The Art of Honesty

Victim to Survivor to Thriver: The Journey Back to Yourself Through PTSDThis conversation is about what it looks like to live with post-traumatic stress disorder from the middle of ongoing healing, through honesty, nervous system work, and daily choices to stay present. Host Allison speaks with Sims, who shares his history of childhood sexual abuse, years of misdiagnoses before learning he had PTSD. Sims discusses CBT and EMDR, getting off antidepressants and the routines that support his regulation-sleep, exercise, sunshine, clean eating, breathwork, and play. He explains how public storytelling became a duty, how he reframed identity beyond “survivor,” and how his experiences shape emotionally attuned parenting, affirmations, and modeling service, alongside forgiveness toward his parents.

00:00 Welcome to the Podcast

00:25 Content Warning

00:40 Why This Episode Matters

01:45 Where Sims Is Now

02:21 Letting the Inner Child Play

03:14 Discovering PTSD Late

04:38 Early Therapy and Setbacks

05:33 Returning to Therapy

06:25 EMDR and Healing Tools

07:04 Abuse and Substance Use

08:27 Sobriety and Plant Medicine

10:59 Microdosing and Macro Doses12:57 Building New Neural Paths

14:41 Embracing the Full Self

16:55 Rumi and Full Spectrum Feelings

19:31 Leaving Meds Behind

22:47 The Sims Sauce Routine

25:56 Slow Morning Luxury

28:06 Breathwork Daily Tool

30:12 Box Breath And Humming

32:51 Comfort With Feelings

34:57 Finding Resilience Voice

39:09 Inner Child Healing

44:28 Beyond Survivor Identity

48:40 Parenting With Agency

53:54 Forgiving Parents

55:51 Closing Reflections

This podcast is built around honest conversations and shared experience. If something from this episode resonated with you, or you have thoughts you want to share, feel free to email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠. And if you feel like coming on the podcast for a real conversation, reach out and say hi.

Stay connected and follow along on Instagram ⁠@theartofhonestypodcast⁠

This conversation is about transformation over time, choosing honesty over perfection, and what changes when you finally meet yourself.

Patty shares where he is in life now, feeling grateful, more decisive, and learning how to slow down after years of constantly saying yes and pushing himself to keep up with the pace around him. He reflects on how quickly emotional seasons can shift, and how life has a way of returning us to the lessons we have not fully learned yet.

The conversation moves through Patty’s early experiences with grief, the pressure to be productive, and the ways shame and isolation shaped his relationship with confidence and self expression. For many years he hid parts of himself, including his sexuality and sensitivity, which made things like singing and creative expression feel unsafe to share.

Over time, practices like yoga, therapy, travel, fasting, and time spent at an ashram in Cambodia began to move healing from the mind into the body. Those experiences eventually led him into teaching, working through feelings of imposter syndrome, and helping create Grounded Good Guys, a space for men seeking connection, growth, and emotional honesty.

At its heart, this conversation is about learning to slow down, allowing life to be messy, and recognizing that healing rarely looks neat or linear. Sometimes it simply looks like choosing to stay present with what is.

Chapters

00:27 Meet Patty
01:44 Where Patty Is Now
04:35 Learning to Slow Down
08:12 The Pressure to Always Be Productive
12:10 Early Grief and Childhood Experiences
16:02 Shame, Isolation, and Hiding Parts of Himself
20:30 Confidence, Singing, and Self Expression
25:18 Discovering Yoga and Body Based Healing
30:07 Therapy, Travel, and Personal Growth
34:52 Time at an Ashram in Cambodia
39:15 Fasting and Spiritual Exploration
43:36 Moving From Healing to Teaching
48:10 Facing Imposter Syndrome
52:05 Creating Grounded Good Guys
56:40 Men, Vulnerability, and Community
1:01:20 Letting Life Be a Beautiful Mess
1:04:10 What Patty Is Learning Right Now
1:07:05 Closing Reflections

This podcast is built around honest conversations and shared experience. If something from this episode resonated with you, or you have thoughts you want to share, feel free to email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠. And if you feel like coming on the podcast for a real conversation, reach out and say hi.

