My Toothbrush Dove Into The Toilet And Somehow This Became A Lesson On Joy | Ep. 351

My Toothbrush Dove Into The Toilet And Somehow This Became A Lesson On Joy | Ep. 351

Your day can change on a toothbrush drop or a coffee spill—and not because of the mess, but because of the meaning you attach to it. We explore how to turn small setbacks into small wins, reclaim a few minutes at a time, and steady your mind with a higher standard of purpose the host calls being a “Jesusaire.” Whether your anchor is faith or a set of values, that north star helps you respond instead of react, protect your attention, and move forward with intention.

We get honest about comparison—how bench press numbers, likes, and titles can hijack self-worth—and why art offers a better model. There is no single right way to color a page or tell your story. By stepping away from engineered feeds that feel like casinos and saying yes to simple creative acts, you reduce stress at the source and gather “time refunds” that add up. Along the way, we name addiction as illness, not weakness, and underline practical support, including the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline for anyone who needs it.

Perseverance sits at the heart of these ideas. The Michael Jordan cut-from-the-team story isn’t sports trivia; it’s proof that rejection can be ignition when you keep showing up. The movement behind Voices for Voices continues in that spirit—publishing books, sharing original tools, and inviting you to speak your truth despite criticism. If you’ve felt stuck, judged, or on the edge of giving up, this conversation offers grounded encouragement: act anyway, ask for help, and protect the minutes that protect your mind.

If this resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who needs a lift, and leave a review telling us the smallest change you’ll make this week to lower stress. Your voice matters—add it to the chorus.

Chapter Markers

0:00 Welcome And Gratitude

1:16 The Idea Of Being A “Jesusaire”

2:24 Minor Mishaps And Perspective

4:50 Comparison, Art, And Self‑Worth

9:05 Reclaiming Time And Lowering Stress

12:10 Devices, Addictions, And Mental Health

15:18 Do It Anyway: Ignore The Critics

18:25 Perseverance Lessons From Michael Jordan

21:10 Keep Going And Ask For Help

23:30 Closing Encouragement And Call To Action

#ToothbrushTales #JoyInTheUnexpected #BathroomBlunders #LifeLessons #FindingJoy #ToiletTroubles #LaughItOff #EverydayHumor #UnexpectedMoments #HygieneHiccups #EmbraceTheMessyLife #PositiveVibesOnly #SillyStories #FunnyLessonsLearned  #StayJoyful #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices351

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Gratitude
• 1:16 The Idea Of Being A “Jesus Heir”
• 2:24 Minor Mishaps And Perspective
• 4:50 Comparison, Art, And Self‑Worth
• 9:05 Reclaiming Time And Lowering Stress
• 12:10 Devices, Addictions, And Mental Health
• 15:18 Do It Anyway: Ignore The Critics
• 18:25 Perseverance Lessons From Michael Jordan
• 21:10 Keep Going And Ask For Help
• 23:30 Closing Encouragement And Call To Action

