Latest / Voices for Voices® / Why Gratitude Will Change Your Life Forever | Episode 71

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Why Gratitude Will Change Your Life Forever | Episode 71 · Voices for Voices®

• 0:01
  Justin Alan Hayes: Welcome to the Voices for Voices podcast sponsored by Redwood Living.
• 0:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for joining us today.
• 0:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, host and humanitarian.
• 0:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: You can learn more about Voices for Voices on our Instagram, facebook, youtube and our website, voicesforvoices.
• 0:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: org.
• 0:29
  Justin Alan Hayes: Voices for Voices is a 501c3 nonprofit charity organization that survives solely on donations.
• 0:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, if you are able to, please consider heading over to Voicesforvoicesorg to help us continue our mission and the goal and dream to help 3 billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond, or you can also send a donation to the mailing address of Voices for Voices at 2388 Becket Circle, Stow, ohio, 44224.
• 1:14
  Justin Alan Hayes: Are you looking for a volunteer opportunity?
• 1:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: Great, please reach out to us today via email at president at Voicesforvoices.
• 1:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: org.
• 1:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: I founded Voices for Voices to provide a platform for folks to share their stories with others as we work to break the stigma around mental health, accessibility and disabilities, helping get people the help they need, while also helping them prepare or transition into the workforce with the Voices for Voices Career Center, where we connect talent with opportunity for both job seekers and employers, from coast to coast and in every industry and job level.
• 2:10
  Justin Alan Hayes: In today's episode, I'm going to reveal how gratitude has been a game-changer and changed my life for the better.
• 2:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: First and foremost, gratitude for me is looking outward instead of always looking inward at myself, of what I want to do, what I think's best, and looking at others and looking at what may be in their best interest.
• 2:41
  Justin Alan Hayes: That might not match up with what my my interest is, or I may need to make a compromise, so I'm going to go through this episode of the Voices for Voices podcast and share with you a few of the people and organizations I am grateful for.
• 2:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: When I got started thinking about gratitude, my wife had purchased for me a gratitude journal, and what that is.
• 3:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: There's many, many forms, but the one that she purchased for me is every day.
• 3:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: You put the date in there and then you write three things you're grateful for.
• 3:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: And when I first got that gratitude journal, I thought, okay, this is a little bit corny.
• 3:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: Do I really need to think about being grateful for things?
• 3:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: And how am I going to think of three things every single day?
• 3:44
  Justin Alan Hayes: And what happens if I miss a day?
• 3:46
  Justin Alan Hayes: Well, if I miss a day, it's no big deal.
• 3:48
  Justin Alan Hayes: Then I just wait for the next day to move on, but I can think internally during that time that I'm missing the physically writing what I'm grateful for.
• 4:01
  Justin Alan Hayes: I can talk internally to myself of what I'm grateful for, and so some of the basic things that I know I've taken for granted are one waking up in the morning, because every day there are some people who don't, that they pass away from the earthly life.
• 4:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: So waking up in the morning is first and foremost, and then making it through the day, of being able to go through the day, no matter how difficult or how easy, how fun or not fun, that the day was that I made it through.
• 4:41
  Justin Alan Hayes: Again, there are people every day that aren't able to make it through for one way or another, one reason or another, and so that takes me down to really my core of again just waking up in the morning, being grateful of waking up and making it through the day.
• 5:01
  Justin Alan Hayes: So the answer early on, after I kind of chuckled and thought, ok, the gratitude journal, that's a little bit corny.
• 5:10
  Justin Alan Hayes: It really then turned into OK, this is helping me think about what I am truly grateful for and the individuals, the organizations that I can really write down or again think of internally of I'm grateful for waking up, I'm grateful that I traveled safely to and from the office.
• 5:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: I am thankful for my family members traveling safely.
• 5:44
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm thankful for the so I was recently on a trip to LA and so I was thankful for the airplane being able to make it through Los Angeles.
