Voices for Voices®

The Luxury of Breathing: What We Take for Granted (Ep 295)

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 295

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The Luxury of Breathing: What We Take for Granted (Ep 295)

Justin Alan Hayes reflects on gratitude for life's basics and the importance of slowing down in a fast-paced world where we often take necessities for granted.

• Approaching the 300th episode milestone (currently on episode 295)
• Reflecting on how sitting in silence with his father during illness helped Justin appreciate slowing down
• Discussing how we take basic necessities like breathing for granted until they're compromised
• Sharing personal experiences with panic attacks and the importance of oxygen
• Exploring the unexpected gratitude for functioning air conditioning during hot summers
• Examining how modern technology keeps us constantly connected and distracted
• Recognizing the hierarchy of basic needs: breathing, temperature regulation, food, water, clothing, and shelter
• Emphasizing that gratitude for simple things can bring profound peace

Please support the show by giving us a thumbs up, subscribing, or sharing with others. If you're able to donate monetarily, visit VoicesforVoices.org or find us on Venmo at voices4voices. Let's celebrate not just one voice, but all of our voices.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome to Episode 295

5:42 The Importance of Slowing Down

14:24 Reflecting on Life's Basic Necessities

22:08 Gratitude for Air Conditioning

32:25 Recognizing What Really Matters

43:29 Dealing with Panic Attacks

51:09 Closing Thoughts and Thank You

#LuxuryOfBreathing #TakeForGranted #Mindfulness #BreatheDeeply #GratitudePractice #WellnessJourney #AppreciateLife #MentalHealthAwareness #LivingInTheMoment #SelfCareTips #BreathWorkBenefits #NatureHealing #StressReliefStrategies #HolisticHealthApproach #FindingPeaceWithin #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #factoverfictionmatters #transparency #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether

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Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I'm your host. Founder of Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes. Thank you so much for joining us on this episode and any or all of our previous 294 episodes. 294 episodes. So we officially hit the number 295.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So we are short ways away from 300 total episodes in studio, out of studio, and we couldn't do this. We can't do this about you. Thank you for tuning in, watching, listening. We can do this about you. Thank you for tuning in, watching, listening, whether you're at home or traveling. We just want to say thank you for sharing any amount of time with us. We do greatly appreciate all of all the time, all of you.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Uh it, uh, it's, it's really humbling and this is one of those, one of those times where I get a little bit speechless and that's really hard to do for anybody who has listened or watched any of our shows in the past. And again, thank you if you've been with us from the beginning and thank you if this is your first second that you're watching or listening to the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. Thank you, if you could do us a big favor is give us a big thumbs up. Favor is give us a big thumbs up subscribe, like, share, follow, comment. All those things are helpful, not just for us, but for reaching and helping as many people as we can humanly do in our time on earth and our time once we've passed our legacy, because we feel that the information we share, the experiences, the people, the events, the milestones, the heartache, the successes and everywhere in between, is all human emotion and things that happen to us as human beings. We know that we're going to be perfect. We're just ourselves, and that's the best that any of us can do is just be ourselves. Yeah, there's the cliche out there, like just be yourself. It's so true, though, because we can't lead, we can't guide, we can't do a whole lot if we're just not believing in ourselves. We're not comfortable in our own skin, and there are going to be times where we're not comfortable in our own skin, and there are going to be times where we're more comfortable, more confident, and times where we're less comfortable, less confident, but, in general, we can only do what humans can do, and so try that, and I'm going to try to do that here with this particular episode.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We talk about gratitude and being humbled and all these different terms, buzzwords we hear all the time and some of us, if we hear them, we're like, oh my gosh, I've heard that so many times. Here we go again. This time I'm going to really slow it down. And what do I mean by that? I mean there's so many things that I take for granted, that maybe some of you take for granted, and I just want to slow it down in ultra slow motion because I think it's helpful. It's helpful for me to think and to slow down.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

