Marcus corrects himself mid-thought, recognizing that anxiety isn't something that happens to us but something we create and maintain through our perceptions and judgments. This realization is profoundly liberating - if anxiety comes from within, then we have the power to release it. We don't need external circumstances to change; we need to change our internal response. This doesn't minimize real challenges or suggest that all anxiety is irrational, but it locates the source of much of our emotional suffering in our interpretations rather than in events themselves, giving us agency over our mental state.