• 5:56
  Justin Alan Hayes: I was thankful for the mechanics that were working on the plane, that everything worked properly, thankful for the pilots, the flight attendants, all those people and things had to happen for me to be able to walk onto that plane, take a seat and sit back and relax for the next four and a half hours.
• 6:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: So that's really what this episode is about.
• 6:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I'm going to rewind my life and give the gratitude and thankfulness that, frankly, I haven't done publicly in people and organizations.
• 6:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: They really they deserve it for me to even be here today to be taping this podcast.
• 6:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, first and foremost, very, very thankful and gracious and many gratitudes go to the Hudson Community Television station here.
• 6:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: Without the station being here and how it has been developed and running today, I wouldn't have the opportunity and voices for voices wouldn't have the opportunity to be able to come live into your television, into your house, every Wednesday at 4 pm.
• 7:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: So very thankful for them and, more specifically, megan Dan, who are the two individuals that work with the most.
• 7:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: They're awesome and very thankful to have them here and to be able to work with as we share the stories and experiences and the hopes again to reach that three billion people helping in my lifetime and beyond.
• 7:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: Next, I have to mention my wife, charlene.
• 8:00
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I have to say that I'm very thankful and gracious to have her in my life for many reasons to allow me to be able to branch out with voices for voices and spend as much time as I do with the organization of her understanding that my energy and thoughts and emotional side of working is really tied to voices for voices and so whatever that looks like so if that's the podcast episodes, if that's an event, if that's a blog, if that's another media appearance, if it's giving a check for an individual to purchase food, if they're in need, an individual who is entering mental health care, if we're able to financially support those individuals all the way down to again just providing food and keeping the lights on in an individual's house, so if we're able to do that, that's awesome.
• 9:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: That's what we're here for.
• 9:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: So without her that I wouldn't be here and wouldn't be able to be doing this and wouldn't have.
• 9:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: The organization and the community, not only here in Hudson in Northeast Ohio support across the nation and the world.
• 9:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: We've seen on previous episodes where we've been able to have guests from Australia, from the United Kingdom, from Florida.
• 9:40
  Justin Alan Hayes: We're going to have more guests from all over the nation and the world, and so that is what I find is helpful that at the end of the day, we're all human beings, so to hear about somebody's story, whether they're here locally or if they're in a different country, there are things as human beings that we all go through, and so that's what I find is helpful is being able to find some of the best guests for this podcast, for you, for the viewing, for the listening audience, for those reading the transcripts.
• 10:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: That's one of our biggest goals.
• 10:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: Very gracious and thankful for my daughter, rose Marie.
• 10:28
  Justin Alan Hayes: She keeps me, she keeps my wife on her toes.
• 10:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: She's four years old and she's just amazing to be around, to see her grow, to be able to spend time with her, teach her some of the better ways to go about things.
• 10:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: She's four years old, so it's obviously little things to teach her, but just being there and spending time with her, that really taps into my heart and my emotional side of myself and my body, so very, very gracious.
• 11:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: And since she was born, I really can't think of real life at this point where I am now with her, not in my wife and I's life, my parents.
• 11:24
  Justin Alan Hayes: So you saw in one of the earlier episodes where I was lucky to be able to bring both my parents, pat and Helen Hayes, to tape an episode and to bring them with me on this journey and to let them be in front of the camera for some time and that was big for me and very happy and glad I was able to do that and to be able to talk about dreaming at an earlier age, of being taught that you're allowed to dream and you're allowed to go after those dreams and being able to let my parents talk through that as well as all the earlier times of my life, the ups and downs that I've had.
• 12:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: Many of them were in their household, going through rough times of taking too many cold and cough pills and having my stomach pumped and going through having a DUI, going through just some of those very, very low points in life.
• 12:34
  Justin Alan Hayes: And to still have them as my parents, to have them out by my side, is very, very awesome to have, especially with how COVID has come and is proceeding, that they're able to still be alive and be able to do the things that they love to do spend time with their children myself and my sister Heather, as well as my wife and my daughter Rosemary, and my nephews that I'll get to in a second.
