What's up everyone, this is Alex Lieberman, co-founder and executive chairman of Morning Brew.

Welcome back to Founders Journal, my personal audio diary where I give you the business

builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building

a business, a team, or a new product.

This week on Founders Journal, we're doing things a little differently.

We're dropping a mini-series focused on mental health.

I'll talk about my own battle with anxiety, the effect that social media has on our psyche,

and break down my own mental health routines, I call it my mental health stack.

That means instead of just one episode, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,

this week we're giving you two a new show that you won't want to miss plus a classic episode you

maybe haven't heard before. In today's classic episode, originally released on May 21, 2021,

I talk about managing my own anxiety. Let's hop into it.

I have had anxiety for as long as I can remember. You may be wondering,

why am I talking about this on a show about building businesses or building your career?

Well, there's two reasons. One, this is my journal and it's something that I would 100%

write in a physical journal. And two, I've had anxiety about work and my anxiety has affected

the quality of my work in the past. At the end of the day, anxiety impacts all aspects of life,

whether it's personal or professional. And when I think back in life, there are moments that I vividly

remember that were somewhat traumatic, anxiety-provoking experiences. I can still remember the first

anxious thought that I've ever had. It was in elementary school. I was in second grade.

I was in the library and I started concentrating on my breath. And then I started

anxiously monitoring whether or not I was breathing correctly. And it was doing this for a few minutes.

...