Matt's Audio Letter of the Week

Hey, what’s up, my friends?

Welcome to this edition of The Feel Better Letter—or the FBL. This is Matt.

Today, I wanted to talk about the analogy of turning the station on a radio. And I want to talk about something I shared in the group—this idea about intrusive thoughts and how changing your relationship with them can make a big difference.

It's really important to understand that these thoughts are not you. They're something you experience—much like a radio doesn't produce each song or type of music. It simply tunes into a station and receives what's playing. Whether it’s country, hip-hop, jazz—whatever it is—the radio isn’t creating it. It’s just picking it up.

And when it comes to thought patterns, especially fear-based ones, I’ve always found it fascinating that there are basically around 15 to 20 core OCD themes. These same intrusive thoughts show up in people across the world—in different countries, different age groups. It's the same themes, the same thoughts. I’ve always found that so interesting. You’d think, as individuals, we’d be creative enough to come up with our own intrusive thoughts. But it's like we’re all tuning into the same broadcast.

Dr. David Hawkins, in his book Maps of Consciousness, talks about how when we’re hypnotized by the mind, we believe we are our thoughts—or that we created them. Sure, we have the ability to think, but so many thoughts arise automatically. When we take personal ownership of all our thoughts, it can be incredibly disturbing, because the mind can say some pretty wild things.

The key idea here is that when you’re in a certain emotional state, that state tends to produce or tune you into a certain set of thought patterns. And what’s really interesting is that these patterns tend to be the same, across the board. That supports the idea of the collective unconscious, or some kind of shared field we tap into.

So if you're in fear, you’re going to experience certain thoughts. If you're in anger, shame, guilt—especially the lower emotional states—you’ll notice patterns of intrusive or distressing thoughts. And the more we resist those emotions, the more intense the thoughts tend to become. Most of us don’t resist positive thoughts or feelings. Those come and go naturally. But we tend to resist the difficult emotions, and that resistance amplifies them—and their accompanying thoughts.

That’s why it’s so important not to take the content of your thoughts personally, especially in fear-based states. Your thoughts aren’t proof of who you are—they’re just a reflection of the emotional state you’re in.

This is also why the Triple-A Response teaches you to bypass the mind and work directly with the emotion. When we stop resisting the emotion and allow it to process, our bodies metabolize it—and the thoughts that were tied to it begin to shift naturally.

I’ve never seen anyone successfully argue their way out of intrusive thoughts. Fighting thoughts head-on doesn’t work. What does work is recognizing what “station” you’re tuned into and learning how to change it.

So this week, I just wanted to share that analogy with you—of the radio station—and how being in a certain emotional state tunes you into a certain channel of thought. When you're in fear, your mind experiences a flood of intrusive thoughts. But instead of battling the thoughts, ask yourself: “What emotion am I experiencing right now?” That awareness can be a powerful shift.

And if you want to change your thought patterns, you need to address and release the emotions underneath. That’s how you shift into a new emotional state—and a new channel of experience.

For those of you in TBC, we talk about this a lot. And for those who aren’t, but are interested in learning how to do this more deeply, feel free to fill out an application—we have some spots available right now in the community.

I hope this serves you today. And if you know someone who could benefit from hearing this, please pass it along.

Looking forward to connecting with you all soon.
Have a great day.