Voices for Voices®

What Will Matter at the End of Your Days? | Episode 245

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 245

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What Will Matter at the End of Your Days? | Episode 245

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We explore the profound impact of sharing your story and the importance of embracing vulnerability in mental health conversations.

• Voices for Voices aims to help 3 billion people, but recognizes that even helping one person is a meaningful achievement
• Freedom of speech is crucial for mental health conversations and personal expression
• Breaking the stigma around therapy requires courage to swallow pride and ego
• Personal stories from public figures like Dan Reynolds of Imagine Dragons help normalize seeking help
• Traumatic life events need to be discussed more openly, especially in educational settings
• Reaching out to someone who might be contemplating suicide can literally save their life
• Life's challenges are universal, and we all need support sometimes
• At life's end, what matters most isn't wealth or possessions but the impact we've had on others
• Living without regret means using your voice to help others, even when it's difficult

Please support our show by liking, subscribing, and sharing with someone who might need to hear this message. Be a voice for yourself or somebody in need.

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Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, thank you again. Hi there, thank you again for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you for joining us for your first episode, or you've been with us since the beginning. We can't thank you enough that you would take any time out of your day to join us. So thank you. It is well known that we are a charity 501c3 nonprofit. We accept donations. We're able to great. You're not able to great. But what's free is giving us that thumbs up, subscribing, liking, sharing, those types of things. Those are free. We would very much appreciate that right now. Where? Or a small organization, a small tv show, podcast, with a small amount of followers and people that are really what keeps us going, what gives us that high octane to want to continue, to continue on.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

There's a lot of things in life. A lot of things in life. A lot of things you can take the easy way, and who doesn't like something that's easy? And who doesn't like something that's easy? Or you can take, if presented, maybe a little bit harder way. Anyways, let's get her going here. You won't be able to see totally because how the shirt is, but I have the one and only Voices for Voices shirt that has been in and around the United States of America and across the world. This is the very first Voices for Voices shirt ever designed, ever made. I still have it and I haven't worn it for quite a while. And I wanted to wear it for this episode, because nothing that's worth something is easy. People come and go, organizations come and go, organizations come and go. Things aren with Jesus Christ. Nothing is impossible. He gives me strength, gives you strength. If you have another religion, another following, that's okay. Again, just sharing information, opinions, thoughts, experiences, things, tips, tricks, what have you, and you automatically get to decide.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Freedom of speech is a beautiful thing, especially here in the United States of America, and that is a cornerstone of the United States Constitution Free speech. And so you may have tuned into an earlier episode where we did quite a show, a popular show. We talked about that for quite a bit, majority of the show, and what can I say? The organization Voices for Voices, myself, justin Allen Hayes, everybody that's associated it was somebody, a confidant, a person, anybody that has joined us at any point, that has joined us at any point. Maybe you're with us at the beginning and whatever reason went a different way. That's okay. That's freedom, freedom of speech, freedom to make that decision. How does that make you feel when you get to make that decision? Makes me feel good have.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

At times, maybe we thought we were being silenced, coming after whatever. Whatever. If you don't like a fact, if you don't like information, you don't get to tell another person that they're not entitled to their opinion, their opinion, their thoughts, and especially when information is shared and shown and spoken about, and and that we're not going to like everything, we're not going to like everybody. I'm not, you're not, no, it's. I'm not, you're not, no, it's.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

It is our hope that we're able to help again that big number of 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. But it doesn't mean that those three billion are going to like me, like our organization. They may like being helped, though I like being helped. I like being helped. We share, we talk, we converse. We do lots of things in the short amount of time we're on earth and it's beautiful to be able to talk and share and even just us having and I got goosebumps here because I'm thinking about the mere fact that, yeah, we have this huge goal of wanting to help three billion people, what about one? What if we help one? What if we help one person who's contemplating ending their life and they don't, for whatever reason? Maybe it's a quote from us, from a guest of ours. That's why we do what we do. We have big goals, but we also have a big God and there's nothing he can't do. There are miracles that there's nothing he can't do. We may have low faith at times, higher at others. One, if we're able to help one person to step forward and say you know what I like?

