Don’t Fight the Feelings.

Mental Toughness isn’t All You Need.

Grit. Strength. Survivorship.

Putting on a happy face. Never giving up.

I’m hyper-aware of the mental loop of anxiety and depression, and the days it feels like the only two options are gritting our teeth and pretending we’re ok and the anxiety is something we’ll get around to processing eventually, or letting anxiety and depression decide what the day will bring.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, anxiety disorders affect 18% of the adult population, yet only 1/3 of those people are receiving any sort of treatment.

I’ve been traveling this month. I was in Oregon for World Domination Summit and then in New Jersey to visit my almost 98-year-old grandfather. When I travel, I pass the time listening to podcasts. When in Portland, I met Lewis Howes for the first time and was blown away by the tremendous impact his talk had on me. I left reconsidering all my fears and notions of my comfort zone I use to negotiate the world. I left Portland feeling this deeper inner strength that I haven’t felt in some time. Lewis has a podcast called School of Greatness which is nearly just as incredible as listening to the genius and real human heart and authenticity of the man in person.

Low and behold, Lewis and Chris Guillebeau recorded a podcast together earlier this year. If you don’t know Chris, he’s the genius behind World Domination Summit. These are two men who influence my own dreams and aspirations, and my drive to live a life of passion and service to a higher purpose. Author, motivational speaker, entrepreneur and world traveler, Chris embodies what it means to live your life unapologetically with the values of adventure, community and service.

Lewis asked Chris just before their official recording what one question he’d like to discuss that listeners might not know about him. He elected to talk about depression. Chris recently lost his bother and admitted to feelings of depression and anxiety.

We have a collective aversion to showing our true selves and unmasking our vulnerability. Depression and anxiety are deeply-seeded emotions that can feel too vulnerable to share with the world. And for good reason—we know what we need to do for our own safety and protection. Our human instinct for survival is brilliant. It’s a blueprint hardwired into our neural pathways that helps keep us alive.

But, there’s a point when we fight the feelings too much, and we fight it so much that we begin to flatline. Mental grit will only get us so far until we begin to numb out the feelings in our bodies, and live from a place of the intellect. This is fine, but not sustainable. The somatic connection is a vital human life force.

I admire Chris for being so open, vulnerable and honest with himself. Raw human emotion is an infrequently witness trait in the entrepreneurs’ circle because we fear it as a sign of weakness.

What Chris does in this podcast—in speaking so openly about feeling—offers hope for those who are too afraid to unmask their vulnerability and be heard and seen. Lewis and Chris facilitate a discussion that reminds us that it’s ok to not be ok. It’s ok to let our grip on mental grit slip just a little bit and fall apart so we can stand back up stronger, and to ask for help and compassion to remember that we’re never alone, and that grit and toughness isn’t just the mental—it’s a physical, emotional and spiritual endeavor.

Listen to the podcast here: http://lewishowes.com/podcast/chris-guillebeau2/