It's easy and it's hard, I guess you know. It's as clear as mud. It's easy and it's not. Once we do it, we feel so much more peace, so much more at ease. But it's so hard to do because our lives are so fast-paced. There's so much information at our fingertips, at our thumbtips. We have machine learning, ai, all that, and it seems like our quest as human beings is that we have to compete against that at some level. And so what does that mean? It means thinking faster, trying to think faster, do things faster, more efficient. Well, if it takes 10 steps, well, can we take three steps out? And can we do this thing, this process, this project, in seven steps instead of ten.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And I think we get lost sometimes. I know I do a lot because that's just the way my mind operates and just thinking about so many things, so many things and so many of them we never get to, we never get to do and so many things that aren't really that important at the end of the day. And I reflect again on when my dad, who was passed on, who was passed on, god willing to heaven, or is on his way if he's not already there, and there were so many times where we would, as a family, just sit in silence and some of you may say, well, why didn't you read a book, or why didn't you listen to music, or why didn't you? It's very interesting because before that time I would have thought the same thing, just like, if we're traveling right, most notably, you know, air travel, or train travel, or subway travel, where it's travel really of any extent, even just driving in a car, riding in a bus, you see the earphone and the airpod for the microphone and for listening, and I've noticed that so much more going anywhere to a restaurant, to a gas station, to pay inside, that so many of us we have these earphones and where we may or may not be listening to something, we may or may not be on the call at that particular time, that we see that person, or if it's us ourselves, and that just really puts this into concrete. Where we got to listen, we got to be on the phone. We have to watch because we were in competition with the next person, or even if we don't think we are, that doesn't matter. We could be just doing it for recreation. We could just be listening to an audio book, listening to our favorite artist, our favorite music, maybe listening to a voicemail and those types of things.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

When I was growing up, that technology, while it was probably in motion, we just didn't have that. We didn't have cell phones, we didn't have email. And I know I'm starting to sound like I feel like other generations were saying to me you know, back when I was growing up, you know we walked uphill, both we walked to and from school and both were uphill. We would hear these stories and legends and it would just make us think, oh yeah, okay, sure, sure. Now I'm one of those that says well, back when I was growing up, we didn't have cell phones and we didn't have email, we did not have text messages. We did not have Siri or Cortana or whoever to help give us feedback. I hope you give us feedback and, again, get more information, get more answers quicker. I can't wait.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm at lunch and a topic comes up and says, oh, I don't know, maybe I'll just look it up. Did we need to know that particular topic or that particular answer at that particular time? Probably not. It wasn't going to. It wasn't a life or death. Many of these are most not many, are not life and death decisions and thoughts that we look up, or as we go from app to app, social platform to social platform, from calls to texts to emails, and so when I was sitting in silence for a long time when my dad fell ill, I'd give anything to go back.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

