Break Your Shell

In this episode of Conversations with Thomas, Thomas shares a powerful story from his childhood about the moment he unknowingly absorbed the belief that money and happiness could not coexist. Decades later, that inherited message was still shaping his life in ways he never saw coming.

Through therapy, coaching, and one very uncomfortable prosperity exercise, Thomas reveals how old stories become shells we grow inside and eventually outgrow. He unpacks why these shells form, why breaking them feels terrifying, and how we can loosen the patterns that keep us confined.

With humor and heart, he offers a simple three-part practice for breaking any shell, whether it is rooted in scarcity, identity, worthiness, or fear. He also invites listeners to join HeartFULL Rebellion on Instagram for short, supportive videos that help you rise into the life you are becoming.

If you are ready to shed an old story and breathe into something bigger, this episode is for you.

The Courage to Be Stupid

We spend so much of life trying not to look foolish. We polish our words, perfect our image, and perform certainty — all to hide the places we feel unsure.

But what if the moments we call stupid are actually moments of sacred openness?

In this tender conversation, Thomas explores the lifelong pattern of masking vulnerability with knowing, and the healing that comes when we meet our own uncertainty with compassion instead of shame.

Drawing on Gangaji’s invitation to “be willing to be stupid,” Jungian psychology, and modern neuroscience, he reveals how the courage to not know can free us from perfectionism and deepen our connection to self and others.

Featuring insights from Esther Perel and rest activist Tricia Hersey, this episode invites listeners to reclaim curiosity, humility, and the quiet brilliance that lives inside imperfection.

It includes a gentle, heart-based practice, The Three-Step Pause, for the moments you feel the urge to cover up instead of open up.

A reminder that wisdom isn’t found in having all the answers. It begins in the willingness to learn out loud.

What if thriving isn’t the opposite of surviving?

In this episode, Thomas explores the beautiful tension between the two, a hybrid he calls SurThriving. With warmth, humor, and a dose of neuroscience, he unpacks how endurance becomes evolution and how survival itself can be sacred.

Thomas shares a personal story from his memoir Little Fag: A Story of Self-Acceptance and Healing, and draws wisdom from Dr. Thema Bryant, Brittney Cooper, Rachel Cargle, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Ocean Vuong.

You’ll learn two SurThriving Practices:

The Daily Debrief — a two-minute ritual to reframe survival as wisdom.
The Joy Rebellion — a practice of choosing delight as a radical act of healing.

Because somewhere between holding on and letting go, we find the rhythm of being beautifully, imperfectly human.