Notes from the Edge

What happens when the thing that made you successful, your ability to push through, perform, achieve, and keep going, becomes the very thing your body can no longer sustain?
In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with author, transformational coach, and founder of The Rebuild Collective, Kristen Renee Appleby, for a conversation about burnout, autoimmune illness, the mind-body connection, and what it really means to rebuild your life from the foundation up.
Kristen spent years searching for answers while navigating autoimmune illness, chronic inflammation, demanding work, financial stress, emotional suppression, and the expectation that she should simply keep functioning. Eventually, she began questioning whether all of those pieces were actually separate.
We talk about what happens when achievement becomes intertwined with survival, why changing a protocol without changing the environment may not be enough, and how our relationships with work, money, emotions, purpose, and ourselves can influence the way we experience our lives.
This conversation isn’t about abandoning ambition. It’s about asking whether the life you’re building actually has a foundation strong enough to hold it.

In this episode:
• How burnout and high-achiever survival patterns can hide behind capability and success
• Autoimmune illness, chronic inflammation, emotional suppression, and the mind-body connection
• Workplace stress, unhealthy environments, and what happens when pushing through stops working
• Financial stress, money wounds, limiting beliefs, and the connection between physical and financial wellness
• Kristen’s Healthy Foundation approach to rebuilding self-trust, authenticity, purpose, and a life that doesn’t require abandoning ambition

Connect with Kristen Renee Appleby:
https://www.kristenreneerebuilding.com

Connect with Lisa | Inside the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge
What did you perform in order to survive?
Welcome to the Edge.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when the strength everyone sees is actually survival mode?
Jenna Schutt, former cardiac registered nurse and stem cell transplant survivor, joins Lisa Lacy for a deeply human conversation about chronic illness, faith, fear, motherhood, and what happens when being incredibly capable convinces everyone around you that you must be okay.
Diagnosed with a rare, incurable disease at 30 while raising two children still in diapers, Jenna endured ten rounds of chemotherapy, serious medical complications, a stem cell transplant, and ongoing graft-versus-host disease. But this conversation goes beyond what happened medically. Jenna and Lisa explore the identity shift from nurse to patient, grieving the life you thought you would have, learning to listen to your body, and recognizing when strength has become a performance.
In this episode:
Chronic illness and survival mode
Performing strength while struggling internally
Fear, faith and emotional resilience
Motherhood during a medical crisis
Grief, identity and uncertainty after diagnosis
Stem cell transplant and graft-versus-host disease
Why being capable does not mean being okay
Learning that rest is medicine
The Joy Reflex and retraining your response to fear

Connect with Jenna Schutt:
https://www.jennaschutt.com/

Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge

What did you perform in order to survive?
Welcome to the Edge.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What happens when your mind creates a reality so convincing that everyone else can tell you it isn’t real, and you still know what you saw, heard, felt, and lived?
In this Special Edition of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy opens up about living with Bipolar I Disorder, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Complex PTSD, including what psychosis actually felt like from inside of it.
“The Psychotic Trifecta” is Lisa’s personal description of the collision of these conditions, not a clinical term. Bipolar I can include psychosis, while BPD and CPTSD can involve dissociation, hypervigilance, emotional dysregulation, and disturbances in how we experience ourselves and other people.
This is not a clinical lecture.
This is what it feels like to live it.
Lisa also talks candidly about spending much of her life running on mania, why mania can masquerade as extraordinary productivity, and what happened when menopause brought a kind of depression she had never experienced before.
In this Special Edition:
• What Bipolar I mania and psychosis can actually feel like from the inside
• Why Bipolar I and Borderline Personality Disorder are often confused, but are fundamentally different
• How CPTSD, hypervigilance, dissociation, and trauma responses can overlap with both
• Why being highly functional does not necessarily mean someone is mentally well
• What Lisa has learned about reality-checking, treatment, self-awareness, and recognizing when her own mind may not be a reliable narrator
Mental illness does not remove intelligence.
Psychosis does not make someone stupid.
Trauma does not make someone weak.
And a diagnosis does not erase the human being living underneath it.
Connect with Lisa Inside the Edge:
https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge
What did you perform in order to survive?
Welcome to the Edge.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if sustainable success has less to do with talent, motivation, or doing more and more to do with self-worth, self-belief, and consistency?
In this episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with Amy Lenius, personal development and success coach, professional speaker, and Director of Group Coaching at Next Level University, for a conversation about redefining success from the inside out.
After navigating chronic illness from childhood, Amy began rebuilding not only her physical health but also her identity, beliefs, and relationship with herself. She explains why self-belief is built through action, why self-worth can quietly place a ceiling on achievement, and why sustainable change rarely comes from dramatic overnight transformation.
They also explore people-pleasing, burnout, boundaries, perfectionism, nervous-system regulation, and what happens when you stop performing as the person everyone else needs you to be.
In this episode:
The critical difference between self-belief and self-worth
Why messy action and consistency can matter more than talent or motivation
How people-pleasing, dimming yourself, and weak boundaries can erode self-worth
Why sustainable growth means expanding your comfort zone instead of jumping straight into overwhelm
How small, intentional actions can create lasting success without sacrificing your health, relationships, or identity

Connect with Amy Lenius
Next Level University Group Coaching: nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching⁠
Instagram: @amylenius
Facebook: Amy Lenius

Connect with Lisa Lacy
Inside the Edge: lisalacy.com/inside-the-edge

What did you perform in order to survive?
Welcome to the Edge.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What if the pain you feel and the damage seen on an MRI aren’t always the same thing?
Lisa Lacy sits down with neurologist Dr. Eric Anderson, MD, PhD, MBA, Chief Medical Officer at Lin Health, to explore chronic back pain, the nervous system, central sensitization, and what patients should understand before making major decisions about back surgery.
Dr. Anderson explains how chronic pain can become a highly sensitized alarm system, why imaging findings don’t always correspond with the intensity of someone’s pain, and how whole-person approaches may help some people retrain the nervous system and regain function.
In this conversation:
Why pain and structural damage are not necessarily the same thing, and what MRI findings can and cannot tell you.
How central sensitization can cause the nervous system’s protective alarm system to become overly sensitive.
The connection between stress, trauma, hypervigilance, the limbic system, and persistent pain.
How approaches including pain reprocessing therapy, CBT, graded exposure, emotional awareness, coaching, and movement can be incorporated into chronic pain recovery.
The questions to ask before back surgery, including expected outcomes, alternatives, recovery time, and when structural problems or progressive nerve damage may require surgical intervention.

This is not a conversation about telling people their pain isn’t real. It is about understanding pain more completely so patients can advocate for themselves and make informed decisions about their care.

Connect with Dr. Eric Anderson
Learn more about Dr. Anderson and Lin Health:
https://lin.health

Connect with Lisa Lacy
Learn more about Lisa, Notes From the Edge, and her work:
https://www.lisalacy.com
What did you perform in order to survive?
Welcome to the Edge.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.