When my dad fell ill. I'd give anything to go back to that time because my dad would still be alive, albeit he would be, he would be sick, and I would still give anything to go back to that time, to that time, to just sit in silence and not worry about me, my dad, my mom, my sister, my wife, my daughter, and I think all of us would if we've been in the room in the final days, weeks, hours, months with a loved one and until then I didn't know what it was like Her grandparents, and another, maybe extended Members of the family, or A colleague at work, maybe somebody in their life close to them, past. And so those times when we're sitting in silence, it really for me, and maybe for you too, kind of brings things me, and maybe for you too, it kind of brings things or thoughts and doing this and that and this and that and I got to do this, and then, oh my gosh, I got to do that too. It really just slows us down, like what's important, like literally I'm sitting with next, sometimes reading Bible passages to my dad, and that's not the most glamorous thing. And I think, oh well, I got so many other things to do and we've all encountered ups and downs on all levels professionally, personally, relationshiply. If that's even a word, I'll have to look that up. And there we go, I got to look that up sometime. I'll probably forget, which is good, because it doesn't matter if that's a word or not. It conveys the point that, because it doesn't matter if that's a word or not, it conveys the point we go through so many ups and downs that we forget to breathe or not even just to forget. It's so automatic for most of us.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I say most of us because I've had panic attacks, real bad panic attacks, and I had one recently, or what felt like the onset of one, and part of that is exhaling more like air. More oxygen is leaving our body than entering. I don't know what the ratio is supposed to be, but part of the panic attack is we're just not getting enough oxygen into our body, into our brain. So here I am going on, eight years in November and for anybody that's ever said, oh Justin, you're healed, you're better, it's like well, there's days, well, there's days, there's times with mental health. For I think everybody not just me, but then my experience with myself that I know of when panic attacks happen, or the onset, I think to myself oh my gosh, I need to breathe, and it doesn't matter what I think about this other thing or this project or that project or this thing or that thing, because if I don't breathe I'm not going to remain alive. So that's what I mean by slowing down and wow, let's take it down to that level. I'm grateful that my body, more times than not, is able to breathe and process oxygen, and there's something as simple as that. How many of us take that for granted after granted? And so I'm grateful that my body, for the most part, was able to do that. I don't have to think about that. I'm grateful that I don't need assisted oxygen. There may come a day in time that I do but right now, at this moment that I'm talking, you're watching or you're listening to this episode. That's what I'm referring to.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm grateful for the clothing, whether it's branded clothing or not, whether it says Voices for Voices on it or not. Just the mere fact that I have clothing and my family has clothing for the different seasons. I'm grateful for a roof over our head. It was a big driver for brainstorming about this episode. Is I'm grateful for the air conditioning that we have where we live, because we've had one heck of a heat wave. And if we didn't have, because we've had one heck of a heat wave, and if we didn't have the air conditioning and we've had and I'm saying this in all seriousness we've had every, I believe every other summer that we've lived where we're living, we've had one thing or another stop working with our air conditioner.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I'm grateful that we have one. I'm grateful that the previous people had one and now we have one. But having one and it working are two different things, as we know. With just about anything Like I may have a classic car, but if it's not running and I'm not able to enjoy it, then that's different, right? So so far this summer we've had a working air conditioner, and that's a luxury.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I lived for many years without air conditioning and we would just open windows and run fans, and that was just how we did it. There's air conditioners, just like many things when they first are released and they first come out, the price tag is super high, and then, as time goes on, the price tag in many instances lowers a little bit. And then there are different models and different versions, and so the most recent model is usually priced higher than an older model or an older version, and so I am very grateful for air conditioning and that it's working. Like I said, previous years we had at least oh boy, I think one year it was almost a week. Because, right, you have to.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We're not when things happen like this. We're not just the only people that this happens to, it happens to others, and so this is why it's so important for the trades. You don't have to go to college. You don't have to go to university. I have. Well, you don't have to. You can make really good money going into the trades, like being an electrician, heating and cooling technician I'm not sure the exact title and so, when it's warm, the demand for people with those backgrounds and with knowledge and are able to fix in this case, an air conditioner, or if you need a brand new one, because, well, to fix it it's X amount, and X amount is more than what Y amount is, and the Y amount may be a new air conditioner, and so we weigh our options. But anyways, talking about the trades, very important, and so I encourage you or you to talk to somebody that you're able to influence and talk to, whether it's not just us, but if we have children, if we have nephews, nieces, if we have teammates, whatever the case may be, don't just rule that out there is a high need for individuals with those skills.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Air conditioning at this time, just like when I thought about the breathing and body breathing in oxygen, and so that's something like well, yeah, our bodies just know how to do that, okay, do they? And even if they do, does it mean that we still shouldn't be grateful that our body's able to do that. I mean, at times I've seen people, loved ones, needing assisted oxygen. I'd say at those times we might be thinking a little bit differently and I've thought differently because of those times in my life. And the only time I can do that is when I slow down, when I literally come to just about a halt of wow, I couldn't think about whatever. And so by taking it and slowing it down, and slowing it down, and slowing it down, we start to think about things that are actually important, like being able to breathe, whether on our own or even if we need assisted oxygen, because without that, survival is pretty difficult, survival is pretty difficult.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

And so air conditioning I think of like, oh yeah, everybody has an air conditioner. Well, not everybody. And there's people who, at this very moment, have air conditioning and it's working and at the next minute it stops. And what do you do? Well, let's call somebody to fix it, okay. What if there's no open appointment for two weeks? Well, I'll call somebody else. Okay, what if you call another technician? Well, they can get you in in a week and a half. Okay, well, I need it quicker, so you call a third, it'll be a month. Oh, I need it quicker. But you call a third, it'll be a month. So let's just say whatever time period that it has elapsed before your air conditioner goes out. Let's say you wait the week and a half and you got fans going. You're just all sweating. Then they're done that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

That's why I'm talking about it, because it's something that may seem basic. It's not basic, it's a luxury. It's a luxury and when it goes out you don't know, I don't know how to fix them. So I need a professional, I need somebody that does. Let's call it hypothetically technician comes out, does their thing, says oh, this part's not working, or that part's not working too, and you need both of them. But if you're going to replace those two parts, you probably should replace the third part too. Say okay, well, whatever you need to do, you should replace the third part too. Say okay, well, whatever you need to do. So number one if you don't have the money to do it, then that's another aspect we'll talk about on a different episode.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So let's just say you need those three parts and the technician called the warehouse or where they're, where they have their spare parts. Well, I have one of them, but I don't have the other two. You say, well, okay, well, I needed all three. They only have one of them, but I don't have the other two. You say, well, okay, well, I needed all three. They only have one of the three. Okay, well, can you get the second and the third? I might call the warehouse, we can get that second one, but that's the one, that's that third, meaning you really need those first and that second part. The third is because maybe just how they're connected, it just makes things a little easier, and so you kind of have that middle part right. So you can get that first one, you can get that third, but you need that second one. Warehouse doesn't have it.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Call around, they don't have it. Call around, call around, call around. Well, it can get in a week, a week, and that's after it's been a week and a half that you and your family or loved ones have been without the air conditioner. So what do you do? Well, I'd call another. Okay, again, these are all things that I did, that we did. We've done so. I'm not just making this stuff up been there, done that, and there's a lot of been there, done that, and there's a lot that I haven't been there and done that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

