How to Break Dependence on the Phone

By Leo Babauta On average, people spend more than 3 hours on their phones each day, picking up their phones nearly 60 times a day … with some people spending closer to 4 hours. These numbers aren’t meant to be judgments — it’s not a bad thing to look at your phone — but instead [ … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 6 days ago

How to Develop a Strong Sense of Self

By Leo Babauta Developing a strong sense of self is one of the most under-appreciated ways to be happy. To have healthy relationships, with others and with yourself. It’s not often understood, and as a result, problems in this area cause problems in all areas of our lives. Let me … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 24 days ago

Why I Am Vegan (and how to make it easy)

By Leo Babauta My wife Eva and I have been vegan for over 11 years now, and we love it. I don’t talk about veganism a lot on Zen Habits, but today I’d love to share a little about it, if you’ll indulge me. Let me start by talking about why I’m vegan, and then […] The post Why I A … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 month ago

How to Address What’s Really Causing Your Avoidance

By Leo Babauta When we are procrastinating, avoiding exercise or some other habit we want to create, or avoiding taking on a difficult project … the underlying cause is rarely what we think it is. We think that all we need to do is do the thing we’re avoiding, and stop procrastin … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 month ago

Slow Down to Fall in Love Again

By Leo Babauta “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”~ Thich Nhat Hanh Recently I got a running watch, and have been keeping most of my runs below a certain heart rate, to build up my heart’s aerobic fitness with lots of slow running. The pace of my runs has been incredibly slow for the … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 month ago

Become Quiet So You Can Listen

By Leo Babauta “The quieter you become, the more you are able to hear.” ― Rumi There’s rarely a moment in the day when most of us stop moving and stop the noise. For most of us, we’re working, we’re moving, we’re driving, we’re listening to things on our headphones, we’re watchin … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 2 months ago

The Joys of Getting Organized

By Leo Babauta The last couple of months, things have piled up on me: emails, tasks, random notes, a bunch of browser tabs with things I’m interested or need to do, financial stuff, etc. For the past week, I’ve been allowing myself the joys of getting organized. It’s beautiful, a … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 2 months ago

Cultivating Stokedness

By Leo Babauta How many days do you wake up excited for life, stoked to be alive and take on the day’s challenges? If your answer is “often,” then congratulations! That’s an amazing way to live life — but you’re in the minority. Most people are unenthusiastic about their lives, n … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 2 months ago

Start the New Year with Our Uncertainty Challenge in Fearless Living Academy!

By Leo Babauta Happy New Year my friends! Today I’m going to talk about how to start the year off right, with the Uncertainty Challenge we’ve created in my ​Fearless Living Academy​ … If you’re feeling the New Year energy — which I love because it’s a chance at a fresh start — th … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 2 months ago

Essential Zen Habits of 2023

By Leo Babauta It’s the end of 2023, and I’ve just finished my 17th year of publishing Zen Habits! What a journey this has been so far. As usual, I’m going to run through some of the highlights of the year for me and my business, and then share the best Zen Habits posts of […] | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 2 months ago

Running & the Challenge of Pushing at Your Edge

By Leo Babauta I’m not the world’s greatest runner, but lately I’ve been challenging myself to stay at my edge. As I was running at my edge the other day, it occurred to me that this is a useful practice in many areas in life. Learning to play at your edge is a challenging practi … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 3 months ago

Mastering the Inbox as a Spiritual Practice

By Leo Babauta Earlier today, my email inbox was overflowing like never before. I’m taking this month off (mostly), so I haven’t been checking and responding to email as I normally do. This led to a super full inbox! When our inboxes are overflowing, we tend to feel some anxiety, … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 3 months ago

Creating a Slower Holiday Season

By Leo Babauta We’re in the midst of the holiday season, and with that can come a lot of abundance: It’s a beautiful season, but it can be a lot! In this article, I’m going to share some thoughts on creating a slower holiday season. Imagine a season of reflection and slowing down … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 4 months ago

Transforming the Constant Feeling of Being Behind

By Leo Babauta You start the day with the feeling: there’s a bunch of things I need to do right away. Then the rest of the day, you’re driven by the feeling that there’s so much to do, and you’re behind on it all. You finish the day with the same feeling, and it carries […] The p … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 4 months ago

How I Get Things Done

By Leo Babauta People have often told me that they’re surprised by how much I get done during the week, from team members to clients. I’m not saying that to brag, but to relate that I forget how much work I’ve done to be able to make a bigger impact in the world. So in […] The po … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 5 months ago

How Simplicity Reveals Life

By Leo Babauta This morning I was eating a really simple meal, with minimal seasoning, and I savored its deliciousness. Often I go the opposite way: I eat too much, too quickly, with an overwhelming number of flavors. And I barely taste any of it. This is how I sometimes experien … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 5 months ago

