Matt's Audio Letter of the Week

All right—hey everyone, and welcome to this week’s Feel Better Letter, or FBL.

This is Matt, and I hope you’re all having a great week.

Today I want to talk about the idea of no longer trying to solve OCD, anxiety, panic attacks—really, our uncomfortable emotions.

One of the main issues happening here is something that becomes obvious once you step back and create some distance between you and the problem. But when you're lost in it, you're convinced you're doing the right thing. You don't have enough separation to actually see what’s going on.

I’ve been reading this book called The Path of Least Resistance, which is all about understanding the creative process. It’s been a good read. One of the ideas they talk about is how different the “problem-solving” mindset is from the creative mindset.

We’re taught throughout life to solve problems. In school, we’re literally given problem sets and graded on whether we got the right answer. Rewards and punishments follow accordingly. So naturally, we carry that mindset into everything.

But creating is a completely different framework. When I set out to create TBC and Restored Minds, there was no path to follow. I simply believed this needed to exist in the world. The same is true for the Triple-A Response and why we embrace a completely different model—one that isn’t about trying to solve OCD and anxiety or trying to mitigate symptoms. There is a lot of overlap with the ideas in this book, which is why I felt inspired to share this today.

Recovery is not about getting rid of the symptoms you don’t want. It’s not about solving the problem of intrusive thoughts or solving the problem of anxiety. Because if you approach it that way, you’re always looking for the problem. Even when symptoms aren’t present, you’re analyzing if they’re there, worried they’ll come back, constantly monitoring yourself. Your whole life becomes about not having symptoms.

And even if you reach a point where you don’t have symptoms, all you have is the absence of symptoms—not the life you actually want.

Most of us fall into the illusion: When I get rid of my anxiety, when I get rid of the intrusive thoughts, when I get rid of panic… then I’ll finally have what I want.
But that’s not true. At best, it gives you the temporary absence of what you believe the problem is.

Creating the life you want—creating good mental health, emotional health, and higher consciousness—is an entirely different paradigm with its own skills and mindset. This is why most people won’t be successful on their recovery path from their current perspective. Because recovery isn’t about getting rid of the thing you think is the problem. It’s about raising your consciousness so you see the whole thing differently. It’s about elevating your awareness to create the life you actually want.

I want to read this quote by Carl Jung because it captures this so well, and it really speaks into what TBC—Taking Back Control—has always been about. This process is about raising your consciousness.

Jung writes:

“The greatest and most important problems of life are all, in a certain sense, insoluble. They can never be solved, but only outgrown.

The so-called ‘outgrowing,’ on further experience, was seen to consist in a new level of consciousness. Some higher or wider interest appeared on the person’s horizon, and through this widening of view, the insoluble problem lost its urgency.

It was not solved logically in its own terms, but faded when confronted with a new and stronger life tendency.”

When you think about this, it explains why I often say:
You cannot solve a problem from the same level of consciousness that created it.
You can never logic your way out of fear. You can never implement the perfect set of tools to “solve” the symptoms you’re perceiving. It will never work at that level.

To get where you want to go in life, you have to adopt an entirely different mindset, skill set, paradigm, viewpoint—it’s a completely different journey than you think it is.

And the important thing is this: if you’re here listening to this, and you’ve been dealing with intrusive thoughts, panic, or anxiety for an ongoing period of time… and you're still not where you want to be… then it’s—well, for lack of a better word—silly to keep doing what you’ve been doing. If it was going to work, it would have worked by now.

You cannot keep looking at this the same way. You cannot keep trying to solve it using the same strategies. And then expect a new result to magically appear.

Recovery is about creating an entirely new mental health landscape.
It’s about creating a new way of interpreting your thoughts and emotions, and a new way of relating to them. It is creation—not solving.

Most therapists and doctors still operate from the “diagnose a problem → implement a solution” mindset. And while we have more access and resources than ever in medicine and psychology, the results don’t match the investment. Because trying to “solve” a feeling—something that isn’t actually a problem—keeps you stuck.

We have to stop trying to solve OCD and anxiety.
We have to start dissolving the loop by embodying a completely different way of responding.

So I just wanted to share that today. If this resonates with you and you want help going down that path, definitely fill out an application for TBC. We’d love to help. This is what we do.

And if you know someone who would benefit from this message, please share it with them.

Wishing you all a great week.
I look forward to talking with you soon.