This is one of the ones that I have and I know how frustrating it is. I know how hot it gets. I know no matter how many fans you have running, that it's going to be very uncomfortable until it gets fixed. Until all those days, all those times prior, we're just going about our daily lives, right, I'm doing this, I'm doing that, I'm picking up so-and-so, I'm dropping them off, we're eating, we're doing, we're resting, we're sleeping, we're brushing our teeth, we're taking a shower or a bath, and we're not even thinking about the climate in our own home. We're just like alright, well, I'm hot and it's summertime, so let me turn temperature down and kick on the temperature down and now Kick on the the air conditioner.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

You may be saying why is he taking A full episode, 35 minutes, to talk about Breathing oxygen and An air conditioner? Because when we strip all the luxury and the cars and the fancy this and the fancy that and the fancy jewelry and we take it down to a human being level, and when your air goes out and you need it, it's easy to sit here and say, when everything's working, that, oh, I don't have to worry about that, but I bet you're going to worry about it. That first minute you feel through the vents and you're like why isn't there air? Why isn't the cool air coming through? And you go into a different room why isn't it not coming through here? Or what about the thermostat? What if the thermostat's off and it's not showing the right temperature?

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

There's just so many things that can go wrong that I really wanted and I am, and we wanted, and we are slowing things down and just talking about some basic basic needs clothing, the. You know the temperature that's comfortable when it's in the winter time. We want to have that when our heat to work well, our air conditioner works well. I don't want the air on when it's 15 degrees outside. I need air and oxygen to breathe O2, but I need warm air at this time, whereas now we're on the opposite side of been super hot for quite a bit. And so once we take that step inside, if we have air, if we're blessed to be able to have that, it makes things so much, blessed to be able to have that. It makes things so much, so much easier because we're able to not have to worry about that. Okay, well, we have the breathing. Okay, we have the temperature, we have the clothing.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

What about food, food, water, clothing, shelter? You know the top, actually the bottom, if we're looking at NASLO's hierarchy of needs, but we're talking about just basic survival needs. So I can have all the air conditioning in the world, but if I don't have any food to eat or save drinking water to drink, or save drinking water to drink, Well, the air is all well and good, and so this episode is meant to serve that purpose of let's slow things down every once in a while. I'm grateful again, additionally, for my car Number one, that I have a car. Number two, that it's running. Number three, that the air conditioner is working.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I've had a family member their air conditioner stopped working. I've had a family member that their air conditioner stopped working and they get it replaced, and that's just what. If you're able to, and blessed to be able to have the finances to do that, that's where it's like well, yeah, of course I need, or we need this to get fixed, and so we take it in, and then that whole spiral comes back. Who do we take it to? Who has an appointment? What hours are they open? Well, they might have an appointment today, but I can't get out of work. I got a meeting, and then, when I can get it in, they're only open certain hours, and while I'm working that time or I'm traveling or whatever.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So these are all maybe considered basic things, basic decisions, but what it really comes back to is, like I said, what really matters in our life, and we haven't even gotten the relationships and others, and we're just talking about basic survival of. If I don't have anything else, I would sure like to be cooler inside than outside, if it was summertime or any other time of it that way, and then vice versa, if I have that shelter and it's really cold outside, I would like the ability to turn the heated air on, and so let's take a moment every once in a while and just think about the blessings that we all have, and it's not just the uber wealthy. There's things that I overlook daily, and I just you know we're over 40 minutes with this episode and we've really only talked about just a handful of things, so none of that matters, though. If all my mind is worried about and thinking about is something that's six months or a year in the making, like planning and executing. Planning and executing different projects, different things. Those things are all well and good, but we're only able to do that once we're able to have those basic necessities taken care of, care of. And so, no matter where you're at, no matter how you're addressing your mental health maybe you're like me, maybe not it's okay.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But I just want to close with no matter where you're at on your journey, if panic attacks are something that you know you know of a lot, or even just a little bit, that they can happen at any time. Extra nervous, getting sweaty palms, clammy, being on like gonna pass out, yeah, there's always going to be that person that's going to say just take a breath, just take a. Well, that's easy to say until you're in that moment and I've said it before before, I've gotten to be a little bit better on that Like, if somebody is really panicking, then I need to just slow down. And if I'm able to help or just slow down whatever is happening as best that I can, because I know what it's like to be panicked. And no, it's nothing that God says that we did wrong, say oh well, you did something wrong. So you know God is punishing you with this panic attack.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

