Matt's Audio Letter of the Week

Hey friends, welcome to this edition of the FBL, or The Feel Better Letter.

This is Matt.
Hope you're having a great week.

Real quick, before we dive in, I wanted to let you know that this week we did our live coaching call—and it was on the four shifts you need to make to really begin to rewire OCD and anxiety at a neuroplasticity level, both in the brain and nervous system.

It was a really powerful training—one of the best ones I think I’ve put out so far.
And we’re making it available for free.

I’ve linked it down below, so be sure to check that out.

Alright, let’s dive into today’s message: Understanding anxiety as a signal instead of a sign.

Most of us, when we feel anxiety or fear, we immediately externalize it as a sign that something outside of us—something bad—is happening.
That we’re in danger.

Let’s define danger.
Danger is an acute threat to your well-being—bodily harm, right? Something immediate and present.

What anxiety or fear really is, though, is a bodily reaction to an unwanted future.
That’s what anxiety is: a physiological response to an unwanted idea about a future you don’t want.

And because nothing is actually happening right now, fear is essentially having faith in an outcome you don’t want.

A lot of times people with anxiety and OCD say, “I need to have more trust or faith.”
But the truth is, you already have a lot of trust and faith—you just have it in the wrong thing.
You have it in bad outcomes.

That’s why it keeps you in a low state of energy.

Instead of seeing anxiety as a sign and projecting the cause outside of yourself—like most people do—you feel fear and then blame it on something external:

“The reason I feel this way is because of that group of people... this doorknob... this possibility... the economy... the financial crisis... my partner might leave me...”

We project the cause externally, and then we try to control the external world to calm our inner anxiety.
And what happens? We keep doing it over and over.

Fear comes up, a triggering event happens, and we project. Then we do compulsions, ruminate, try to control things—and this is how people stay stuck in the loop.
Some bounce in and out of fear loops. Others stay in them chronically.

This is why any method that tries to treat fear externally will always leave you wanting.
Because once you "fix" one thing, the next thing pops up.

But if you begin to understand that you are the source of fear—meaning, inside you are beliefs, identities, perceptions, and suppressed emotions driving it—
then you can start working on fear from the inside.

You begin to see anxiety not as a sign, but as a signal:

“Hey, maybe I’m holding on to a bunch of fear right now.”

And instead of getting lost in the projection—the mirage it creates—you choose to confront the emotion itself.
You confront it internally.

Then, you go deeper and examine the beliefs you're holding that are driving the fear in the first place.

Maybe there’s an entirely different way to understand and relate to the world.
Maybe you’ve believed something since you were six years old—a belief that served you then, but no longer serves you now.

When you work with anxiety and fear from the internal perspective—that it comes from you, not to you—
that’s when you can start experiencing the transformations you’ve been looking for.

The ones you hear others talk about.
The ones that seem out of reach—but don’t have to be.

And if you feel stuck, it’s not because you’re not trying or working hard enough.
Usually, it’s because your energy and effort are being directed toward the wrong things.

So, understanding anxiety as a signal, not a sign, can dramatically shift where you place your attention, energy, and focus—and what you actually begin to work on.

I hope this was helpful.
Wishing you a great day and a great week.

And again, please check out the training linked below—I think you’ll find a lot of value in it.

With that, talk to y’all soon.