Webinar: Opening Up to a Habit with Joy Instead of Running

By Leo Babauta

In this webinar, I shared some of my experiences on how I rebel against myself, how to open up to those feelings of tension in my body, and how to be fully in this moment. I also answered some awesome questions.

I’ve broken this webinar recording into two parts:

1. Part I – My Talk: Opening Up to a Habit with Joy Instead of Running (See notes)
2. Part II – Questions & Answers: I answered questions on our upcoming June Challenge, balancing forgiveness, Not being so harsh with ourselves, relaxing into the feminine aspects of ourselves, creating space in our lives, and more!

Part I: Leo’s Talk (with notes)

You can download this video here, or download just the audio. Or watch below.

Here are the notes from my talk (video is below the notes):

Opening Up to a Habit with Joy Instead of Running:

At times, when we set out to do something, we are the ones who hold ourself back and rebel against ourselves. This is not helpful. We need to shift our mindset and open up to what is going on.

Shift your Mindset

• Notice when you are rebelling against yourself and resisting with excuses and wanting to run
• Notice the tension in your body and where it is located
• Relax those areas of tension in your body and melt
• Open your eyes to it and see the beauty of this moment
• Melt into this container of constriction
• Fully be Love in the middle of it in this moment
  

  Be held in the container we set for ourselves. Once you do, there is joy in this moment.

Masculine & Feminine Practices
Masculine is the container or structure. The feminine can melt and relax into that structure. We have both aspects within us.

Feminine Aspects

• Be Love, be the light, the giver of life, the lover
• Ability to melt into a structure
• Feminine does not mean female
• We all have a feminine gift

Masculine Aspects

• The structure, container, discipline we set for ourselves
• Ability to create a structure
• Masculine does not mean male
• We all have a masculine gift

Setting a container is a gift to ourselves. It gives us something trustworthy for ourselves.

Feminine Meditation

1. Come to seated that is grounded and stable
2. Feel your feet solidly on the ground
3. Rest your hands in your lap
4. Allow your spine to come upright and relaxed
5. Notice you are being held by the solid ground beneath
6. Notice your breath and how that feels
7. Feel that you are being filled with Love
8. Exhale and send your Love out

Notice this beauty of this feminine gift. Be Love, the gift of love and light your are giving to the world. Do this for 10 minutes.

Masculine Meditation

1. Observe the feminine gift we just did.
2. Continue breathing in life
3. Continue sending out life and love
4. Take part of your attention and be the observer of that
5. Observe from above, all around, this gift of Love happening right now
6. Observe from within, you are the witness of this Love
7. Send your awareness out in to the room around you, to witness the beauty of love and life
8. Push out your consciousness beyond the room to everyone on this call and into the area around you, witnessing and being awareness

In this you are being the eternal. You are the eternal, divinity itself. Do this for 10 minutes.

Notice how you felt being feminine, being love. Notice how you felt being masculine consciousness and witnessing love. We all have these qualities within us. We just nurtured both of them. You can bring this practice to your seat in the morning.

Part II: Questions and Answers

You can download this video here, or download just the audio. Or watch below.

Questions answered in this video:

• Announcement about June challenge – healthy eating with meal plans!
• How do you balance being “forgiving” to yourself when too tired / sad / not ready to do the habit with being consistent / hard(er) on yourself?
• I love the idea of switching to that feminine part and relaxing into it. And I’ve realized after hearing it that, just as I do with my masculine partner, one of the problems is that I doubt if my husband has chosen the best restaurant/hotel/weekend plan… I do the same with past Marina who thought the habit might be a good idea. How can I work with that?
• Alarm goes, I clear lunch/papers etc. & meditate. However, when doing some things, in creating space, clearing email, just… because it’s important, this can use up the time to do it. Because the thing I want to do is important. I like to clear the space for it.