When The Night Is Long, Purpose Keeps The Light On (Episode 345)

When The Night Is Long, Purpose Keeps The Light On (Episode 345)

We celebrate a Rumble milestone, reflect on faith and purpose, and unpack why winter’s longest night can weigh on mood. We share practical ways to face seasonal affective disorder, set boundaries, and find comfort, humor, and community when days feel short.

• gratitude for audience support and platform growth
• faith as motivation and mission anchor
• trauma of retelling and stress responses
• what the winter solstice is and why it matters
• seasonal affective disorder and mood changes
• comfort, routines, and light strategies for winter
• compassion for loved ones struggling in cold months
• humor and music as relief and connection
• boundaries with toxic people to protect mental health
• purpose, small wins, and trying without regret
• community as a two-way support system

Download all our previous episodes, subscribe, smash that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up, like, follow, share

Chapter Markers

0:02 Welcome And Big Rumble Milestone

3:14 Faith, Mission, And Audience Gratitude

5:48 Results, Analytics, And Validation

9:40 Trauma, Retelling, And Emotional Load

13:20 Understanding Winter Solstice

17:01 Sunlight, Mood, And Longer Days

20:18 Seasonal Affective Disorder Explained

23:40 Comfort, Climate, And Daily Routines

27:10 Compassion For Loved Ones In Winter

30:10 Purpose, Calling, And Keeping Going

33:30 Humor, Music, And Preventing Despair

36:40 Mutual Support And Community

#PurposeDriven #FindingYourWay #NightTimeReflections #InnerStrength #LightInTheDarkness #MotivationMonday #OvercomingObstacles #StayInspired #EmotionalJourney #HopeAndResilience #MindfulLiving #PersonalGrowthJourney #GuidingLight #LifeLessonsLearned #NavigatingChallenges #justiceforsurvivors #justice4survivors #VoicesforVoices #VoicesforVoicesPodcast #JustinAlanHayes #JustinHayes #help3billion #TikTok #Instagram #truth #Jesusaire #VoiceForChange #HealingTogether #VoicesForVoices345

Chapters

• 0:02 Welcome And Big Rumble Milestone
• 3:14 Faith, Mission, And Audience Gratitude
• 5:48 Results, Analytics, And Validation
• 9:40 Trauma, Retelling, And Emotional Load
• 13:20 Understanding Winter Solstice
• 17:01 Sunlight, Mood, And Longer Days
• 20:18 Seasonal Affective Disorder Explained
• 23:40 Comfort, Climate, And Daily Routines
• 27:10 Compassion For Loved Ones In Winter
• 30:10 Purpose, Calling, And Keeping Going
• 33:30 Humor, Music, And Preventing Despair
• 36:40 Mutual Support And Community

