3810: The Alternative to Thinking All the Time by David Cain of Raptitude on Conscious Awareness

Optimal Living Daily - Personal Development and Self-Improvement

Optimal Living Daily LLC

Education, Mental Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Discover all of the podcasts in our network, search for specific episodes, get the Optimal Living Daily workbook, and learn more at: OLDPodcast.com. Episode 3810: David Cain explores the exhausting nature of constant overthinking and offers a simple, grounding alternative: deliberately noticing your immediate sensory experience. By redirecting attention from mental chatter to the present moment, you can reduce stress, sharpen awareness, and enjoy a richer, calmer way of being. Read along with the original article(s) here: https://www.raptitude.com/2017/07/alternative-to-thinking-all-the-time/ Quotes to ponder: "Thinking is just one way to use the mind. We can also simply observe." "You don’t have to be generating thoughts all the time to be okay, or to be yourself." "It’s the noticing that changes everything." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:44.2	This is Optimal Living Daily, the alternative to thinking all the time.
0:50.0	By David Kane of Raptitude.com and your narrator, Justin Mollick, reading you blogs every single day of the year, including holidays. So with that, let's get right to another post as we optimize
0:55.3	your life.
1:00.1	The Alternative to Thinking All the Time by davy cane of raptitude.com.
1:05.9	One evening last week, I was sitting on my front stoop waiting for a friend to come over.
1:12.1	I brought a book out with me, but instead of reading, I just sat there and let my senses take in the scene. I didn't look
1:18.1	or listen for anything in particular. I just let the details of this particular moment in the
1:22.8	neighborhood come to me. The quality of the air, heavy and warm, the incoming summer storm kind. Birds,
1:30.8	two couples having conversation down the sidewalk, the clinking of dishes coming from inside the house
1:35.5	to my right, distant hammering from a construction site somewhere in the blocks behind my house.
1:41.1	There was also a scent that I only recently learned as a name, Petricor. It's the earthy
1:46.6	scent of rain having just fallen on soil after a dry spell. You definitely know it. It's a big
1:51.8	part of the overall flavor of the scene. I engage this kind of receptive awareness often,
1:56.7	particularly when I'm waiting for someone, and there's something very satisfying about it.
2:01.3	Every scene in our lives, whatever's unfolding at any given time in a front yard, a living room,
	...

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