Nancy Deyo

Beyond Pushing Through: Reinventing Resilience

Author of Perilous Ascent, Former Silicon Valley CEO and Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow — Speaker

Healing Conversation #1354

— Today’s conversation explores what happens when the old strategy of “pushing through” stops working—and how resilience can be reinvented into a way of living, not just surviving. Nancy and I had a candid, hopeful conversation about learning to live differently after injury and chronic pain. We cover meaningful reflections on shifting identity, the emotional toll of being told you’re “fine,” rebuilding trust with your body, and the surprising possibilities that open when you stop forcing the old path. This episode is for anyone exhausted by effort that no longer yields results—and for anyone ready to discover a new kind of well-being rooted in acceptance, curiosity, and practical change.

Valeria interviews Nancy Deyo  — She is a former Silicon Valley CEO and Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow whose career and identity were upended by chronic pain and disability. 

After a spinal injury on Mount Kilimanjaro, she spent fifteen years navigating chronic illness, opioid dependence, medical uncertainty, and identity collapse.

Once accustomed to a life of constant motion—leading a technology company and traveling the world—pain forced Nancy to live lying down, as the strategies that had defined her no longer worked. When medicine offered no clear answers, she explored everything from cutting-edge treatments to energy healers and shamans.

The turning point was not a cure, but a shift: learning to rebuild her life within the constraints of chronic pain. She returned to the world on new terms—attending graduate school lying on an army cot and eventually resuming travel and work the same way.

Today, Nancy writes and speaks about chronic pain, identity, and resilience. Her forthcoming memoir is Perilous Ascent.

Learn more about Nancy Deyo and her work!