Joshua Bassett: Shame, Addiction, and Finding a Reason to Live

24:30Like I tell it like, hey, send me a text on Mondays and Wednesdays and make sure that I'm actually in the gym. So I want to show a real short clip of me actually using Sonia so you can get a feel for it. What's on your mind right now? Oh, I'm just feeling a little stressed about things right now because I feel like I've got so much going on and I really don't know how to prioritize it. When everything stacks up at once, it can blur what actually matters and make that old not enough story get louder. Let's slow this down by picking one thread to start with, what feels most pressing in this moment.

25:05The important reframe is this. The projects did not cure the depression. They arrived because you healed. And when you overwork to prevent relapse, you actually undermine the things that keep you well, like sleep, presence, movement, and connection. When that edge shows up, it is a signal to reduce load and restore choice, not to push harder. what i think is so interesting about this is you know you asked for help got this miraculous experience um but like you said there were ups and downs on your journey so that was an up for sure but then shortly thereafter you decided to start taking ketamine when you started i know where it goes but where it started with it what was the purpose of taking ketamine after you had this miraculous you know recovery you know a lot of people i think when it comes to suicidal ideation there are extreme cases of direct suicidal attempts.

26:00And then there's more like a, I call it like a passive suicide path where you don't necessarily want to take your own life, but you don't care if you live or die. And so you kind of are reckless and doing whatever you can to just like be okay. And quite a few months after that, I was on vacation and somebody had some ketamine and I was like, I want to try it because I was a very inquisitive guy. And, you know, I did it and it was awesome. Yeah. It just allowed you to check out. It was amazing, bro. Remember all your problems. Yeah, I was at the beach and I was just like, oh my gosh, like, this is beautiful.

26:34And then I remember like, it's so funny how quickly you get snagged because it lasts like an hour maybe, maybe a little less. And then you went more. And then literally a couple, I was like itching for it. And I was like, wait, I want to do it like later tonight for this thing. And then it just became, you know, a gradual thing. And, but I don't remember much of that time because I was just like, you know, obviously I was gone, bro. I was in the ether somewhere. But yeah, it definitely came to a head and got pretty dark. And honestly, it's just as much of a miracle that I made it out of that hole, K-hole, if you will, than it is that I made it out of the hospital.

27:06Wow. Well, I want to bring that up because, and I didn't know what the origin was, because ketamine can be an incredibly useful medicine for someone, especially if they're suicidal. I experienced a high dose of ketamine with a therapist by my side when I was in a very, very dark place. And it gave me a couple weeks of relief from that suicidal ideation. And so ketamine can be an amazing, amazing medicine to help someone who might be really suicidal or really struggling that other things aren't working. You know, but also it's so dangerous recreationally. And I want people to really hear that. Tim Ferriss and I talked about that too on the show, because here you are just a very innocent, like, oh, try it on a beach to almost dying from it in a pretty short period of time.

27:54I mean, this thing was like highly addictive. And so I think it's just important for people to hear that. I absolutely agree. And that goes across the spectrum. You know, there's so many things that social media, for example, you know, there's this whole like, oh, social media is evil. Like I have a friend who's like, when she heard TikTok was getting banned, she's like, good, hate TikTok. I was like, well, hold on. I was like, there really is a beauty to it. And there can be all this wonder and innovation and collaboration and beauty. And there's so much to benefit from it. And it's also the rate of social media growth parallels the rate of suicide.

28:27Especially in young women. Most things we're talking about, there's some things that are inherently bad. But, you know, a lot of this, there's gray area. And it's sort of up to the discernment of the user, I think. This podcast is called No Magic Pill because the whole idea is to explore the different things that work and the different things that haven't. In looking at your kind of recovery or wellness journey, what are some of the things that have really worked? Well, you know, I do believe that saying that the opposite of addiction is connection. Okay. You know, even in the last week, for example, I've had these like bouts of like spiraling and like waves of depression.

