 Welcome to The Anxious Morning, where each weekday morning we take a look at ideas, concepts, and lessons designed to help you understand and overcome your anxiety. For more information, visit us at theanxiousmorning.com Nothing about the recovery process is meant to be glorified or romanticized. Quotes about fear, warriors, and goddesses do not apply here. Recovery is about intentionally making oneself uncomfortable and afraid. It is the process of doing hard things to learn that we are capable of doing hard things and working through difficult sensations, thoughts, and emotions. The process is literally dripping with the stuff of songs, poems, inspirational memes, and mediocre keynote addresses given at dime a dozen level-up conferences. But none of that matters here. Recovery is not a test. Recovery is not an initiation into the mentally superior club. Recovery does not earn one a certificate stamped with words like enlightened or awakened. Recovery is not about being a lion, a wolf, an eagle, or any other animal generally associated with badassery. We do not do these things to be hardcore or extreme. We do not do these things to prove to the world that we are strong or brave. We do not do these things with pretense to signal that we share the virtues or characteristics of warriors or dead Roman emperors. We do these things simply to learn. We learn about ourselves and what we are capable of. We learn about the nature of fear and thoughts and emotions, and we learn that all have their place when treated productively and with respect. And even if the learning happens in the dark and in silence with nobody witnessing, it still happens and there is impact. Nobody needs to see your recovery, approve of your recovery, or endorse your recovery methods for it to matter. If this tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to hear it, it absolutely does make a sound. It can be really difficult to do hard things without fully understanding why we are doing them. Never lose sight of why we do recovery. We do it to learn. And even if you are doing it while feeling awful with nobody watching and nobody applauding you for your audacious display of warrior spirit. If you are learning, you are winning. Now go learn something about how capable you really are because that will set you free. If you're enjoying the anxious morning and you'd like to get a copy of the podcast delivered into your email inbox every morning, visit the anxious morning dot email and subscribe to the newsletter. If you're listening on Apple or iTunes, take a second and leave a five star rating, maybe write a small review. It really helps me out. And finally, if you find my work useful and you'd like to help keep it free of advertising and sponsorships, you can see all the ways to support the work at the anxious truth dot com slash support. Thanks so much.