Men don’t talk. Not with friends. Not with family. Not even with themselves.
For most of my life, I didn’t either. I learned early how to muscle through whatever hurt, stay composed, and keep going no matter what was happening inside. That approach got me through a lot. It helped me survive, build a career, show up for others, and keep life moving forward.
It worked. Until it didn’t.
At some point, things started to feel heavier in ways I couldn’t name. Old wounds showed up in new places. Reactions felt bigger than the moment in front of me. My body carried tension I didn’t notice until it became impossible to ignore. The internal noise got louder, but I didn’t have the language for what was actually going on.
This space exists because of that moment.
Inside Out Healing is about learning to understand what’s happening beneath the surface. The quiet places men are rarely invited to explore. This is not therapy. It’s not lectures. It’s not a checklist to become a “better man.”
It’s a place to slow down and start paying attention.
What I share here comes from lived experience. Recovery. Setbacks. Rebuilding more than once. Learning, often the hard way, that real change doesn’t start with fixing the outside. It starts with understanding what’s happening inside, in the body, in the nervous system, in the patterns we repeat without realizing it.
Here you’ll find reflections on emotional awareness, internal signals, and the constant background tension many men live with without naming. You’ll also find practical, grounded writing about rebuilding from the inside out. Slowly. Honestly. Without pressure or judgment.
There’s no expectation here to fix everything today.
No labels to take on.
No version of perfection to chase.
Just a place to start listening.
Take what speaks to you. Leave what doesn’t. And if something here helps you name what’s been going on inside, even a little, you’re already moving forward. Quietly. Slowly. In a way that actually lasts.
My Most Socially Acceptable Addiction
When I think about addiction, I usually think of the obvious ones. But this is about the habit I didn’t question for years, because it looked responsible, informed, and socially acceptable, until I noticed what it was doing to me on the inside.
Accepting Help Without the Old Story
Accepting help used to feel like weakness to me. While recovering from the flu, I noticed something new. I was letting care in, without guilt, without shame, and without the old story that I had to do everything on my own.
When Guilt Shows Up Disguised as Responsibility
Traffic and small annoyances shouldn’t have mattered, but something in me tightened. This is what I noticed after the moment passed.
When the Day Starts Foggy and Clears as You Go
Some mornings I don’t feel ready to write. My mind is foggy, the coffee hasn’t kicked in, and forcing it only makes things heavier. This is a reflection on how clarity sometimes shows up after we begin, not before.
Stoicism for Men in Healing: Control What You Can
Stoicism is often misunderstood as emotional suppression. In healing, it becomes something quieter and stronger, learning to control your responses, respect your limits, and work with reality instead of fighting it.
When the Body Says “Enough”
A quiet week of illness, overstimulation, and reflection became a reminder that healing often looks like maintenance, not momentum.
Why I Used to Hate New Year’s Eve
For years, New Year’s Eve felt loaded with pressure, heartbreak, and old patterns. This reflection explores how healing helped loosen its grip and reclaim the night on my terms.
Letting the Year Exhale
As the year winds down, there’s often pressure to make sense of it all. This short Meditation Monday post offers a simple pause to let the body breathe out what it’s been holding, without analysis or effort.
Two Tips for Your First Sober Christmas
If this is your first sober Christmas, you don’t need ten tips, a perfect plan, or festive enthusiasm. You just need a couple of steady anchors to help you get through it sober and intact.
Off Duty: The Other Side of Mike
A lighter side of life. AI automotive renderings, stories, memories, recipes and the creative things that make life feel full and human.
Mike Allan, SEO Consultant
Healing is the heart of this site, but SEO is still how I keep the lights on.
I’ve been doing this work for more than twenty years, and I still help businesses with the practical stuff, from local visibility to technical issues and AEO. If you need steady, no-nonsense SEO support, you can read more here.