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Dan Reynolds, a lead singer of Imagine Dragons, talks about his therapy journey and he continues it to this day, and I do too. And so maybe that one person says you know what? I'm one of the 100,000 people at this concert and I just heard Dan Reynolds, lead singer of Imagine Dragons, talk about therapy, and therapy may have been a, a word that we didn't like, we didn't like to talk about. We just said, yeah, yeah, yeah, therapy, you know, it's for wim, it's for wimps, it's for not strong people, but I was at this concert or that concert, and I heard him talk Just person to person. Yeah, he's on, he's at the front of the stage.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

He's not in the nosebleeds like the one song he has that they have, but he's sharing his, his experience, his thoughts and I bet you, if you ask Dan, I don't know I invite him to be a. Come with us, be a guest on our show. We'd love to have you on, dan. Any other members of Imagine Dragons we'd love to have you on open invitation. You let us know, we'll make it happen. But one.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

If Dan helps one person, maybe that person's you, maybe you're at that 100, you're one of the 100 000 or 30 000 or 50 000 at a sold out imagine dragons show and you're there for the music and then you hear Dan and what's he do. He shares, shares about him. He doesn't have to Excuse me, I don't have to, others don't have to. But if you're there and therapy's been not in your vocabulary for whatever reason, and he talks about that, and you think, wow, I about real life stuff, day-to-day stuff, moment-to-moment stuff, and maybe I thought about therapy but for whatever reason, didn't do it, Didn't reach out Too easy, just to not do it, and so that's part of Voices for Voices. We want to amplify voices that can help others, that can share, inspire.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And if that person's you or somebody you know, and you reach out and say you know what inside your mind, I'm going to swallow my pride, I'm going to swallow my ego. I can't do this on my own. I need help, I need to talk to somebody. I just need a vent, I need to share, I need somebody to listen to me, and you reach out and you go to one visit and you go to one visit and maybe that one visit turns into two and that two turns into three. Maybe you only have to come once a month, maybe it's once every two months, I don't know.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

But after you leave, whether it's an in-person or virtual session you don't know what it is, you don't know why you're feeling that way, but you feel just a little bit, maybe lighter, maybe a little easier to process information and think Maybe that happens. Maybe that's you, or maybe you know somebody that can benefit. And by you being at that Imagine Dragons show, maybe there's somebody you know they'll listen to you, they'll at least hear you out and what that person is thinking about taking their life and they have a plan. And what that person is thinking about taking their life and they have a plan and it's written out or it's in their mind and how they're going to do it, whatever. And then they get a call or they get a text, or they get a text, or they get a knock on the door or they get a chat on any number of apps, and who is it? It's you, and you don't know.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

This person is where they're at, don't know what they're going through, because sharing is hard, it's hard to share, it's hard to talk, and that's one of the biggest reasons why people don't go to therapy is because they're like ah, you know, they're going to be asking me all these questions and they're going to be intruding into my life. They're going to ask me personal questions and well, that's life. We're human beings, we have brains, we have thoughts. We have good thoughts, we have thoughts that aren't so great. Here and there we're good at something. We're not so good at others. That's life. Somebody likes me and they don't like me. They won't listen to me. That's life. It's a hard thing to hear.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