29:01I wouldn't call it clinical depression, but just like crazy weight that I feel like I'm carrying this last week. and every single time the solution to that was one of my best friends coming over and us going for a walk or watching a movie. There's all sorts of different tools I have, but none of them can replace human connection. And then this one, which might turn some people off and they might understand and they might think it's an imaginary fairy in the sky, but my connection to God, I would say is fundamental in getting me through really anything. And when I feel disconnected from God, life is almost unbearable.

29:37What I love about my faith that I've found is that you don't have to wait until you die to experience the peace of God, in my experience. And when you set out the intention and you ask God for peace, I believe God gives peace. Sometimes, literally, it sounds like it's too easy, but taking some real, sincere, deep breaths and just letting myself breathe, you know, and there's like a lot of tools like somatic breathing that I know like people can work through their traumas and their emotions with. And so again, there's a whole array of tools that I have. Sometimes I need just one of them. Sometimes I need all of them.

30:10Sometimes it's a phone of friends. Sometimes it's get on your knees and ask God for grace in whatever you're going through. Yeah, it's definitely in a given moment I could use any different one of those tools, you know. There's so much nuance. And the more we can accept that there isn't any absolute way that it's different for everyone and that there's lots of tools, hence no magic pill, the whole show, is to share the real stories so people can make a decision for themselves what to try, what might work. Totally. I want to invite people into the nuance of human experience and perspective and belief.

30:45And, you know, I think that that's the only way that we're going to create a more harmonious world is through curiosity and compassion. Anyways. When I was reading the book, I got to about halfway through it, and I start reading about your morning routine. And I mean, you don't seem like preachy in any way in the book, but this you're like, this works. Like you hit the hammer. You're like, I don't care what you listen. I mean, it's like, this is like, I know this works and I do it every day. So I also have a morning routine. I think a lot of my guests on the show have also talked about, you know, different like anchoring routines that keep them grounded.

31:21So tell us, what is your morning routine and how did you come to it? Basically, I wake up, I'll do, I'll stretch a little bit, and then I do the Wim Hof breathing, which is the 10 minutes of, yeah, it gets your body. Wim's the guy. I would say for anyone who's watching or listening, the Wim Hof app is amazing. Great. It guides you through his voice, which I love, music. You can set the cadence. Yeah. So anyway. Fantastic. If someone wants to follow this routine, I want to give them good tips in easy ways. Hey, look, you're giving me good tips. I'm going to get the app. That's great. So do 10 minutes of breathing, and then I do a 15-minute meditation, and then I do a 15-minute journal, and then I go to the gym, and then I go to the sauna.

31:59Not everyone has a gym or a sauna, but most of those you can do from your own home. And by the end of it, I mean, the reason I do all those things is because I try to check the box physically, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally, where I kind of clean the cobwebs. I look at it more like hygiene, you know, the same way that you brush your teeth every morning. And so, you know, another part that I say in that chapter is you sharpen the axe before you chop down the tree. And I found that that 90 minutes in the morning makes the rest of my day 10 times more effective. Sharpened your axe. Yeah, exactly.

32:29Tell me, like, what's the 30-minute routine? So if you only had 30 minutes, what would you do? Where do you get the most bang for your buck? Yeah, yeah. I would definitely say the breathing and the meditation for sure are pretty non-negotiable. My morning routine, one of the things that I do every day, which I'm going to give you right now, when I heard this, is this thing called morning water. Okay. So a friend of mine started this. Amazing. I was his investor. And it's this thing I drink every single morning. So it has creatine, L-theanine, magnesium, like all these things that I used to take.

32:57When I started feeling better after my depression, I met this guy, Austin, and I told him about this drink that I was making. And he said, well, I do something similar, but I add this and this and this. And so I started doing it about a year ago. I do it every single morning, first thing. You drink 20 ounces of water with the thing. So you get all the stuff, all the vitamins, all the trace minerals, all the stuff that you kind of lose when you sleep. And then you go and get fresh light. And I found that has had one of the biggest impacts on my mental well-being. Right. Like just getting exposed and kind of my body waking up to natural light.