Transcript

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices, TV show and podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. Whether you're watching or listening, uh, if you're here in the United States or uh anywhere across the world, uh, we welcome each and every one of you with open heart, with love, support. And we just want to say we're grateful for you joining us. Uh, we are now over the 350 episode mark, which is just incredible. Uh and we have nobody else to thank but you uh watching and listening, sharing. You can smash that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up, like, follow, share, uh, leave, leave us some comments. Uh, if uh you want to come on the show and share your voice with the world, uh reach out to us, let us know, and we will make that happen. Uh just uh it's an important time as it always is, as we talk about uh Jesus aires, as we did in the previous episode. So not a millionaire, not a billionaire, but a Jesus aire. And no matter if you practice religion or not, uh my thought is that you probably have some higher authority that uh that you may look up to uh on um on days when things are tough and tumultuous, as well as the days when uh seems everything is going right. Uh what do I mean by tumultuous? So just in basic terms, uh we we can think of uh if we're getting ready to brush our teeth, right? And so we we go in the bathroom, turn on the light, reach for our toothbrush, it slides off the uh the sink uh into the toilet. And so that's pretty pretty extreme. Uh the more likely is that the toothbrush would just fall on the floor. Uh and then when we go to brush our teeth, then uh maybe we uh we we we forget the floss, we forget uh not we forget, but we we run out of toothpaste and we hadn't made it to the store to have extra uh ready for when we're we're finished with the first two of a toothpaste uh that we that we have. And so those are little things, uh and you know, generally they don't at least for me, they don't they don't bother me, they don't bother me nearly as much as they did, however, they still bother a little bit. It's like oh well, and so the way I look at it is oh it's alright. Because it's it's not really a big deal, it's not something that is going to uh it's not a life or death type of a decision, or like, oh my gosh, my toothbrush fell on the floor, maybe I need to you know rinse it off, wash it before I use it. Uh and so when we talk about those days when those that seem to be, you know, they are they're just minor things that happen, and it can add up though, over the course of a day. So if you have your coffee and then you get to take a sip, and somehow more comes out than what you're going to take a drink, and it goes all over your clothes or part of your clothes. And let's say you are on your way to give a presentation, and so now it's like, oh, well, usually it wouldn't be a huge deal, but it's like, how am I gonna get that staying out before I get to work? Whether it's in the office or whether you're uh in the confines of your your home, wherever that may be. And and so that's what I mean when I talk about you know being a Jesus heir. Because for me, again, talking me, my faith, I have to have some higher authority to to look up to, to put faith in that you know things happen for a reason when tough things happen. Try to do the best you can. That's really all you can do with anything, is just try the best. I like to think about artwork, so whether it's drawing, painting, sculpting, there's really no, there's really no wrong answer, no wrong way of doing something like art. And so I think we can find ourselves, as I have, at times, feeling stressed, extra stressed for comparing, judging, and all that of well, mine's not as good as theirs is, and I learned this a long time ago, and I probably shared us probably a million times, supposed to be a million and one, that when I was growing up and I I started to uh lift weights uh and exercise. I don't say I was obsessed, but you know, for one of the things people ask, if you say you work out, one of the things is like, oh, how much do you bench press? Of course, you know, the more the higher the number, the you know, the better it sounds. It's like, oh, I bench press 200 pounds, so I'm better than everybody who benches less than 200 pounds, or whatever that number may be. And so there's always gonna be somebody, almost always, somebody that does what we do better, faster, quicker. Talk about the gym. Is there's always gonna be somebody that's gonna be able to bench press or squat a higher number than than what we are, and so it's the same thing with you know, talk about art that we don't have to compare. I mean, we do, but we don't have to. We don't have to compare our art whether it's an adult coloring book, which we do have three uh three or four adult coloring pages on voicesforvoices.org forward slash shop, uh, that you can you can get. So recommend uh those are all originals uh that you can't get anywhere except on our voicesforvoice.org website because I designed them myself, and and and so that is one of the things of oh well what color are we going to color this particular part of the adult coloring book? Or I have a blank piece of paper, how am I going to draw a giraffe and then color the giraffe in? And so these are all things that are so minor, so small in the grand scheme of things, that if we can just lower our stress by just a tiny bit, then that's gonna