Transcript

Voices for Voices, Justin Alan Hayes: 0:02

Hey everyone, it's Justin here, Voices for Voices. Thank you again for joining us, watching, listening. If you're here, near or far, we welcome you. This is your first, or uh you've been following us from the beginning. We thank you for that. If you can smash that subscribe button, get us a big thumbs up, like, share, follow. Uh, but those subscribes are really what is uh is helping us uh get uh closer and closer to our big goal of helping three billion people over the course of my lifetime and beyond uh as a number of voices for voices and a fellow human being. Uh so thank you for joining us. Uh, wanted to say a big thank you. We just had a huge milestone with the Rumble platform, uh, where you're able to watch all of our episodes, and it's uh it's incredible. We we were just notified of a pretty big milestone for us, and uh it it's really it's incredible for the main reason is it's proving people organizations wrong that say that we're not making a difference, we're not helping people, we're not helping others when we're not able to see all the analytics for the analytics that we're able to see, and especially in this case, Rumble, just ecstatic that uh we're able to reach that that milestone when it's seen so far out of reach. Um again, that nobody's interested. And and so it's one of those things that is a good thing to wake up on a on a Monday morning and to be notified uh of that that milestone. So thank you, Rumble. Thank you all of you who are watching, have watched over time, and we uh we can't just say we can't say thank you enough. We're also on YouTube as well as all audio platforms. So if you can uh get in your earbuds, you can stream it. Uh Alexa, the the smart ts, everything uh to the Apple Podcast, Spotify, uh, and many, many more. So thank you. Thank you for that. It's it's nice because if you're anything like I am, we're we're very say results driven, results-oriented, where that means to me that we see information and then we believe it. And so that we believe the numbers, the analytics we see, and say, well, if these are all the people that are watching and listening, maybe we should try something else. But again, to hit that rumble milestone in the midst of what we're uh what we're doing, what we're up against. And we know that there's no higher authority for us than God, Jesus Christ. And so we want to thank you, uh, one and all. And please continue to watch, listen, whatever uh whatever platform, wherever you are, you can find us, download all the episodes, and then you can uh you can take a look. Uh we're over 340 episodes. Uh we're marching uh to that 350 episode mark, which is incredible because we we set out with the goal of hitting 300 episodes by the end of calendar year 2025, December 20, December 31st, 2025. And here we are in October, and we're pushing the boundaries of 350 total episodes. It's incredible. So we have a couple bonus episodes in there, so it's it's uh it's a neat thing to do. Uh inspiring people, helping. It it's uh again, every day is a blessing, and we we don't want to take that for granted. Um you know that the past be the past, and let's live in the present, and let's plan for the future, and and so that's an area where I know I am working on it's hard, none of this is easy. Anyone who says it's easy or says, well, just you gotta just power through it. You have to have that self-belief, and you have to have your team of individuals that know the stories, know the experiences. Number one, so you don't have to repeat them because it brings back trauma repeating them. That's something that some think that, oh, I don't what do you mean you're getting trauma because you wrote this down or you filled out this paperwork? Well, it's it's when you're reliving things. I'll I'll use analogy or correlation just for the high-level fact. You have a person whose family member was their life was taken from them at the hands of another, could be called murder, could be called involuntary manslaughter, voluntary, but the fact of the matter is the event that happened on this hypothetical example is traumatic enough. And then there's a trial, and those individuals have to go on to the test to the witness stand to testify. Where were you? What did you see? What did you hear? What times what times a day, and and so that takes the individual, no matter if it's one year, five years, ten years, from when a trial takes place from when the event and the action occurred, and so it's traumatic, it brings back traumatic experiences, and our body doesn't know the difference between positive trauma and negative trauma. Like, wow, that was traumatic. That again, it was traumatic to find out that we hit a milestone, but it was in a good way, it was a good milestone, it helps validate us during these uncertain times, but still has a little bit of you know that stress that also our body doesn't un understand, it doesn't process positive stress of having an achievement versus a negative stress event. So the human the human genome, the human makeup has these traumatic events, whether we think they are traumatic or not. We do, we just we carry those things with us. And so as a person, as an advocate for those with mental illnesses or mental illness, there's something called the winter solstice that a lot of us are are aware of and understanding. So I'm gonna explain you what exactly it is. Uh try to get this camera here fixed a little bit. There we go. So a lot of us know, especially when we have your mental illnesses or mental illness, especially when it's one of those is depression, major depression, among others. I know because I have it. So I'm not just spouting off a bunch of information to try to make it look like I'm this great expert because I'm not, I'm an expert on myself, but I'm not an expert on any anybody or any anything else. I can talk about my experiences, and some may relate to you, and some may not. But a winter solstice, well, let's just back up. So, person with depression, as we have found over the years, isn't always a person that feels so down and so out, and not wanting to do anything, and just being not wanting to get out of bed, and that and those are some of the symptoms, those can happen any anyways, regardless of the weather or whether it's a winter solstice or spring solstice. That part doesn't matter. The fact is that some of us we have those days where we are like, well, what are we going to accomplish today? And the weather's dreary