33:29Totally. Then I do some yoga poses to get some movement. Once again, at 50, the body feels a little different than 25. So I have to do some very basic yoga poses just to get like my body moving again. And then my thing is exercise. Yeah. I always say there is no magic pill, but if there was one, it is exercise. I love that. This might sound crazy at first, but this year I met some engineers from Nike who invented a new type of office chair that has not only changed my life, but actually saved my back. Especially because I am on about five hours of Zoom calls every day. The MoveLab chair has two different pivot points under the seat, which keeps your body in continuous micro movements all day.

34:11The founders told me it is the equivalent of taking 3 ,000 steps. And all the lubrication of your joints and the blood flow is why my back no longer hurts. And I can focus on my work so much better. I loved it so much that I actually joined the team as a co-founder. And I will be sending one to every person I know when we launch this fall. If you're interested in learning more or pre-ordering one, we only have 500 in the first run. You can check us out at Movelab.com. And that's spelled M-O-O-V-L-A-B dot com. I decided not to take advertising for the first season of No Magic Pill, so I could actually use these moments to talk about something I'm super passionate about.

34:55Now, one of those things is my morning routine. And every morning, it starts the same way. I drink morning water. I take this packet, I pour it into this bottle, and I drink it. Now, what's in this packet? It has creatine, L-theanine, magnesium, many other supplements, electrolytes, basically all the things that I used to have to take so many supplements for. I mean, my kitchen counter, it looked like a pharmacy. I mean, it had bottles of pills and pills and pills, and half the time I would even forget to take them. So now it's all in this simple formula that my friend Austin created, and I do it every day.

35:29And this month, we're giving everyone a special offer. Go to morningwater.co forward slash nomagicpill. And when you sign up, you'll get 25 % off your first month. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Another thing that I read in your book, one of my favorite parts, because it was so connected to what has worked for me in my life, is service. And so Sammy Sundays. Yes. Tell us about Sammy Sundays. Yeah. My best friend Rita and I independently felt like God had invited us into serving the unhouse. And we got her a call and I was like, okay, this might sound weird, but I feel like God was giving me a vision of us.

36:06And before I didn't finish, she started screaming on the phone. She's like, no way. She's like, I felt the same thing. So it was kind of a divine ordinance thing. I don't know. It was just one of those things where we randomly both had the same idea, like on the same day. Again, you could say that was kismet. You could say it was serendipity. You could call it whatever, coincidence. But regardless, both of us had this idea, and we just saw that the people who live on the street, though they struggle to eat, their hardest struggle is actually isolation and being ignored and being alone. And if you ask any of them, they'll tell you, I can go quite some time without eating, but the hardest part is being treated like I do not exist or being treated that I'm not worth anything.

36:47anything. And when you have very little to offer the world, oftentimes people don't even consider you to have any value, which is just devastating. For a handful of weeks, we had this dream of starting it where we were like, let's get these care packages and these sandwiches and let's just go out and serve and use the sandwiches and care packages as a vehicle to love people and cultivate connection and community. And week after week after week, we were like, we'll do it next week. We'll do it next week. We'll do it next week. And then one Friday, I was like, listen, bro, if we keep saying this, it's just never going to happen.

37:17We just got to do it. And so we made an Instagram, we made a Venmo, we posted, we raised$10 ,000 in two hours. We went to the store. And what's funny is I had been so depressed and like had no desire to do any work at all. Like I had all these additions piling up I didn't want to do. And I was like not getting my emails. The second we started doing Sammy Sundays, I had all this energy, bro. I was like buzzing with energy. I was like, you're serving the in-house. Correct. Yeah. And like, it wasn't about me anymore. And so we got all this stuff. We invited a bunch of our friends together. We had a very successful first week.