Transcendent: Take on Work & Life from Another Level

By Leo Babauta The way most of us take on our work, or anything else in our lives, is that we do it because we’re supposed to, we have to, we’re obligated to, we’re expected to, we should. What this creates is a life of obligation and burden, of churning out things just for the [ … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 5 months ago

A Powerful Uncertainty Challenge

By Leo Babauta A year ago, my team & I started a grand experiment in our Fearless Living Academy, designed to create the best training possible for learning to face and deal with uncertainty in our lives, especially around habits and purpose work. We call it the Uncertainty Chall … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 6 months ago

How to Create, When You’re Feeling Overwhelmed

By Leo Babauta Our days can be overwhelming, and because of this, many people put off their creative work — it just doesn’t feel possible. If you’re in this camp, one or more of these will sound familiar to you: Of course, the time never comes when you’re feeling settled, when yo … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 6 months ago

Learning to Surf the Uncertainty of Life

By Leo Babauta When things are changing rapidly, and an overwhelming number of things are coming at you … it can be tough to navigate. Anyone who is up to anything big will have a lot going on. Lots of emails and messages, lots of tasks, lots of meetings and calls, lots of things … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 6 months ago

Letting Go of Heaviness

By Leo Babauta A lot of the people I work with feel a lot of heaviness in what they’re taking on — whether it’s work, their finances, relationships, health, etc. We often don’t even realize we have heaviness about something — but other people can feel it if we talk to them about … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 6 months ago

How to Stick to Long-Term Changes

By Leo Babauta If you’re trying to lose weight or gain muscle, you can work really hard at it for a week … and see no change. The same goes for learning music or a language, or creating meaningful change in the world. It’s hard to stick to long-term changes when you don’t get ver … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 7 months ago

Zen Habits Podcast Launch!

It’s finally here — launch day for the Zen Habits Podcast! Today is a day of celebration … of not only this launch, but of the journey I’ve been on with all of you Zen Habits readers. Of the work that I’ve put into this, but also of the support I’ve gotten from my team. […] The p … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 7 months ago

Weekend Intensive: The Art of Letting Go

We’re excited to invite you to the first Zen Habits Weekend Intensive! Dates: Oct. 19-21, 2023 Location: Art of Living Center in North Carolina Theme: The Art of Letting Go (or, the Love Story of the Unknown) In this weekend intensive, we ask you to take 2 days away from your lif … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 7 months ago

5 Ways to Reduce Your Stress Levels

By Leo Babauta Stress is a part of life, and eliminating it is a fool’s errand. If you ever succeeded in eliminating all of stress, your life would be boring and you’d have removed yourself from anything meaningful. That said … too much stress can be toxic. It can negatively affe … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 7 months ago

We’re Mostly Trying to Escape This Moment

By Leo Babauta Much of our days, we’re trying to escape. In fact, you might call this the primary occupation of the human animal. What are we trying to escape? What’s happening in this moment, right now. Most people will outright reject that idea, but I know this to be true of my … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 8 months ago

The Joy of Small Comforts

By Leo Babauta Some days, I’m in need of some comfort. I’m tired, emotionally drained, or just feeling besieged by the world. On these days, I try to recognize my physical, mental and emotional state, and I ask myself what I need. Just noticing is a big step for most of us. We of … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 8 months ago

Changing Habits: How to Let Go of Sacred Cows

By Leo Babauta To change a habit — whether you’re starting a new habit or quitting an old one — you have to let go of something really important to you. This is why most people struggle with habit change — it’s not easy to let go of your sacred cows. Let’s take a few […] The post … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 8 months ago

How to Be More Embodied

By Leo Babauta Most of us live in about 8% of our body most of the time — the head. Even though we have a lot of body beneath the head, we forget about that most of the day. We’re on our screens, doing work, consuming content, messaging. We’re distracted, worried, ruminating. We’ … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 9 months ago

Cleaning as Self-Care

By Leo Babauta The other day, I returned home from a short trip, and immediately unpacked and washed my clothes, putting everything away. It felt nice. The next morning, I was feeling a bit unsettled. So I started cleaning. I cleaned in the kitchen, outside in the yard, swept the … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 9 months ago

The Moment of a Lifetime

There is a concept in Japanese tea ceremony from Zen, roughly translated as “one chance in a lifetime,” or “one lifetime, one meeting.” It’s such a beautiful idea: any meeting you have with someone is unique, fleeting, and will never happen again, even if you see this person ever … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 9 months ago

