The Mayoral Dispatch
Find What You Love More
Explore an interactive journey through debilitating illness and severe addiction to discover a powerful blueprint for transformation, inspired by the story of Joshua T. Berglan.
A Battle with Chronic Illness
Life rarely follows a script. For Joshua, a persistent, debilitating tremor became a force that pushed him into deep isolation. But a courageous decision to live fully, regardless of the pain, changed everything. Explore the two phases of his journey below.
The Refuge of Solitude
The everyday sounds of the world—a cell phone notification, a casual conversation, the ambient energy of a crowd—became triggers. These triggers aggravated his condition, making solitude feel like the only safe refuge from the constant physical and mental strain. Life became small, confined by the need to control his environment to minimize the pain.
The Addiction Fallacy
Traditional recovery methods often failed Joshua. He discovered that fighting an addiction head-on was a losing battle. The breakthrough came not from willpower, but from a fundamental shift in perspective. Interact with the diagram below to understand his insight.
Why Willpower Fails
"Telling myself I can't do cocaine... It's never going to work." For him, prohibition created a mental battleground of "agony and misery and loathing and craving that was unquenchable." Trying to force himself to hate the drugs felt like a fundamental lie his soul refused to accept.
The Path to Freedom
The only thing that worked was finding something his heart desired more than the high. It wasn't a new therapy or a magic pill. It was a purpose that had been dormant since childhood: a deep-seated love for performing, speaking, and creating. This purpose didn't fight the addiction; it simply crowded it out.
The Purpose Prescription
This journey from addiction to authenticity forms the core of the message. The solution is not to simply remove what you hate, but to fundamentally change your reality by filling it with what you love. Use the steps below to begin your own reflection.
What did you dream of before the world told you to be realistic? Think back to your childhood passions, the activities that made you lose track of time. This is the foundation.
Be unflinchingly honest about the sources of your unhappiness. Is it your job, a relationship, your daily routine? Acknowledging what you hate is the first step to changing it.
What is one small, actionable step you can take today to bring more of what you love into your life, and less of what you hate? It's not about a giant leap, but a consistent pivot.
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