37:47And then we were like, we cannot stop doing this and went on for over a hundred weeks and have now given out hundreds of thousands of sandwiches and care packages. Um, but what's the coolest thing is, um, the number one benefit we've seen from it is people have said that the communities that we've served feel like they belong more, that the unhoused have made friends with each other. And there's a sense of safety. They said crime has gone down in those areas. And so, I mean, this isn't a statistic this is based on word of mouth yeah but people have said like that because we showed up consistently and we've just loved people well and invited them into this um the the entire environment and communities have been um astronomically uh better from it so i mean there's like no end to the amount of um awesome stories we have and just like wonderful moments but i think what's so crucial is to at least once a week do something that's not about you yes that is about someone else because it kind of puts your problems into perspective it makes you realize you know, you're special, but you're not all that special.

38:45And everyone is special. And so when you focus on other people, it definitely really, again, takes that attention off of you. So yeah. The minute you went and started just giving sandwiches to the unhoused, you had all this energy. Yes. Like, I mean, I know that's not a magic pill, but it's sounding pretty close to a nice one. Yeah, right. I guess one of them I want to take. Because I mean, seriously, anyone can do that. Yeah. You don't need money. You don't need a sauna. You don't need a cold plunge. I mean, Anyone can just go and serve the unhoused in their town or someone that needs help. My favorite part about that part in the book is you write about this whole story, and at the end, you say, the only regret I have is that we didn't start sooner.

39:23Yeah. So start today. Yeah. Like, if you're feeling stuck, go out and serve. Yeah. I mean, one of the greatest teachings I've ever had in my life was from these teachers in India that I spent some time with. I got to go with you to India. You got to go. It's amazing. I can show you around. I'm going to go back for sure. But they say, they have this one saying that they say over and over and over again. And they say, all of suffering comes from obsessive, self-centric thinking. And what they mean by that, it's not selfishness. It's not narcissism. Obsessive, self-centric thinking is when you're so preoccupied with you feeling better.

39:59By focusing on yourself so much, you actually cause yourself to suffer. The minute you start focusing on someone else, someone else's problems, a way to serve, you're in such a better state. And I have found that over and over again. Even with my suffering, the reason I think my suffering went from mild depression to extreme depression to suicidality is that I just focused more on myself. More on myself. What can I do better? What can I do? How do I find the magic pill? What do I do? Where do I go? Do I change relationships? Change countries? I mean, I did everything. Totally. But it was all focused on me.

40:29And so once I realized that I am enough and I'm enough in this moment and now I want to spread this by giving these bracelets to people and helping people with this message, all the suffering went away. I love this saying, actually. I'm going to detour a little bit. Go for it. There's three categories of people. There's takers, matchers, and givers. Okay. Takers, we all know them. They're people who only want something from you. The second thing you can't get something from you, you're not going to do them. And then there's matchers. Most business people are matchers where they will provide whatever you're willing to give back to them.

41:01So they'll give you as long as they're getting something. And then there's givers. And the givers always win. Because no matter what, somebody's being given stuff. And funnily enough, those people end up being given the most more than anyone because people just want to give to the givers. But when you give with no expectation of return, most of the people I know who have legacy careers, who are respected, who are able to get favors done no matter what, like whatever, they all will tell you. I just do favors for people with no expectation of return. And guess what? Then 10 months down the line, when they need something, somebody's much more willing to give it to them.

41:33But I think that we look at giving so transactionally, right? A lot of times it's like, I'm going to give someone something so that I can get their attention. Or I'm going to give them this instead of just giving it to give it to them. Like, you know, when you serve the unhoused, for example, there's nothing they could give me in return. But what I also say in the book is that you don't give so that you might get. The giving is the getting. In giving, you receive the wonder and the beauty and the joy of being able to share and give someone something. And I'm guilty of this every day. You know, I need to always reframe my mind on like what matters most, you know.