be able to give us that additional minute or two or thirty seconds, or whatever that time is, that's gonna come back to us as a bonus, uh, or like a refund. Well, you thought you were gonna spend $100, but you spent $50. So if I was gonna be stressed a hundred a hundred times, but I was only stressed 98 times. So there's that, and these hypotheticals I just brought up, you know, these differences of two percent, two minutes, two seconds. Anytime we can get time back to ourselves so we can do what we want to do, and that may be taking a power net, that may be meditating, that may mean going for a walk, that may mean a whole host of things, and so how does this all tie in? It it ties in because it's our thoughts, and our thoughts are our mental health, and so if we feel more stress, and we are more stressed, that that and those feelings are like, oh my gosh, I gotta get this done. Oh my gosh, what am I gonna do? Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, those are things that are thought inside our mind, and sometimes we verbalize it, but I assure you that we all have mental health to one capacity or another, and so what I'm trying to do, what we're trying to do is let's identify some things where we can get some small wins, get some a little bit of extra time back to ourselves to not compare ourselves to others as much as we have and do. I try not to, I work on it, I'm a whole lot better now than before, and you probably are too. You're probably better at managing, coping situations in our minds, in our mental health. So don't let anybody tell you your art, your show, your your books, your uh acting, your music, whatever those things are, don't let anybody tell you. I mean, they're going to tell you, but I guess what I'm saying is don't let that get to you. And it's easier said than done. I get it. Again, I'm not a pro at it, it's just something I I recognize that if something like that can help me, then there's probably at least one person watching and listening, which thank you so much for joining and watching and listening wherever you may be, uh, ninety countries, nine hundred cities. But I can almost guarantee I say almost because I can't guarantee nobody can guarantee anything, except in my eyes, my opinion, God Jesus Christ. Uh so that's why we're sharing it, that's why we're talking about it. That's why we're devoting an episode to this. It might seem like common sense, easy, like, oh, big deal, yeah. Tell me to not worry about it, and you know, he doesn't know. I don't know. I know for me, I don't know for you, but I'm just taking a gander that there's probably at least one person watching, listening, if not more, that those things impact our minds, your minds, and the less stress we can have that that amount of time we're able to get back to do whatever we want to do with that time. Let's say, Oh, Justin, what am I gonna do with 30 seconds? I don't know. Close your eyes until 30 seconds, yeah. Our minds are gonna race, they're gonna be all over the place. But if we're not judging ourselves and not being as concerned, that's that's huge. And I often get asked, you know, given the line of work and what we do with voices for voices, which I love as jagged, by the way. I uh recommend again going over to voicesforvoices.org forward slash shop and grab yourself a fresh voices for voices jacket for you, loved one, and the holidays coming up, and then you're obviously supporting the the voices for voices movement of helping, of working to help at least three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond. So we're we're we're trying to find ways that we can we can help. And that's really what we're trying to do is to make sure we can do the best we can with the amount of time that we have left on earth. So let's try to lower our stress level, let's try to lower the temperature of everybody's thoughts and feelings. Let's try to have less stress, let's try to help people, including ourselves, our families, our loved ones, and I can almost assure, again, even it's just a tiny bit, we're going to start to feel just a little bit better, day by day, minute by minute, hour by hour, second by second. And what that also means is you know less less time on on these devices. Because the devices are intended just like in a casino. Casino, tell me where you see a clock at they pump extra oxygen in. So people will want to stay there at the table or at the the slot machine and they can end up causing us to have all kinds of all kinds of uh not good things to be uh do we go through? Do some people go through and gambling, just like alcohol, drug addiction, mental illness, these are illnesses, these are these are things that can rip apart families, relationships, and it's hard. So we're just asking, is there anywhere we can find a few extra minutes here or there? And then we might find that thing that we wanted to do, we've always wanted to do, we've always wanted to try, but we we've been so concerned what people are gonna think and say. People are gonna think and say things behind our backs, no matter what. It's the human species. Look at tabloid's talking about people and sensationalizing events and things that are occurring have occurred, they think occurred. So no matter how rich, money-wise, millionaire, billionaire. I want to be a Jesus heir. And I think you do too. So please smash that subscribe button, like, follow, share, thumbs up, let everybody know. Help us meet and exceed, just