• 13:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: So my sister Heather she has been one of my biggest supporters through the ups and the downs and she's a big reason why I'm also able to have voices for voices tape our podcast here at the Hudson Community Television Station with her and my brother-in-law, brian, and my nephews, hayden and Tyler, being residents here in Hudson.
• 13:42
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I'd say that they believe in me with the voices for voices organization and they're sponsoring us to be able to do this.
• 13:53
  Justin Alan Hayes: So my sister has been supportive at the lowest points that I've been at, as well as some of the higher points, and I'm very grateful to have her in my life at this point, being 41 years old and seeing so many relationships with past friends and just things going on in the world, to have my parents and my sister close and near and dear to me.
• 14:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm very grateful for my brother and Lyle and Brian.
• 14:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: So the trip that we were able to take as a voices for voices organization to Warsaw, poland, to ship some humanitarian aid for some of the Ukrainian refugees that we were able to do last June.
• 14:48
  Justin Alan Hayes: My brother-in-law works for a shipping company and so he was able to navigate getting the supplies from here in Hudson Stowe area to Warsaw, poland, to the shared in Warsaw where I was staying, so that I could be able to distribute those supplies as well as have the opportunity to take mothers with small children one of the mothers grocery shopping and fill a couple carts full of groceries for 30 to 40 moms and their small children from Ukraine, so that a private resident had sponsored.
• 15:37
  Justin Alan Hayes: So very, very thankful for my brother-in-law and my nephews, hayden and Tyler.
• 15:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: They, prior to getting married and having my daughter Rosemary, they were and still are, huge in my life.
• 15:55
  Justin Alan Hayes: Being around them really, I think, gave me a started to transition the over from to be more of a loving person and more of an accepting person, seeing them born and, as they're growing up, and being able to hold them and spend time with them.
• 16:15
  Justin Alan Hayes: Very grateful for that.
• 16:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: Now that they're growing and so much they're, they're into sports and so being able to take a Saturday afternoon or Sunday afternoon and to go watch one of their sporting events is just fun to see them grow and to see the love that's there not only with us but also with my daughter, rosemary, and Hayden and Tyler.
• 16:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: Now, stepping back, you know many, many years ago when, when I was in a position where I was driving late at night and I veered off the road and ran into a center median and totaled my car.
• 17:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I'm thankful for number one being alive, getting through that experience At that point I wasn't under any substances or any alcohol at that time but thankful for the police to just help me through that situation, getting my car, even though it was totaled, to get that towed.
• 17:25
  Justin Alan Hayes: And so again, this is somebody that I didn't know before for that, that early morning hours that that happened.
• 17:36
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, so grateful that they were able to help me when I did take too many over the counterpills and ended up in the hospital, and thankful for all the doctors and nurses at Mercy Hospital and Canton that took care of me, that really and say, brought me to the point to be able to bring me kind of back to life of, you know, taking kind of the toxic substances out on my stomach and and helping me on that that road to recovery.
• 18:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: I never had a chance to.
• 18:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: I guess I just I just never publicly thanked them and I don't have, I don't know their names specifically, but that that staff, that evening was one of the scariest evenings of my life, and so to have people whose profession it is to deal with, people such as myself at that time, just just very, very thankful for that.
• 18:35
  Justin Alan Hayes: So that hospital staff as well, as you know, five years ago, going on six, when I had a five day inpatient stay in the psych ward at Akron General Hospital, so the staff there, so all the, all the nurses, all the the text that did testing of the blood and all the the psych staff that gave me the to start on the road to recovery, as well.
• 19:02
  Justin Alan Hayes: As when I did accept that, the staff that watched, watched over me.
• 19:08
  Justin Alan Hayes: I mean I was on suicide watch because somebody going through what I was going through, they wanted to make sure that I was safe as well as the other patients on on that that way.