42:06And I think that, you know, if we understood the power of serving, like everything would change. I'm not being hyperbolic. I think everything would change. I think like hopefully all ages of people hear this, they're listening because that is why Tom's became what he became is because we focused on the giving. Like the giving was our like secret weapon. Yeah. You know, which is so interesting in a for-profit shoe business. Like who would have thought? Not only is giving like good for business, which I proved in that, it's definitely good for your career. If you're, you know, in the entertainment industry, you've shown that with these people who have these legacy careers that are known as givers.

42:41Yeah. But then also what you brought up is so important. You were depressed. You were overwhelmed. Yeah. That's the key. And boom. Yes. You give. Right. You start feeling better. Absolutely. I think when you're living out purpose. Yeah. You know, then things just flow better. I can't explain it. Like you don't care so much about the how, you just figure it out when you're driven by purpose, which is again why like this book, though it was very difficult to write, what was always the underlying current was purpose. The purpose of this is to help people and to benefit them. And so you're going to pay a lot bigger of a price when the purpose is to take care of other people and to help them.

43:20And then another thing I want to touch on of what you just said, all of it fantastic and I echo it 100%, is the ripple effect of generosity is something I talk about. So I worked at Legoland when I was 16 and I was writing songs for kids or whatever. Do a ukulele. My ukulele. My name was Hugh Kalele. And I will never forget this day for the rest of my life. One dude, I like wrote not even a good song. And the dude just handed me 50 bucks and said, thank you. And I was like, surely you meant to give me$5. And he was like, no, no, it's fine. Just take it. And I'm like, no, this is$50. This can't be true.

43:53And he was like, it's fine, whatever. And that moment, I thought about it for two weeks. not because I was like, I'm rich, I got 50 bucks, which obviously 50 bucks is a big deal, especially at 16. But it was just the fact that he was so carelessly generous. Yes. Like he just, it wasn't even a second thought to him. Yeah. And that literally affected the rest of my life so far and how I look at generosity. And then you think about all the other people affected by that and the ripple effect of that. Think about the kids who got free shoes who now are able to feel more empowered when they walk. And now they're maybe a little bit kinder to their family when they're home.

44:26and then now they're family. You know what I'm saying? The ripple effect is so beyond. You never know. I got this attitude called Spark and the idea is that one spark can start a forest fire, one person can change the world. I love it. And it really doesn't take much. For example, when Rita and I started Sammy Sundays, right? It took Rita and I just deciding to do it. We're going to do it. Every single volunteer we had would always say, oh man, I always just wanted to do this. I just never knew when or how. And it just took us being like, we're just going to do it, right? And then the amount of volunteers that came and the amount of people that we serve and then the amount of people that then they interact with and the amount of lives like saved and then maybe you give someone encouragement and hope in a dire moment and then 10 years later they meet somebody else who's in that moment and they can help whatever i can go on and on my whole point is like never underestimate the small things you know yes you can do big things like you said 100 million shoes or yeah 100 million pairs of shoes insane but that's ultimately you break it down to one pair of shoes at a time yeah and it was just came with one idea if i wanted to help this one village you know with a couple hundred pairs of shoes yeah exactly dude and so that's that's the thing that I want to empower people too is like when you're driven by purpose, when you're focused on all of us as a whole, as a community, one, it's just so much more fulfilling.

45:32You're going to have a lot better friendships. You're going to be a lot happier. You're going to sleep better at night. Your anxiety is probably going to be a lot less, but also just like the one person doing that affects the whole village, affects the whole town, affects the whole country, affects the whole world. And like, I think we can't underestimate, especially with social media, if we use it properly, we can't underestimate the power we have to make the world a better place. And this is what I've just been on so much lately. I'm like, man, like it is as simple as complimenting the barista's hair.