outside, it's cloud cover, it's cold, it's rainy, it's snowy, it's icy. Uh and and so one of the big things we hear about is go outside, get some fresh air, get some sunlight, and that'll and and that'll help get you some vitamin D from being at being outside, and then just getting fresh air. Well, what the winter solstice doesn't is uh I'm gonna be pulling it up here. Let me see. Oh, so that wasn't it. Here we go. So I'm just I'm pulled up on DuckDuckGo, and I typed in winter solstice 2025 USA, so that's where I live, and and so you'll just have to check on your your your country and where where you live and see if it's the same or if it's different. But for us in the United States, the winter solstice, which we're gonna get into depth of what exactly that is, how that relates to mental health, but it is on Sunday, December 21st, so 21 December 21, 2025. And so what does this mean? What is the winner of solstice? The winner's solstice is the day that makes for the shortest day, so the shortest amount of time that there can be light in the longest night. So shortest day and the longest night. And so somebody with depression, or you you don't have to have depression. That's that's the date in the last few years I talked to myself as I mean, we all talk to ourselves, I think, and like yeah, you're doing a good job, or let me try this, or uh why am I feeling like this, or whatever. We all have those inner thoughts, and and one of the ones I have is let's make it, let's make it past December 21st. Last year it was on December 21st, too, but the day of the week was on a Saturday, so it looks like it's either the December 21st or 22nd. Nonetheless, why is that a big big thing? Well, we'll get to that in a second. Just want to finish up on what the you know, winter solstice is. So we talked about the shortest day, the longest night in the northern hemisphere, and so this is an astronomical event, and it is the point in time when the north pole is tilted farthest away from the sun. So it is the point when the north pole is tilted farthest away from the sun. That's what the winter solstice is, will be happening and happening in the United States Sunday, December 21st, 2025, marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. And so I talked about, you know, individuals like myself with depression, or even you don't have to have a diagnosis that having the opportunity to get more sunlight is is good. Our moods tend to improve when there is sunshine, and so this winter solstice is really an event saying, hey, you know, you you made it, made it this year, because after December 21st, after the winter solstice date, then every day after that, we get uh either a minute or two minutes longer in the day. So we have the shortest amount of time in the day on winter solstices, and then after that, it's slowly, slowly, slowly gets moving in the opposite direction, where you know, a minute or two of potential sunlight, daytime occurs. So it's kind of a big deal for individuals like myself and maybe you, maybe somebody you know, uh, that it's okay if we're feeling down and we're feeling like we we just want to be comfort comforted. Uh and so a lot of times for me throughout the day, depending on what what is going on, meeting-wise, work-wise, I like to be comfortable. I think we all like to be comfortable, so that's wearing comfortable clothes, uh, making sure that the temperature is close to a temperature that is very comfortable for you, where you're not going to get too too hot, too overheated, or too chilly, or too cold. And so we spent 20 minutes talking about this because it's an area that doesn't get a lot of air time, right? We're humans, we're just supposed to get through everything, you know, rain or shine, or well sounds good, sounds easy. But it doesn't always translate in into that. And so the winner solstice also impacts what's called seasonal effective disorder. Sad SAD. Seasonal effective disorder. And to sum it up, I I would say the winter solstice. So whether it's the shortest day of the year, the longest night of the year, that season where we experience more uh days that lack sunlight and lack the potential for sunlight. And one of the parts of being comfortable is if it's cold out, it's like, well, I don't want to go outside, it's chilly, it's cool. And like I said, we want to we want to be comfortable. Everybody wants to be comfortable. And so when I when I look at what areas and what things that are hard for me, one of those is the the sad, the seasonal affective disorder. And that comes from a lack of sunlight, lack of uh lack of a you know cooler temperatures that may affect what we do or what we don't do. For example, where I live, there's a sport called baseball. And during this winter time, this season of less light, cooler temperatures, because of the nature of the sport of baseball, there's no games, there's no practice. I mean, practices are held indoors, but if we're watching any games, it's usually going to be from Australia or countries near that part of the world. Because to my knowledge, the temperatures when we are in the United States experiencing winter, it's summertime, a little bit on the warmer side, and then vice versa. Where on the opposite side over in Australia, below there, your winter time is our spring summer time, and so it's important, you know, the climate we live in, that we're comfortable in that in that climate, it can help us succeed, give us the best opportunities to succeed, the best resources to succeed, and so this episode we're just talking about life. So we usually talk about, we aim to talk about real things that are happening and will be happening. So if we're a caregiver, we're a family member, it's easy to say, oh that you know, my family member, my loved one, they're just being lazy. They're just they're just being super lazy. So I don't get it. I don't understand why they still don't get up and get out and about, and um and so those are the things those are hurtful when when those are said or implied. God's will to be done, not mine, not yours, not anybody else's. This body, this mind, this spirit, this soul. And every day I am made aware that having this organization, Voices for Voices, this platform, this show to be able to share and talk and and maybe be a friend. Feel like you're listening to a friend talk. That's what we're here for. We're here to talk about tough topics. You don't have to have a mental illness or a mental challenge or another challenge to tune in to watch or