like you helped us not only meet 300 episodes total by the end of the calendar year 2025, but we've surpassed it because of you, not because of me, not because of anybody on our team, because of you. Nobody's watching, nobody's listening, nobody cared, then we wouldn't be doing this. We would we would just stop. But for that, if you're somebody who's on that ledge thinking, what's there to live? I'm here, we're here to say there's a lot of reasons to live. Your life is important. You are loved, people do care about you. And with hopefully some inspirational words from us and voices for voices and others, you'll do just like me. Instead of crawling in that shell like a turtle, we won't just be poking our head out, we'll be strong. We'll be the one out of a very high number of sea turtles that makes it from the eggs to the water. And we make it through hard times. We make it through hard times together. And lastly, anybody that know the name Michael Jordan? I do. Maybe you do too. Maybe it's because of his signature Air Jordan shoes clothing. Um so here we have a person who a lot of people look up to, even still now. His primary sport was basketball. I'd argue he was the best basketball player to play the game at the NBA level, MVPs, championships, gold medals for Olympics for the United States. And if you didn't know, that individual as he was growing up in high school in the very sport that helped him propel and be at the point that he is now today, he was cut from his high school team in one of the years. If you'll know what that means, what that means is uh for a particular sport, a particular group, that there's only so many positions available. So let's say the number's 12. I don't know, I'm just saying 12. I saw Michael Jordan tried out in high school one of the years, and he was not chosen by coaches to be in if if it's that number's twelve, whatever, whatever number of play basketball players um were were selected that that one year, it wasn't him. And so what what happened? Did he get sad? Did he get upset upset? Did he give up? No, he didn't. And so some might somebody might say, Oh, big deal, he got cut from high school team, big deal. Well, there's a message, there's a message of perseverance, there's a message of don't give up, there's a message of don't let others dictate and take full control. We can't stop people from talking about us behind our backs to us, what what have you, and so for that year, Michael Jordan was not on the high school team. But he didn't give up. He could have just said the heck with it. Or I'm just I'm not gonna try out next year. I didn't make it, so I'm just gonna give up. He didn't. Kept going. Worked harder. Harder than anybody, harder than most. And then he got scholarship to the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Then he was selected in the NBA draft, the National Basketball Association, that's the professional league. He's selected by the Chicago Bulls. Or again, he went on the lead, win championships, win gold medals at the Olympics, win MVP awards. That's most valuable player. If you're aren't familiar with that acronym. So we haven't given up that voices for voices. It's so easy to do it. It's so easy just to stop. I I think of going to the gym and working out, which I I need I need to do. That's one of the things I need to do a lot better. It's hard to go. It's not that the fact that we don't, we don't have the the power to do it. We want to do it. We just don't. Because the easy thing to do is not to do it. The comfortable thing is to sit on the couch, to sit on the chair, to sleep in. Do whatever, just not go to the gym. And so nobody thought voices for voices would be where we are today, where we're going. What we've accomplished. Five books on Amazon.com under uh voices for voices publishing. And so we could have backed down. We didn't. We aren't. And we hope it's a little inspiration to you to don't give up for whatever that is, whatever those things are. At the most basic level, as a human, don't give up on life. Please don't. If you need to, you can text. You can go to uh the the 988. 988. You can text if you or somebody you know is going through a a crisis, which could be somebody contemplating taking their own life. We don't we don't want that. There's help out there. It's hard to do, it's hard to ask for help. It's hard to swallow the pride. I had to do it, I had no other choice. It was swallow the pride, or I'm not sure what what what if I would be here today, and so it's a little bit of that, or a lot of a lot of that that is help with voices for voices, or I could just back down, we could just back down, we could not talk about tough stories, tough topics, tough experiences. But we did, we didn't back down. It's like Tom Petty says we don't want we're not gonna back down. We have not, we will not, we are not. So please be a voice for you or somebody in need. Let's celebrate the voice of each and every one of us near, far, close to us, far away. And God bless the United States of America, and God bless every one of you from coast to coast, from sea to shine, sea to shine sea. We love you, we support you, and we know you can do it. We know you can make it, life's worth living, co inspire. Don't let the haters take over. Don't let them. That's what they want. They want to drain our energy. Don't let them. So until next time, visit Justin Alan Hayes for Voices for Voices. And we'll see you on the next show. Bye bye.