46:03If you love it, don't lie to them, but you know what I'm saying? Like, like that could totally make, you just don't know what that does, you know? And so, um, that's been my big thing lately is just like, man, I got to take more, um, responsibility for, uh, my ability to make the world a better place. The simplest act of good has a ripple effect beyond what you'll ever see. And there's enough evil and hate and horrific things going on in the world. And those need to be addressed and sometimes need to be met with the proper force. I'm not a pacifist by any means. But I will say, in my opinion, the greatest counter to the evil in the world is to put out love and to put out good and to never underestimate your ability to make the world a better place, essentially.

46:47I appreciate it so much. And part of this idea that you have, I love this tattoo, the spark, because one little spark can lead to, you know, the fire, you know, and it is. And that's what I've tried to do with the bracelet. So I'm going to give you one for coming on the show. There's two bracelets in there. The reason there's two bracelets is one is for you to wear and then one is for you to give. And so the idea is if you give one to someone, then there'll be their responsibility to give one to someone. And that's how we get this out there. So I'll put this one on you. Okay. Yeah. So I have a little ritual here.

47:19You're going to, I think as a poet and a songwriter yourself, you're going to appreciate this. So put your right out there. Okay. So put this on.

47:32Amazing. Okay. And so then you'll have the second one to give. Enough. Enough. And the idea is, is that, you know, we are enough just as we exist. And the more that we can sit in that, the more we can be in the present moment. because when you don't feel enough, you're constantly living in the past. You're thinking about the mistakes, the regret, the shame you carry because of what happened in your past, and you don't feel enough. Or like me, a lot of my life, I lived in the future. What can I do, achieve, obtain to feel enough? But when you really ground yourself in the fact that you are enough just by being this beautiful being, then you get to live in the present.

48:08And almost every teacher I've ever talked to from a spiritual perspective says where you access peace and joy is in the present moment because that's all we got. Correct. So this is not just a reminder that you're enough, but it's a reminder to stay in the present moment. And so I'm going to give you this blessing, if it's okay. Please. This was written by my friend NQ. I don't know if you know him. He's a great poet. And it goes like this, Joshua, I see you, the you behind the you, not for anything you've done or anything you're going to do. I don't stop to say it enough, but I believe in you.

48:47And if you could see yourself from my view, you'd believe it too. That's why I'm giving you the gift that I'm receiving too, a message to remind you when you're lost or feeling blue, a mantra to repeat when times are tough, because no matter who we are, we are always enough. It's a silent prayer I'm sending for the world's mental health. I wear the symbol of myself and now as a bond to someone else. It's a blessing and a gentle push to never give up because no matter who you are, you are enough. Ah, beautiful. Wow. So awesome, man. And I think it's really the message that we need, you know? And yeah, thank you so much.

49:33This is awesome. I can't wait to give the other one away. I don't know who I'm going to give it to. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, you'll definitely have to let me know who you're going to give it to. And this conversation has been so great. I've been doing this for about almost a year now. We just actually started putting them out. But I just really have enjoyed how vulnerable you are in the book, how vulnerable you are today, and just exploring this human journey together. Yeah, totally. Because I feel so connected to so many of your experiences are what mine. I think this part about service is really going to help people.

50:08I mean, I love when we come on a big like aha thing that we both have experienced that doesn't cost anyone anything. Yeah. I mean, that's a beautiful thing. They don't need some fancy contraption or special therapist or doctor or whatever. Yeah. They can just go out and do it. So I really enjoyed that conversation. And I actually want to add one thing. Please go for it. I was just thinking about it with the spark thing. The thing that I love too about it is that each person is unique, right? Though we are universally enough. Yeah. We are all the same. and we are one, we're also individual and unique.