Stay connected and follow along on Instagram ⁠@theartofhonestypodcast⁠

This conversation explores loneliness in adulthood as relationships, identity, and expectations shift over time. Amanda shares what it has been like approaching 37 and letting go of the timeline she once imagined for marriage and children, finding a sense of peace, independence, and a season centered around friendships with other women.

She reflects on the contrast between her twenties and thirties. Her twenties were filled with constant work travel, chaotic routines, and relationships that often left her feeling alone. Her thirties feel more grounded and intentional. After experiencing severe burnout and taking FMLA from work, she began prioritizing her mental health, learning to recognize which relationships drained her and which ones supported her, and setting clearer boundaries.

The conversation touches on the joy of missing out, being less available through texting, the beauty of secure friendships that do not require constant contact, and how personal growth can sometimes change the shape of relationships. It also explores the difference between being alone and feeling lonely, and how solitude can become something nourishing rather than something to avoid.

Chapters
00:00 Welcome to the Podcast
00:31 Meet Amanda
01:17 Life at 37
03:59 Plans vs Reality
05:53 Connection and Charlie
07:18 Twenties vs Thirties
13:23 Lonely While Traveling
16:22 Alone in Relationships
22:08 Burnout Wake Up Call
28:16 Putting Yourself First
31:29 Friendships After Reset
33:55 Boundaries and Texting
34:34 Do Not Disturb Boundaries
37:09 ADHD and Texting Guilt
39:21 Lonely vs Alone
41:16 JOMO and Early Nights
43:31 Scheduling Solo Time
47:57 Irish Goodbye Story
50:34 What Makes a Good Friend
56:10 Closing and Side Quests
58:07 Final Takeaways

This podcast is built around honest conversations and shared experience. If something from this episode resonated with you, or you have thoughts you want to share, feel free to email ⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠. And if you feel like coming on the podcast for a real conversation, reach out and say hi.

Stay connected and follow along on Instagram ⁠@theartofhonestypodcast⁠

This conversation explores what it means to stay human while moving through grief, corporate systems, and personal transformation.

Allison sits down with Clinton, someone she first connected with beyond small talk in a corporate environment, for a wide ranging discussion about loss, meaning, and authenticity. Clinton shares how a period of deep personal grief reshaped the way he thinks about life, identity, and the systems we spend our time inside.

From there, the conversation expands into how people make meaning through lived experience and how our understanding of time, truth, and identity can shift during moments of change. Allison and Clinton also explore authenticity in professional spaces that often operate through impersonal incentives and survival logic. Clinton reflects on how he learned to “parcel” authenticity at work, translating corporate motivations into values he could stand behind, and what led him to leave when trust and psychological safety began to erode.

They also discuss curiosity, discomfort, and how personal value systems are often built through questioning rather than certainty. The conversation moves into how algorithms reward outrage and engagement, how that influences trust and community, and why humans are wired for smaller circles of connection.

Throughout the episode, Clinton reflects on what it can feel like to think deeply about systems in a world that often rewards simplicity and speed, and why small acts of curiosity and honesty can quietly shift the environments we move through.

The episode closes with a reflection on connection, curiosity, and the small ways people plant seeds of change simply by sharing honestly.

Chapters

00:27 Meeting Clinton
01:57 Where Are You Now
04:43 Loss and Grief
09:03 Living With the Hole
13:40 Time and Recurrence
20:24 Authenticity at Work
25:43 Safety and Survival
32:53 Clinton’s Career Path
39:54 Is Authenticity Internal
40:36 Privilege and Risk
42:55 Trying on Ideas
46:58 Corporate Conformity
50:45 Curiosity Costs
54:44 Rebuilding Values
01:04:51 No View From Nowhere
01:09:22 Algorithms and Rage
01:15:53 Nervous System Awareness
01:18:55 Faulty Threat Detection
01:19:39 Algorithms Hijack Trust
01:21:21 Evolutionary Roots of Trust
01:24:48 Dunbar Number Explained
01:26:02 Systems Need Narratives
01:35:45 Isolation of System Thinkers
01:40:12 Everyday Seed Planting
01:50:02 Creating Ourselves Together
01:53:06 Maps Versus Coastlines
01:55:59 Closing Reflections

This podcast is built around honest conversations and shared experience. If something from this episode resonated with you, or you have thoughts you want to share, feel free to email ⁠[email protected]⁠. And if you feel like coming on the podcast for a real conversation, reach out and say hi.

