Sacred Reckoning: Mental Health, Suicide, & the Transformative Power of Awareness with Thomas Brown

(With AI assistance:) *Content Warning*:
This episode contains open and honest conversations about suicide, grief, and mental health. While we aim to support awareness and healing, some content may be triggering for listeners. If you or someone you know is struggling, please reach out to a mental health professional or call a local support line. In the U.S., the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available at 988. You are not alone.

In this raw and courageous conversation, I sit down with Thomas Brown—artist, mental health advocate, and founder of RisePhoenix.org—to explore one of the most difficult, personal, and often stigmatized topics: suicide. What emerges is not just a discussion about pain and loss, but a heartfelt journey into awareness, integration, and the deep work of healing through mindfulness, art, and presence.

Thomas shares his own lived experience with suicide—not in abstract or clinical terms, but from the real place where inner crisis meets the human need for connection. With deep honesty, we discuss what it means to show up for ourselves and others in moments of despair, and how acknowledging the full spectrum of the human experience can open a path toward wholeness.

We unpack how our culture often avoids the difficult conversations—especially around mental health—and how platforms like his Inner Monologue podcast aim to give voice to what’s often kept in silence. Thomas speaks about the delicate balance of showing up publicly in these conversations while protecting the sacredness of what cannot always be put into words.

Throughout the episode, we explore:

The difference between talking about suicide and integrating the experience

How to sit with heavy emotions without judgment

The importance of reclaiming language around grief, healing, and inner awareness

Using art, creativity, and solitude as therapeutic practices

Recognizing our own "warning signs" with compassion rather than shame

The spiritual and existential layers beneath mental health narratives

How community, even a quiet one, can support lasting integration

We also touch on the significance of contemplative spaces like the desert, and how slowing down can allow us to hear the truths that often go unnoticed. Thomas reflects on what it means to “follow your bliss” not as escapism, but as deep attunement to your own inner world.

This episode isn’t a how-to guide or a set of neat answers. Instead, it’s a living, breathing exchange about what happens when you face the darkest moments of life and decide to stay—to listen, to heal, and to help others do the same.

https://www.tiktok.com/@rise_phx
https://www.facebook.com/risephoenix2012
https://www.instagram.com/_rise_philosophy
http://www.risephoenix.org