6 Powerful Mindset Shifts

By Leo Babauta Having worked closely with dozens of people’s transformative journeys, I’ve come to recognize a handful of mindset shifts that make an incredible impact. Those who’ve worked to shift in these ways have remarkable transformations. I’m going to share them here with y … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 9 months ago

Embarrassment is an Integral Part of the Growth Process

By Leo Babauta A well-known climbing coach said that the biggest obstacle in the way of people’s growth as climbers is, basically, fear of embarrassment. When people want to get better at climbing, they try to do it privately, so that no one can see them doing things badly. They’ … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 10 months ago

Lessons from the Fearless Retreat

I’m creating a new Fearless Retreat in October that will be a part of my Fearless Mastery program … and it has me reflecting on the most recent retreat I led in Costa Rica in March. I’m moved to share with you the lessons I learned from the March retreat, because I was so inspire … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 10 months ago

Be All In: Unlock Your Full Power

By Leo Babauta One of the things that really humbled me in recent years is the realization that I am often only halfway in on anything I do. I’m rarely ever really all in. For example, I might join a coaching program with the idea of trying it out, but not really sure if I […] Th … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 10 months ago

Turn Struggle into Creativity

By Leo Babauta Most people think that if they’re struggling, that means something is wrong. If you’re struggling to write, to meditate, to eat healthily, to be focused and productive … or struggling in a relationship or job … that means something is wrong with you, or you need to … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 11 months ago

Simplify Habits: Get to the True Heart of Change

By Leo Babauta Creating a new habit like meditation, journaling or exercise isn’t incredibly complicated — at the most basic level, you tie the habit to a trigger that’s already in your life, start small, and find ways to encourage yourself to remember it and actually do it. But … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 11 months ago

Beyond Getting Stuff Done

By Leo Babauta I’ve noticed that so many of us are incredibly focused on getting stuff done. Productivity systems and tools, anxiety about being behind on all the things we have to do, a complete focus on all the stuff to do, at the exclusion of all else … But here’s the thing: i … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 11 months ago

We Overcomplicate Our Task Systems

By Leo Babauta I’ve noticed that most people (myself often included) make complicated task and organizational systems. Today I’d like to talk about why and how to simplify that. Task systems that are overcomplicated require a lot of overhead work — if you have to spend a lot of t … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 11 months ago

The Parable of Luminous Reality

By Leo Babauta The boy awoke one morning to a startling discovery — that everything he believed was not the truth. He realized that the way he’d been seeing things was only one way of seeing things. His view of things was not absolute but tentative. What he saw this morning is th … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 12 months ago

Creating When You Feel Resistance

By Leo Babauta I’ve noticed that most of us let ourselves be driven by our resistance to something difficult, scary, unknown. We take on a hard task — creating something, for example — and then we feel some kind of resistance. Or maybe it feels like overwhelm. It’s simply uncerta … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

Everyday Wonder

By Leo Babauta I’m on my first international flight since the pandemic started, and I got lucky enough to have a window seat. Flying to Costa Rica by way of Guatemala to lead a retreat, I’m looking out at a vast expanse of mountains in Mexico … and I’m in absolute awe. What a mir … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

The Practice of Letting Go of Mental Constructs

By Leo Babauta Everything we believe about ourselves and others is an idea, an image constructed in our heads. And these mental constructs can be some of our biggest obstacles and struggles. Letting go of our mental constructs — our ideas about ourselves and others — can be one o … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

We Make Everything Harder

By Leo Babauta It sometimes amazes me how we make everything harder for ourselves than it needs to be — myself included. That’s not a bad thing — it’s simply human. Harder is not worse. We learn from harder. So there’s a beauty and a sense to it. That said, once we see how much [ … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

The Wisdom of Non-Effort

By Leo Babauta For those of us who find ourselves constantly busy and doing, it’s often hard to imagine a more effortless life. Life is striving, pushing to make things happen, trying to catch up, overcoming inertia, trying to stay on top of things. An approach called “non-effort … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

Deepen in Each Moment

By Leo Babauta We live our lives rushing through tasks and messages, meetings and emails, chores and errands, until the end of the day comes and we start again tomorrow. This is the usual way of living — we’re getting through things so we can be done with them. The opportunity in … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

Mastering the Art of Letting Go

By Leo Babauta One of the keys to living a life of calm and purpose is the art of letting go. If you’d like a more peaceful life, it’s powerful to look at what disturbs that peace, and practice letting go of whatever you’re holding onto that’s causing you anxiety and frustration. … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago

Create Exquisite Focus Amidst Chaos

By Leo Babauta I’ve worked with lots of incredible people who want to create something — whether it’s art, a book, a business, or some impact on the world. One of the stories we often have when we want to create is that we’re too busy, pulled in too many direction, or need to cle … | Continue reading


@zenhabits.net | 1 year ago