• 19:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: So everybody from individuals and security that during that time to the nurses, the psychiatrists, the counselors, the art therapists security, you know, keeping us, keeping us safe, being able to get the medication that was prescribed, just to have the medication be available.
• 19:44
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, coming from the pharmaceutical company in that whole supply chain.
• 19:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, all all those individuals, I'm very, very thankful that they were there at that time and to bring me the opportunity to, you know, be here five plus years later and Helping others, spending my time and energy, helping others Versus just being self-centered.
• 20:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: Which?
• 20:12
  Justin Alan Hayes: Have you talked to anybody who knew me?
• 20:14
  Justin Alan Hayes: It's like 15 years ago.
• 20:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: Yeah, they, they probably won't want anything to do with me.
• 20:20
  Justin Alan Hayes: They don't want to talk to me.
• 20:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: They wouldn't want to see what I'm up to on and my organization, voice over voices, is doing, no matter how well we're doing and the support and the help that we're able to offer those, those individuals, I don't hold anything against them.
• 20:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: I had it many times but, as you know, speaking with the guests that you've seen in previous episodes, as well as going through personal healing of it is accepting that.
• 20:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: You know that that wasn't me.
• 20:53
  Justin Alan Hayes: That was me at that time.
• 20:55
  Justin Alan Hayes: That wasn't, that wasn't just now.
• 20:57
  Justin Alan Hayes: And haze Individual, it was me at that period of time, but it wasn't overall, overall on me.
• 21:05
  Justin Alan Hayes: And then, once I was Released from from the hospital five plus years ago I continued on with therapy and one of the individuals Her name is Heidi LaRue.
• 21:17
  Justin Alan Hayes: She's on our board of directors, she's our clinical Board of board of director and she was my art therapist during One of my group therapies that I went through and so we reconnected on through LinkedIn and and she's been a supporter before voices for voices Became an organization when we were just, you know, having the the want once a year, a brand new day event.
• 21:43
  Justin Alan Hayes: So so thankful to her and thankful to my now psychiatrist of going on six years.
• 21:50
  Justin Alan Hayes: Dr Mansour, my first counselor, alan Kurzweil, I he has he has since retired, but you know he was instrumental and game-changing for just being there.
• 22:07
  Justin Alan Hayes: And allow me to the vent and just talk about what.
• 22:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: What's happened to my life the last two weeks and and being able to so every two weeks is what when I would have a have a visit with him, and then that turned into every month as as things started to get better and I started to improve.
• 22:25
  Justin Alan Hayes: So, without him, really, once I was released from the hospital, within a week I think I was seeing him.
• 22:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: So he saw me at my absolute Absolute lowest and was able to see some of the growth.
• 22:39
  Justin Alan Hayes: So very thankful to Alan, to Dr Mansour, who to this day is my psychiatrist and now he's also my my clinical therapist that I see very, very thankful for just having them In my life, on my team and being able to call them part of my team, where I am Not just going through life On my own, I'm going through life with them, I'm going through life with my wife, I'm going through life with my, my daughter, my sister, my parents, my nephews, and I'm really Grateful to again be able to take kind of that negativity and maybe that hate or that non-loving Personality that that I had, and turn that into a more loving and more supportive, that not not blowing off Family events or not finding time to talk with people like my students that May have questions, not just about class.
• 23:47
  Justin Alan Hayes: But you know, being a being a college student is Not not always the easiest you'll be in being away from home, going through relationship changes, having having classes with exams and Presentations really close together, learning to manage the time.
• 24:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: I am grateful to be in an opportunity To be able to help help Anyone but in those instances, help the students to be able to navigate through, through maybe some challenges that they're working for, and I'm very grateful because of being an instructor, I've been able to even think about wanting to write my the House of you prescription for living book about my mental health journey, because I want to bring more into the classroom than just the course content.