It's not something that's talked about in schools a lot, and it needs to be part of curriculum how to handle traumatic events, one that is, it has touched us at one point or another, and that's the loss of a loved one going to heaven, that we pray that they're going to heaven. And I got goose once again because again, I'm a human being. I've experienced loss, loss of people, I know people, I love my dad, and nothing can prepare you, me, others, for how we react, how we process things Some faster, some slower, some impact one way or impact the other way and so we all have gone through and are going to continue to go through traumatic events. And it's up to educators it's up to not just educators, because we know that we don't have to go to college or university. If we don't want to, maybe we have. We're an entrepreneur, maybe we start our own business, and then other people are looking up to you Because you need to hire an extra person, because business is picked up and that one person has a family, has people and has a human race.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Life's worth living. And I'll be straight up, like I always am it's a very hard thing to think about. It's even harder to talk about. You may think, oh, dan Reynolds, imagine Dragons, oh, it's easy to talk about. You know, they travel the world and they got money and whatever houses and mansions and cars or whatever they're able to take private jets, and it doesn't matter. I'm just an average, regular human being and in the past there's been, you know, thoughts that have crept into my mind at one time or another, for one reason or another, of wow, why am I? What am I doing living? What am I going to? What am I supposed to do? Is it to sit in an office? And I've done my fair share of sitting. That's one of the things that I would like to improve on. When you're on vacation and other environments where walking is just a little bit easier, walking on the beach versus walking on the sidewalk, I mean, it sounds much better when you say, oh, I'm well, yeah, I'm for a walk on the beach.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

But to get back to you know, life is it's hard, and it's hard enough without others to put us down, to try to control our lives, to say no, you're not allowed to say that, you're not allowed to have an opinion. You're not allowed to have an opinion, you're not allowed to have free speech when I don't agree with every single thing you're saying, and they'll do that one time. They'll do it a second, a third, a fifth, a tenth, a fiftieth, a hundredth, and so when I say life's hard, life is hard, you know, we think about, you know, the end of our days on earth where we're of as close to sound mind as can be. One thing I don't want is to be at that, present here, thinking so. If you had asked me 20 years ago, I'd probably have a different answer.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

But as we share this episode, we talk, listen, we watch At the end of, again, at the end of my days, whenever that is, and that's the thing. We don't know when it is, when it's going to be, and so that's why it's so important, because at the end of my days, I want to. That's why it's so important, because at the end of my days, I want to be able to think that, no, I wasn't perfect, I wasn't special, I wasn't the richest person, money wise, I didn't have the biggest houses, I didn't have the fastest cars, I didn't have this, I didn't have whatever that is. You know what I want to think about and what I want wanna think about, and what I wanna think about, I put everything. I put things that have gone on in my life and invited others the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast and other other means of sharing sharing a good experience, a bad experience, but I just put it out. I put it out on the line because it's hard, but I just put it out on the line Because it's hard, life is hard, and to know, or that I hope to have, the thought and the thoughts of you, know what, justin, at the end of the day, I want to know that I put it out there, I shared, I did the best that I could, and while that may sound cliche, oh, do the best.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

You can do the best that I could. And while that may sound cliche, oh, do the best. You can do the best you can. No, it's true, as a child growing up, we do the best we can, maybe we succeed, maybe we don't, maybe we succeed, maybe we don't. But as you grow and as I grew and I'm still growing and I'm still learning, sharing and talking to my therapist that I finally swallowed my pride, I swallowed my ego, I told myself, Justin, you can't do this alone and that I'm pretty sure that I was able to help somebody. So that's the one. It's not going to be. Oh, I didn't reach this goal or that goal. When we try, we don't know what's possible until we find out what's possible.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

And then life is hard and there's going to be some moments and experiences that are going to seem overwhelming down, depressing, and so that's what I want to have that as much a peace of mind as possible at the end of my days. And it's a hard thing to talk about, but I don't want to. I don't want to live in regret. I don't want to say well, justin't want to live in regret. I don't want to say, well, Justin, you had the opportunity to talk and share and express yourself and the organization voice through voices, and that I have this guest instead of that and say no, and I don't. I don't want to. I don't want that to happen. I want to do the best I can and to help one person, and so Voices for Voices. We're real, we're down to earth and we love free speech as well, as you should too.

Voices for Voices Founder, Justin Alan Hayes:

Thank you tuning in. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the show. If you can give us a big thumbs up, subscribe, like, share all that free stuff, we would appreciate that. And until next time. I'm Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices. Thank you for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast and, as always, please be a voice for you or somebody in need. We'll see you next time.

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