No, I don't agree with that philosophy. Everybody's entitled to their opinion. I just don't believe that's something. That's the case 294 episodes, with this being the 295th episode. 300 is coming very, very soon. So quick, it's just coming so fast. It's just really incredible. So it's okay to slow down, take stock of where we're at. There's going to be things where we're going to want more or feel like we need more of one thing or the other thing, and it's okay to think that.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

But as sitting with my family last year in so much silence and solitude, it helped me to slow down a little bit. I don't have a number that I slow down to from this number to that number, but I slow down too from this number to that number. But what I do know is I'm realizing at least a little bit more, some of these small things that really are the big things, because if we're not breathing, we're probably having a hard time surviving. And if it's super hot outside and we're blessed to have air conditioning and it goes out, we find out real fast Like wow, I didn't realize how much I just took that for granted. I was taking it for granted. I take it way less for granted, given that all the summers except for the one now, which I hope we're able to get through without another repair or air conditioner fully going out, because I was reminded a very short time ago when, looked out the window, saw a technician replacing a full, the whole air conditioning unit and as a reminder, the whole air conditioning unit and as a reminder that while today we might not need it, we might not be going through that trouble today, that today, that seeing that extra grateful, that that time when I saw that, oh my gosh, I know exactly what they're feeling like, because last year, as we now close out this episode, I said that before here.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

I was saying I was almost speechless at the beginning of the episode. Just last year, our technician, who's awesome, he tried so many different things and he tried one thing and then it worked and then it didn't work. So then he was troubleshooting and finally it came down to this part you're going to need it's this amount and, as old as the air conditioning unit is and other factors, you're better off just getting a new one. And I had no idea what an air conditioning unit costs getting a new one, and I had no idea what an air conditioning unit cost him. I found out that day the number. I thought it was times two of that number what it was going to cost. Number what it was going to cost. So I am grateful for having air conditioning in the summer month and having heated air in the winter month. And there's going to come a time when we're going to have to get air conditioner replaced. But at least for this moment that we're filming this hopefully also when I'm processing this too that never know right could start processing this episode and it goes out and then can't get an appointment for a week or two, and when that time comes we need the air conditioner and maybe it's right before the weather changes and we think, oh my gosh, we're not going to need this air conditioner until next year at this time.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

So life always throws us curveballs, but we can be grateful. That's how we can do things. Be grateful for the things we have and we can do things. Be grateful for the things we have and hopeful for things that we need Like food, water, clothing, shelter, climate control, spaces indoors. So thank you for tuning in making us one of the rarest podcasts.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

We were told after we hit episode number 250 that if you take all the podcasts in the world, that if you take all the podcasts in the world, the viewer, then. So let's say there's 100 podcasts at one. When you get to 250, there's less, there's less. So right, so let's say there's less. So let's say there's 100, and at episode one, there's 100. All 100 organizations, groups, people, individuals. But then you get to the 250 and there's less than that amount. So, at each number, each new episode we bring to you puts us in even more and more and more rarefied air, and so we're grateful to have the opportunity to come to you, whether this is your first episode you've watched or listened to, or if you've been with us from the beginning.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

Lastly, I'll just ask one more time if you can give us a big thumbs up like share, follow, leave us a comment. We would greatly appreciate that and we are a charity. So if you're able to donate monetarily, we would greatly appreciate that. You can do that at Venmo, voices 4voices. S , voices4voices that's at Venmo.

Voices for VoicesⓇ, Justin Alan Hayes:

If you head on over to Voices, with the four spelled out, so Voicesforvoices. org, once you're taken to our website or the top of the top, middle of the page, you see we'll say give you the opportunity to support the show, the organization Voices for Voices, and we would greatly appreciate that. If you'd like to volunteer, send us a note, drop us a line. We'd love to hear from you. So, no matter where you're at, if you can hit that like button or subscribe, that's free. We would appreciate that just as much as we would a donation. So thank you for bringing Voices for Voices into your lives. We ask that you are a voice for you or somebody in need. Let's celebrate not just one voice, let's celebrate all of our voices. We'll see you next time. Take care.

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