Stay connected and follow along on Instagram @theartofhonestypodcast.

This conversation explores what it looks like to choose yourself when the life you built no longer feels aligned.

Brian shares how he moved from a traditional path rooted in practicality, stability, and corporate success toward a life shaped by uncertainty, healing, and inner work. Raised in North Dakota with values centered on security and achievement, he followed the expected milestones, building a career, buying a home, and getting married. Over time, quiet inner signals began to surface that something deeper was asking for attention.

Those whispers eventually led to divorce, leaving corporate life, and stepping into a new chapter as a conscious connected breathwork facilitator. Along the way came loneliness, grief, and the disorientation that can accompany releasing old identities.

The conversation explores how Brian experienced those inner signals through his body, how he learned to work with fear through planning and curiosity rather than avoidance, and how breathwork became a grounding practice that supports his nervous system and helps him remain present with discomfort instead of numbing it through habits like doom scrolling.

Brian also reflects on reparenting himself, and the role of community and language for men who want to pursue healing and emotional honesty.

The episode closes with a shift in perspective. Rather than chasing a fixed version of who he believes he is supposed to become, Brian shares a new honesty emerging in his life, learning to meet the present moment as it is and allowing his path to remain unfinished.

Chapters

00:27 Meet Brian: Living with Intention While Surrendering Control

01:28 “I’m Ascending”: What Feels Alive (and What Feels Like Grief)

04:24 Defining Ascension: Expansion Without “Shedding” Your Past

08:25 Identity Shift: From Corporate Path to Something Unknown

11:05 The “Whispers” Get Loud: Marriage, Work, and Choosing Yourself

14:16 Somatic Signals & the Nervous System: When Your Body Speaks

17:59 Overriding the Ego: Planning, Information, and Taking the Leap

22:24 Relationship with the Unknown: Courage, Death Awareness, and Life’s Malleability

25:46 Breathwork 101: What It Is and How Brian Found It

28:55 Do You Have to Be Spiritual? Making Breathwork Accessible

30:33 Why Breathwork Helps: Nervous System Shifts, Integration, and Identity Grief

39:30 Micro-commitments: breaking the doom-scroll loop with tiny actions

41:53 Phone-locking & dopamine substitution: what happens when you remove the apps

45:58 Tracing the pattern to childhood: comfort-seeking, food, and “fun only” wiring

48:04 Reparenting out loud: shame, community, and finding your people

50:39 Compassion for parents + the messy spectrum of forgiveness

57:05 Healing as a man: language, community, and permission to feel

01:01:21 Full-spectrum humanity: masculinity/femininity, touch, and breathwork facilitation

01:08:49 Purpose in service: rising together + how connection has changed

01:12:40 Closing reflections: presence over “becoming” and staying unfinished

This podcast is built around honest conversations and shared experience. If something from this episode resonated with you, or you have thoughts you want to share, feel free to email ⁠[email protected]⁠. And if you feel like coming on the podcast for a real conversation, reach out and say hi.

Stay connected and follow along on Instagram @theartofhonestypodcast.

Introduction Episode: Why I Created The Art of Honesty

This first episode is a short introduction to the heart behind The Art of Honesty and the reason this podcast exists.

I share the belief that inspired it, that people are changed by being seen, not by being told what to do. In a world where so many conversations feel polished or outcome driven, this space was created to hold something different. Honest, human conversations that make room for uncertainty, curiosity, and the in between moments where most of life actually happens.

The Art of Honesty is not a place for instructions, formulas, or perfect answers. It is a place for presence. Each episode will feature real conversations with everyday people about the experiences that shape us, including relationships, growth, fear, identity, healing, and the quiet shifts that happen inside us over time.

My hope is simple. That when you listen, you feel a little less alone, a little more connected, and a little more free to be yourself.

If you have ever craved deeper conversation, meaningful connection, or spaces where people can simply be real, you are in the right place.

Thank you for being here at the beginning.

This podcast is built around honest conversations and shared experience. If something from this episode resonated with you, or you have thoughts you want to share, feel free to email ⁠[email protected]⁠. And if you feel like coming on the podcast for a real conversation, reach out and say hi.

Stay connected and follow along on Instagram @theartofhonestypodcast.