Learning about anxiety and recovery is certainly important. We seek out and consume words, sounds, videos, and images that teach us about the nature of anxiety, fear, and recovery. In 2022 there is no shortage of that just a few taps away on the device you have in your hand right now.
This is a good thing. We call this psychoeducation. It’s a critical component in recovery, especially when one is just getting started down the path. A good therapist or counselor will make it a point to provide plenty of psychoeducation in early sessions because knowing and understanding is an important first step in recovery.
First step.
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Almost nothing in life gets done with just one step. Seeking and learning might be your FIRST step, but they are absolutely not the only step. In my opinion, they are not even the most important step in the end.
It’s time for another word from my old friend Seneca. You know I dig him and the rest of the great Stoic philosophers.
“We should hunt out the helpful pieces of teaching and the spirited and noble-minded sayings which are capable of immediate practical application — not far-fetched or archaic expressions or extravagant metaphors and figures of speech — and learn them so well that words become works.” - Seneca
Seneca tells us that we should go out and find helpful teachings, but he is also telling us that once we learn them, they are best serving us when they become more than just words. They become works. Actions. Behaviors.
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This rings VERY true in the case of anxiety recovery. You can read every word I ever write on the topic, but until those words become works in your own life, they will tend to remain meaningless, even if you find them profound. Learn the words, then allow them to become works. Make time for seeking and learning, then make time to develop systems of doing and experiencing.
Go do recovery. Have the experiences you need to have. Let your seeking systems - the learning foundation - guide you through those experiences. When you do this, seeking, learning, doing and experiencing become enmeshed. They grow organically together when we practice taking action.
It is true that recovery is about learning and understanding. But recovery is also about making behavioral change. When we allow the words we seek to become works we do, good things happen.
Those crazy Stoics. They knew a few things, even about recovery.
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We’ll start next week with a discussion on how to use - or throw away - the heart rate monitor on your wrist.
“The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up ones mind about nothing—to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. . . . Dilke will never come at a truth as long as he lives; because he is always trying at it.” - John Keats
Every Friday I’ll share one of my favorite quotes. They’ll often have direct application in recovery, but sometimes they’re just generally funny, inspiring, or thought-provoking. I hope you enjoy them.
40. Seeking. Then Doing.