brother was hit by an unimaginable tragedy: he lost his 3-month-old baby Tyler. I’m still in shock and heartbreak, coming to terms with it. My heart is broken for him, for all of our family, and for this terrible loss. I didn’t know Tyler, but as I begin to process this loss, I start to feel...

Sep 2021

Expanding Our Capacity to Be With Chaos

By Leo Babauta We don’t like chaos. It is uncertainty, overwhelm, a feeling of groundlessness, being unmoored, out to sea without a compass. And it usually triggers a shut-down response in us: hide, avoid, procrastinate, try to get control, anxiety, or wanting to give up. Or not wanting to even start in the first place,...

Sep 2021

Practice: Grounding Yourself When Life is Chaotic

By Leo Babauta Lately my life has felt pretty chaotic: lots of projects, calls, and creation, along with helping loved ones with things, and preparing to move once again to a new home. Chaos can be beautiful! And I’m embracing it. But it can be hard to embrace chaos when we’re feeling scattered, lost, confused, stressed....

Sep 2021

Staying Light & Flexible While Traveling

By Leo Babauta Earlier this week, Eva and I hopped on a last-minute flight to take care of some family business. We each had our lightweight backpacks and nothing else, so it was a relatively easy trip. On the flight back, I reflected on how flexible we had to be on this last-minute trip … and I realized that being flexible while...

Aug 2021

Becoming Nimble at Dealing with Ever-Changing Plans

By Leo Babauta With the world in so much flux these days, many of us are noticing how difficult it can be to deal with ever-changing plans. It’s always been a challenge, but as with so many things, it’s become an in-your-face challenge these days. Some people really struggle when plans are always changing — it can be...

Aug 2021

A Self-Sufficient Mind

By Leo Babauta In a quiet room, we can find stillness. And in that stillness, we can contemplate our own mind. What we often find is that the mind is very restless. It wants to take care of a thousand things, because it’s feeling some uncertainty and fear. It wants to fix problems, take care of all the undone things, figure out...

Aug 2021