50:37And everyone has a different way to make the world a better place. You know, someone, I can't draw for, I mean, you sell the cover. I can't like that. I have terrible handwriting, but some people can make beautiful paintings or whatever. And again, I just think like, what I would challenge people to, or not challenge, I would invite people to ponder, what is it that you uniquely can offer the world? What skill sets do you have? What interests do you have? What passions do you have? because I think when you can align your passion with your purpose, that's when the magic happens. And for me, I love music because I love music.

51:11And so now I'm able to write songs that people say help them not take their own lives. And what better reward is that? You get to do something you love. It's cathartic for you. It's a passion. And now it's aligned with a purpose. And so that's why I always invite people with the Spark thing too is to really think about it. And obviously, they can change. And people have multiple different talents. And they can do all kinds of different things. but I think everyone has a unique ability and a unique way of making the world a better place. And I say this, but it's like, you know, it could be, maybe you do have a billion dollars and you can give, you know, half of it away.

51:43Or maybe you're really good at making cupcakes and like you make the best brownies on the block. And like doing that and going out and serving those is your way of contributing. You know, everyone has a whole, or maybe it's both, right? So anyways, that's the other invitation I wanted to leave people with is to ponder what is their unique spark. I love that. Have you heard of the Japanese phrase ikigai? I think I've heard of it. Ikigai is, and hopefully I'll get this right, but basically it's this diagram. And it shows that if you align your passion, what you're good at, what you want to serve your purpose, and how you can make money all together, that's when you find the flow state.

52:23And that's like the way to really kind of consistently access joy and happiness and feeling alive. And when I was really suffering, I was looking at this icky guy. And I had a friend, Mark Fujiwama, who shared it with me. And he said, I think you really need to look at this because it seems that you're missing some really key points here. And so what you were saying about Spark, I think it's the same thing. Like if someone's thinking like, I really feel stuck. A lot of our people watching and listening might be mid-age and they're kind of like, this isn't what I thought it was going to be. My success didn't really fulfill me.

52:59you know like it's going back to what you said it's like okay can you can you really align what you're good at to what you can make money and to you know how you want to serve and you do that together that's what the icky guy says is really the magic and i think it's exactly i gotta get that there's a great book on icky guy you should check it out okay and then also there's just a very simple printout you can just print out and it kind of you can it's like a gut check like okay am i are all these in the right circles and if they are then you're probably feeling pretty good That's fantastic. That's such a good blueprint, I think, for getting your life on the right course.

53:31So yeah, big, big fan of that. I got to try that. Okay, great. So we're going to finish the interview with the same five words that you end your book with. So what are those words? Because I think those are the last message I want to leave with everyone. Yeah. The last five words is love is worth living for. Yes. and I think a lot of times people who are in a place of desolation are just trying to survive but there's a whole other side beyond survival right survival is crucial we need you to survive but beyond that is so much richer than you could ever imagine and I think that when my heart was numb and broken and shattered and bruised and I wasn't feeling anything at all I lost complete side of like, why would I even stick around?

54:20What's the point of any of it? But when you taste love and when you experience true love, love that is beyond description, you'll do anything for it. And I have to remember that anytime I start to lose sight of why I'm even here, what's the point of keeping going? Why am I still putting myself through this? Why am I going through the trouble of all this? Why am I serving? Why am I spending all my time doing this? Love. Love is the reason we do any of it. And so, yeah, that actually came to me in an interview. As I was finishing up the book, I did an interview and that idea came out and I instantly knew, I was like, that's the last page in the book.

54:53Well, what better ending could there be other than love as we're living for? And I think that if we can just hold onto that, we can get through anything. Beautiful. Joshua Bassett, thank you for being on No Magic Pill. Thank you very much. Bless you. If this episode spoke to you, please share it with a friend, family member, or someone you love Because No Magic Pill is not just a podcast. It's a resource to help us all live better lives. Hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode and let us know what you think by leaving a comment. A quick note that this episode is for informational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended as medical advice.

55:34Always consult a qualified healthcare professional regarding any medical questions or concerns you may have.