Matt's Audio Letter of the Week

Hey, everyone.

Welcome to today’s Feel Better Letter, or FBL.

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

Today, I have a special message that I want to share.

It’s about not settling. It’s about allowing yourself to truly live the life you were meant to live.

So first, I want to start by telling a story of a chicken and an eagle.

One day, a farmer finds an egg—it happens to be an eagle egg. He puts it in the coop where all the chickens are. The eagle hatches and begins to live like the chickens. It pecks the ground for food, it walks around, but it never flies. And it lives like this for years.

One day, an environmentalist visits the farm. He notices the eagle and says, “That’s not a chicken, that’s an eagle. What’s it doing in here?”

He takes the eagle outside the fence and throws it up in the air. The eagle flaps its wings a few times but then flies back to the fence and returns to walking around—because that’s what it knows.

The environmentalist says, “This isn’t right.” But the farmer shrugs and says, “Well, he just lives like this.”

The environmentalist tries again. He takes the eagle to the roof and throws it off. Same thing—the eagle flaps, falls down, and runs back to the coop.

Finally, the environmentalist takes the eagle to the top of a mountain and says, “You’re going to fly. You’re going to be who you’re meant to be.” And with that, he throws it. This time, the eagle spreads its wings, soars through the sky, and never returns to the coop again.

The moral of the story is that we often choose safety—even if it’s out of alignment with who we truly are—because safety feels comfortable. Growth and expansion are scary. They’re uncomfortable. The people in our lives will question us. We will question ourselves. And often, we run back to the coop because it’s familiar. Because it feels safe.

But deep down, there’s an inner knowing—an intuitive compass—that tells you you’re meant to soar, not live in a cage.

I think this is a perfect metaphor for fear—for anxiety, panic attacks, chronic pain. These loops of fear create a prison. And if you stay in them long enough, you forget that you’re not meant to live that way. You start to believe it’s just who you are.

But it’s not.

And I’m going to be bold and say this: if you’re listening to this, deep down, you know you’re an eagle. You were meant to soar.

Yet we settle. We settle for routines, compulsions, avoiding feelings, managing symptoms. We tell ourselves, “I’ll just manage this well” or “I’m learning a little here and there.” But often, we don’t step fully outside the comfort zone.

When I think about my own role in this work, I’ve never seen myself as a healer. That label has never felt right. Coach sometimes, but more than that, I see myself as a guide—someone who helps you remember who you already are.

That’s what the story of the environmentalist reminds me of. That’s what I do: I help people remember. Sure, I teach skills and offer encouragement, but recovery isn’t about fixing—it’s about remembering who you are, who you’re meant to be, and helping you step into that.

Fear isn’t a disease. It can be transcended. The loop can be broken.

Is it uncomfortable? Absolutely. It’s always more comfortable to stay in the known, even if the known is a prison, a chicken coop. That’s why freedom, while everyone says they want it, is often secretly feared.

But I can tell you—having lived in the coop and having soared through the skies—that life outside the loop of fear is better than you can even imagine. Your fear mind will never let you comprehend it fully, because fear can’t lead you to freedom. But recovery—true freedom—is absolutely possible.

Yes, it’s scary. Yes, it takes big steps. But with the right support, guidance, tools, resources, encouragement, and nudges—sometimes even being pushed to spread your wings—freedom becomes possible.

The eagle would never have considered flying unless someone guided it through the discomfort of finding its freedom.

So today, if this message resonates with you: choose to be the eagle. Don’t settle for the cage. Decide to soar.

Wishing you all a great day.

If you know someone who would benefit from this, please share it with them. And if this connects with you, feel free to reach out to me and my team as well.

I look forward to talking with you soon.