Four years after launching his self-improvement site, Raptitude, writer David Cain quit his job as a land surveyor and became a full-time blogger. Two and a half years later, he hasn’t looked back.
“I feel more like me than I’ve ever felt,” Cain, a native of Manitoba, Canada, told The Huffington Post.
In January, Cain will lead some 300 readers through a monthlong online course on mindfulness called “Camp Calm.” The class will include short meditation exercises and daily lessons derived from two ebooks Cain wrote on mindfulness, the sales of which provide the bulk of his salary these days.
But the 35-year-old’s story begins more than 10 years before he took that leap into self-employment. He was 20 years old, and for the first time in his life he was flunking school. Faced with the harsh reality of failure, Cain had to re-evaluate his notions about success and happiness.
“I always thought being happy or content was a matter of your circumstances,” Cain said. “But I learned the locus of control is how you interact with your moment-to-moment experiences.”
He embarked on a journey of self-improvement, starting with a Google search for “what do you do about stress.” Not surprisingly, mindfulness and meditation were among the top hits.
“One night I sat down on my bathroom mat to meditate, and by the end of it I felt different,” Cain said.
Cain continued developing his meditation practice, perusing books by experts like Jon Kabat-Zinn and Stephen Batchelor. Roughly eight years later he decided to share the wisdom he'd gained with a wider audience. He brainstormed names for a website about mindfulness and self-improvement and came up with Raptitude -- a combination of rapt, which Cain describes as an “experience of awe with life,” and aptitude, for skill or talent.
Readers can find articles on topics ranging from mindfulness to self-esteem to cultivating inner peace. The tagline for the site is apt: “Getting better at being human.”
“Because I write about human life, it’s something I’m experiencing in every moment,” Cain said. “I might ask my best friend or my mom what’s on their mind, and there’s always something interesting there. There’s never a shortage of ideas.”
A “congregation” of loyal readers has developed around Raptitude in the last six years, Cain said, with 25,000 subscribers to the site’s newsletter and nearly 20,000 followers on Facebook.
“That’s been the most rewarding part. …There are people who commented on my first post ever and are still part of the community,” Cain said.
He limited the registration for Camp Calm to 300 participants in order to maintain that community feel. “I need to be able to answer all campers’ questions in a timely manner,” Cain wrote on the blog. And there will likely be ample questions, as Cain said the course is designed for true beginners -- those interested in meditation but daunted by the work it might entail.
“I was in that phase for a long time and just needed someone to say, ‘Do this,’” Cain said. “The goal is to have a daily practice by the end.”
All 300 spots for Camp Calm filled up within a week, perhaps given that it's the season of New Year's resolutions. The course's popularity has encouraged Cain to plan a second round for later in the spring.
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