• 24:44
  Justin Alan Hayes: I want to bring the real-world experience, but then also the real-world human experience, the things that we we've, we go through as as human beings, and I have received some of the most positive feedback From as high up as a president of the university down to students, former students and, and that really has just helped Confirm and validate that what I'm, what I'm doing, is it's on the right track, it's on the right, right page, that you know the days that are tough I'm not feeling the best, or I might be a little bit in that depressive state of Wanting to just sleep and knock it out of bed or not do too much to know that I'm.
• 25:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm here and there's reasons.
• 25:34
  Justin Alan Hayes: I've made it through an overdose, I made it through a DUI and many times driving well intoxicated, through Relationships that have been my fault and not my fault, just being, you know, put myself and others and dangerous situations and and and so to be here today.
• 25:55
  Justin Alan Hayes: I'm just very grateful.
• 25:59
  Justin Alan Hayes: Going back to the first part of this podcast, where I talked about Just being grateful for waking up and being alive today.
• 26:07
  Justin Alan Hayes: If I wasn't alive, I wouldn't be able to Help people and I wouldn't be able to hopefully be an inspiration that you know you can get through things there.
• 26:19
  Justin Alan Hayes: There is help out there wherever you're at in the process.
• 26:22
  Justin Alan Hayes: Do things at your time, when you're ready.
• 26:26
  Justin Alan Hayes: It took me 35, 36 years to be ready, of going through all the ups and downs and and Just being at that point to accept that I didn't have all the answers, that I Couldn't answer the questions I couldn't, I couldn't make everything right, I couldn't make everything better by myself, that I I needed I needed help and so, coming to that point, I found that once I needed help and I still need help, because recovery you know when you're talking about inside the body, with the brain it's an ongoing process.
• 27:05
  Justin Alan Hayes: So I am on a positive trajectory and and I'm getting better, but there are still days where I regress a little bit, but on average, I'm doing very well and it's because of a a lot of the people that I mentioned in this episode to To be gracious and have the gratitude towards them Because, again, with, without their intervention at certain times, Whether that was a listening ear, whether that was a medical procedure, but what, whatever that was, that that has and was Something that got me through life at that point to be here at 41 years old and and to be doing what I'm doing.
• 27:55
  Justin Alan Hayes: I I Love what I'm doing.
• 27:58
  Justin Alan Hayes: I love voices for voices, being able to help and and get in front and bring guests to have them share their stories.
• 28:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: Because we all have a voice.
• 28:09
  Justin Alan Hayes: Whether we can speak, whether we can we do art, whether we play music, whether we do sign language interpretation, we all have a voice.
• 28:18
  Justin Alan Hayes: A voice is different to each individual.
• 28:21
  Justin Alan Hayes: Lucky to be able to have a voice, to be able to communicate in that manner.
• 28:27
  Justin Alan Hayes: I understand some aren't able to, but I'm gracious that I have.
• 28:33
  Justin Alan Hayes: I have that voice to be able to, to share.
• 28:38
  Justin Alan Hayes: So thank you for joining us for for this episode and I just wanted to ask if you or anyone you know shop on Amazon calm.
• 28:49
  Justin Alan Hayes: If you do, or if you know somebody, please consider choosing voices for voices as your 501c3 non-profit charity of choice through the Amazon smile program, and we have the easy to follow instructions at voicesforvoicesorg.
• 29:06
  Justin Alan Hayes: Slash Amazon dash smile.
• 29:11
  Justin Alan Hayes: Best thing is there zero fees and it's 100% free to do.
• 29:16
  Justin Alan Hayes: Thank you for joining us and joining me in this episode of the voices for voices podcast.
• 29:23
  Justin Alan Hayes: Until next time.
• 29:25
  Justin Alan Hayes: I am Justin Alan Hayes, founder and executive director of voices for voices, host and humanitarian.
• 29:32
  Justin Alan Hayes: Until next time.
• 29:34
  Justin Alan Hayes: We hope that you have a great day and please be a voice for yourself or somebody in need.