Notes from the Edge

Latest Episodes:

Edge Note: What if the thing destroying your peace is control? Oct 11, 2026

Show notes

In this Edge Note solo episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy gets personal about Bipolar I, trauma, uncertainty, and the exhausting need to control outcomes when your nervous system learned early that powerlessness could be dangerous.This is not another “just let it go” conversation. Lisa explores what control actually looks like when you live with mental illness, why uncertainty can feel threatening even when you are clinically supported and properly medicated, and how to separate what requires action from what simply requires us to tolerate not knowing yet.In this episode:

Why trauma and mental illness can make uncertainty feel like danger
The difference between taking responsible action and trying to control an outcome
How hypervigilance can disguise itself as preparation, responsibility, and problem-solving
How to separate facts from catastrophic predictions when your mind is activated
Practical tools for grounding, shrinking time, regulating your body, and deciding what actually needs your attention right now

If you have ever done everything you could and still found yourself obsessing over what happens next, this conversation is for you.The goal is not to stop caring about outcomes.It is to trust yourself enough to know that you can survive the uncertainty between action and outcome.
Connect with Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat 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.

Edge Note: What if your mind understands the trauma, but your body is still surviving it? Oct 10, 2026

Show notes

You can understand your patterns. You can know where they came from. You can spend years learning the language of trauma and healing, and still find your body reacting as if the danger never ended.In this Edge Note episode of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with registered somatic movement therapist and educator Katy Slany for a conversation about somatic therapy, nervous system regulation, embodied healing, and why insight alone does not always create lasting change.Katy explains why trauma is a whole-body experience, what people actually mean when they talk about “regulating the nervous system,” and how learning to tolerate and understand our physical sensations can change the way we respond to anxiety, fear, relationships, and the world around us. She also shares her own healing journey and how survival, illness, isolation, and the fear of connection became deeply intertwined.This conversation is ultimately about something bigger than regulation. It is about recovering choice, autonomy, and the ability to listen to the wisdom of your own body.
In this episode:• Why understanding trauma intellectually may not change the body’s response• What nervous system regulation actually means and why it is often oversimplified• How somatic work can help us reconnect with sensations we have learned to avoid• Why healing is not a destination, but a changing relationship with our experiences• How inherited beliefs, survival patterns, and conditioning can disconnect us from our autonomy and power
Connect with Katy Slany:Katy Slany | Transformative Somatic Education
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 if it's still not enough? Achievement Addiction, Human Performance & Finding Meaning with Dr. Jack Groppel Oct 10, 2026

Show notes

What happens when you achieve everything you thought you wanted and discover it still doesn’t feel like enough?Dr. Jack Groppel is a pioneering sports scientist and co-founder of the Human Performance Institute whose work reveals a powerful truth: peak performance and a meaningful life are not necessarily the same thing.In this conversation, Jack and Lisa explore how achievement can become addictive, why our need for approval can hide underneath ambition, and what decades of studying elite human performance taught him about energy, recovery, and fulfillment. Jack also shares how adopting his son and climbing Mount Kilimanjaro together ultimately forced him to reconsider his definitions of strength, fatherhood, success, and what matters most.
In this episode:

Human performance and sports science
Achievement addiction and overachievement
The need for approval and people pleasing
Burnout, energy management, and recovery
Fatherhood and adoption
Leadership and high performance
Purpose, meaning, and fulfillment
Mount Kilimanjaro and Mountains Within
Redefining success

Learn more about Dr. Jack Groppel and Mountains Within:https://jackgroppel.net
Explore more from Lisa Lacy Inside the Edge:Inside The Edge — Lisa Lacy
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 Pushing Through Is the Problem? Burnout, Autoimmunity & Healing with Kristen Renee Appleby Oct 09, 2026

Show notes

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-edgeWhat 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 Being Capable Doesn’t Mean You’re Okay? Chronic Illness & Survival with Jenna Schutt Oct 08, 2026

Show notes

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.

SPECIAL EDITION: Mental Health Awareness Week | The Psychotic Trifecta Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

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 narratorMental 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-edgeWhat 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 success isn’t something you chase, but something you build? Self-Worth, Self-Belief, and Consistency with Amy Lenius Oct 07, 2026

Show notes

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 LeniusNext Level University Group Coaching: nextleveluniverse.com/group-coaching⁠Instagram: @amyleniusFacebook: Amy Lenius
Connect with Lisa LacyInside 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.

Can Chronic Back Pain Be Rewired? Back Surgery Alternatives with Dr. Eric Anderson Oct 06, 2026

Show notes

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 AndersonLearn more about Dr. Anderson and Lin Health:https://lin.health
Connect with Lisa LacyLearn more about Lisa, Notes From the Edge, and her work:https://www.lisalacy.comWhat 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.

Edge Note: What if positivity is keeping you stuck? Oct 03, 2026

Show notes

We are told to look for the good, raise our vibration, practice gratitude, forgive, move on, and trust that everything happens for a reason. But what happens when positivity becomes another way to avoid reality?In this Edge Note, Lisa Lacy explores spiritual bypassing, false positivity, trauma, emotional avoidance, and the difference between acceptance and resignation. Facing what is painful does not make you negative. Sometimes it simply means you are willing to tell yourself the truth.Two people can experience what looks like the same event and carry completely different emotional consequences from it. Trauma is not determined only by what happened. Context, meaning, safety, loss, and what happened afterward all matter.Healing does not require pretending everything is beautiful. It requires being willing to see your life as it exists today so you can decide what you want to create tomorrow.In this episode:

Why false positivity can keep us from making meaningful change
What spiritual bypassing looks like when spiritual ideas are used to avoid painful emotions
Why two people can experience the same event and be affected completely differently
The difference between acknowledging victimization and remaining trapped in a victim identity
Why accepting reality may be one of the most powerful ways to reclaim agency over what happens next

Go deeper Inside the Edge https://www.lisalacy.com/inside-the-edgeWhat 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.

Edge Note: What Happens When You Stop Searching Outside Yourself Oct 03, 2026

Show notes

What if the answers you’ve spent your whole life searching for aren’t somewhere out there, but waiting for you to finally turn inward?In this Edge Note of Notes From the Edge, Lisa Lacy sits down with psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, mentor, and author Rosanne Annoni for a deeply human conversation about spiritual awakening, grief, forgiveness, self-inquiry, and what happens when we stop looking outside ourselves for permission, validation, and truth.After decades as a psychotherapist and years of her own searching, Rosanne shares how therapy, meditation, loss, motherhood, relationships, and the Diamond Approach gradually brought her back to herself. Together, Lisa and Rosanne explore the difference between understanding our patterns and learning not to be ruled by them.In this conversation:

Why healing often begins when we stop focusing on everyone else and turn inward
How victimhood, blame, and self-blame can keep us trapped in old patterns
What forgiveness can look like without excusing what happened
Why people-pleasing and doing everything alone can disconnect us from ourselves
How curiosity, presence, self-inquiry, and accepting support can change the way we move through life

Rosanne’s debut memoir, Unfolding the Heart: One Woman’s Quest for True Nature, explores a lifetime of searching, loss, healing, spirituality, and the courage to keep standing back up.Connect with Rosanne Annonihttps://rosanneannoni.com
Connect with Lisa Lacyhttps://www.lisalacy.comWhat 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.

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