listen to us. We do talk about those areas, but this show is not only for individuals like myself. Because guess what? We interact with people all day, every day. Everything from scheduling a doctor's appointment, we have to interact with somebody to help us schedule that. If we go pump gas, if we have a car that takes gasoline, or a lawnmower that doesn't, so we fill up our gas. If we don't have our you know, our cards where we can tap or you know, insert the chip and all that, we we have to go inside and we have to see a person, see a human. Doesn't matter how much we're talking, how much we're saying, it still counts as an individual that we're talking to. And we're gonna encounter nice people, we're gonna encounter not nice people, and so that's why it's very important that when we look ourselves in the mirror, that the person we see, we're as comfortable as we can be. We know there's gonna be obstacles, ups, downs, left, right, valleys, peaks. We need we get that. But we have to be confident and comfortable in our own skin. So it might come across like, oh, this person isn't listening, this person just doing their own thing. Well, when I feel called by God to do this work, that's not me doing my own thing. That's me following what God wants me to do. Or your higher authority. You don't have you don't have to be religious or have religious. We have goals. We try to achieve them. If more times than not, there were over 340 episodes. If I felt the calling that the show wasn't making a difference, it wasn't reaching people far and wide, then we wouldn't be having the show. We wouldn't be talking, I wouldn't be talking to you right now, but that's just how it's been. So that's why I continue. Well, we continue to have shows. We continue to talk about hard topics. Some funny, some very serious. Uh you know, there's there's songs that you'll you'll see or listen and hear me try to sing. I'm not a singer. That's not my that's not my my biggest blessing. What I'm trying to do is inspire. Say, hey, that's pretty funny. He tried that song. He tried that song by Simple Playing, or Justin Bieber, or Tom Paddy. And if that gets you to laugh and you haven't laughed in a while, that's that's that's part of helping. That's one less person than maybe contemplating and in their life, and we don't want that. Just like that third eye blind song. We wish you stepped back from that ledge, my friend. And like Dan Reynolds with Imagine Dragon says at concerts, there's always it's always worth living. Take one step at a time. Nothing happens overnight. I didn't just wake up and have 342, 343 episodes. It's been a lot of hard work, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. Because it's helping my mental health because I'm able to share in a very similar way as I do at therapy appointments that I have. Might not get into every single specific thing. But as much as I am helping you is my wish, it's my hope, you're helping me by watching and listening, smashing that subscribe button, sharing, following, thumbs up. You're helping me. You're helping me keep going. So it's just not about a one-way street, it's a two-way street. That by continuing to show love and support, and yeah, there's haters and detractors, that's just gonna happen. But you're helping me just as much as I'm helping you, and I just want you to know that that's the only takeaway from this particular episode that you're you are helping me by every single time that you log in, that you download, that you subscribe, uh, that you watch, you listen, all of that. Because it's just me, a human being, this talking and sharing, and then our guests there's talking and sharing as whole human beings. That's all we're doing. Not talking about a superpower that that I have, I don't have a superpower. I'm a human being. We serve God, it's his will to be done, not mine, not yours. So when you feel a calling to do something, by golly, give it a shot. Give it a give it a try. I don't mean shooting, I mean give it a try. I failed at so many things. So many things. But at least I can look back without regret and know that at the end of my days I'll be able to think and feel as best as my mind will be at that point. Yeah, I tried I I tried some ideas outside the box. And whether they work or not, it's just the fact that I don't have to I I don't have to have regret in my mind in my my my last days. I I can just spend those with my family and and loved ones, and uh that I don't have to think, oh Justin, you should have done this, you should have tried that. I'm not perfect, so there's gonna be things that I I will probably think that oh, I wish you would have did things this way and that way, but this isn't gonna be one of those, this isn't gonna be one of those regrets, and to know that we are helping people, and the way that we're able to understand that is by you tuning in and coming along for this ride. So we ask you to download all of our previous episodes, subscribe, smash that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up, like, follow, share. Can't do this without you. You are so important to me, to us, to my mental health, and we wish you nothing but the best success, however, that comes. We pray that you give things a try, that you do the best you can, and that's all we can do as individuals. So let's again let's celebrate everybody's voice, no matter how good it sounds or how bad it sounds, if it's on key or off key. Let's just have fun, let's smile. I try to smile. Some days are easier than other others, but that's life. Don't let that get you down, don't let others get you down. Remove yourself from toxic situations. It's a hard thing to do, but it's something that is going to be beneficial for this right here, this brain of yours. Only for a certain amount of time. So, do we want any more time taken away by toxic people? They're trying to take your energy, my energy? No, we don't. So it might be hard to remove ourselves from those toxic situations. Nothing, nothing's easy. So celebrate those voices in all of us, be a voice for you or someone in need, and we're praying for you. God bless you in the United States of America, and God bless all human beings all over the world. We love you, we miss you. Come back and visit us again. We'll be right here. And again, check out our catalog over 340 episodes. We'd love for you to join our movement to help be a positive voice for change with us. So until next time, this is Justin Alan Hayes, and we'll see you next time. Bye bye for now.