38. Break Free from Fear: Grounding, Breathwork, and HeartMath Tools for Caregivers

Fear can be paralyzing—but it doesn’t have to run your life. In this episode of Becoming Your Best with Jenny Lytle, RN, Jenny shares personal insights on how fear once silenced her voice—and how she reclaimed her confidence through small, consistent actions.

If fear, stress, or burnout are keeping you stuck, tune in to discover easy, science-backed tools to calm your nervous system and take back control.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• What fear does to your brain (and how to shut off the alarm)
• Simple breathing techniques (Box Breathing, 4-7-8) to regulate stress
• The HeartMath Quick Coherence® technique for emotional reset
• A powerful grounding practice to get out of your head fast
• How movement, connection, and journaling can shrink fear and build resilience

Takeaway Action Step:
✅ Choose one calming technique from this episode and try it today.
✅ Text or email Jenny to share what worked for you!

🧠 "Thinking will not overcome fear—but action will." – W. Clement Stone

If you're feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or like there’s never enough time, I’ve got something just for you! Head to https://selfcareisntselfish.com to grab your FREE copy of my book, Self-Care Isn’t Selfish: The Compassionate Nurse’s Step-by-Step Guide to Personalized Stress Relief. It’s packed with simple, effective strategies to help you prioritize your needs—without guilt—so you can feel energized, focused, and ready to take on the day. Go to https://selfcareisntselfish.com 

Looking for connection with people who get the stress and self-care struggles of nurses and caregivers? Check out https://thenursesbreakroom.com

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennylytlern/

More ways to connect here: https://linktr.ee/jennylytle

Chapters

• 0:59 Welcome and Introduction
• 1:25 Personal Journey with Fear
• 2:45 Understanding Fear in the Brain
• 3:53 Breathing Techniques for Calming Fear
• 5:00 Heart Math Quick Coherence Technique
• 7:24 Grounding Techniques and Moving Forward
• 9:33 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:30

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nurses Break Room with Jenny Lytle, rn, and today we are going to focus on the topic of fear and the way that it can keep us from living our best lives. So this morning I was reading my devotional and fear was one of the topics and it caught me thinking. There's a lot of areas in my life where I've really stepped outside of my comfort zone, where I've really stretched things and I don't feel like fear is holding me back nearly as much as it used to, and I used to be terrified of public speaking and I would actually lose my voice a bit when I had to speak in front of others for very long, but what I found is that the more that I do it, the more comfortable I get. I don't lose my voice anymore and I found that I really enjoy it. And am I the best speaker? No, but I am getting better each time and I'm getting more comfortable and more confident each time, and none of the awful things that I was so afraid of have ever happened, and so I know that we can overcome fears. But there are still some areas where I do find myself holding back a little bit. Now that I really think about it and I know I'm not the only one going through this.

Speaker 1: 2:05

Some of the clients that I work with get stuck in that fear mode and are afraid to take action. So let's just break things down a little bit. And are afraid to take action. So let's just break things down a little bit. So fear in terms of what's going on in our brain. We have the amygdala, which is the brain's alarm system, and that is where emotions like fear really pop up. And then we have our prefrontal cortex, which is the logical part of our brain, and it makes calm, clear decisions. But when we're stressed, then those logical, calm decisions can get shut down and our panic can amp up. And when we have repeated stress, like in nursing or caregiving or so many other roles, our brain can stay stuck in survival mode. When we have a lot of trauma or grief or burnout, then that keeps the alarm system stuck on. But the good news is we can rewire it because our brain is changeable and that's called neuroplasticity, and we can learn and incorporate new calming habits to help shrink the fear response and build resilience. So here are some tools that work in the real world Slow breathing when we slow down our breathing a bit, especially when we focus on the exhale a little more, that helps to reset our nervous system.

Speaker 1: 3:42

So I like to do box breathing, where you breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. That's a nice simple one that you can do. Or I also really like the four, seven, eight breathing, where you inhale for four, hold for seven and exhale for eight, and so that goes like this Inhale, hold, exhale. So when we have that prolonged exhale, that really helps to reset things. Now the heart math, quick coherence technique is something that we've talked about before, and the power of the quick coherence technique comes from positive emotions about before. And the power of the quick coherence technique comes from positive emotions and when we engage in positive feelings, then we're able to replace those depleting or negative emotions with ones that can really renew our system. And it's an easy technique.

Speaker 1: 4:53

But each step is important, and so, step one focus your attention in the area of the heart. Imagine your breath is flowing in and out of your heart or chest area, breathing a little slower and deeper than usual. You can inhale for five seconds, exhale for five seconds, or whatever rhythm is comfortable. Step two make a sincere attempt to experience a regenerative feeling, such as appreciation or care for someone or something in your life. You can try to re-experience the feeling you have for someone you love, a pet, a special place, an accomplishment, etc. Or just focus on a feeling of calm or ease, and this is a tool that you can use anytime to decrease stress and regulating your own emotions with this technique. But because we are electromagnetically charged beings, the people that are around us are also brought into a more coherent state, even if they have no idea what you're doing. This isn't anything that anyone has to know that you're using. It's something that is so simple but so effective and can be used to really help settle things down when fear or anxiety start taking over.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Now the next technique is a grounding technique. Technique is a grounding technique, and when we get caught up in fear or in anxiety, then we can get very in our head and it's hard to. It's hard to get ourselves to calm down by telling ourselves to calm down. That really can make things worse, and so looking outside of ourselves can be effective to to reset things and take our mind off of our inner turmoil. So with the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique you're going to identify five things. You can see four things, you can touch three things, you can hear two things, you can smell and one thing you can taste. And that helps to get you outside of your head a little bit. Doing something like chair yoga or some sort of movement that allows for that stuck energy to move through you can be very effective.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Connecting with others can also be very effective, because as we're connecting with others who are calm and who feel safe, then that can help alleviate some of our fears. And one of my favorites, when I have a little more time, is doing some journaling around the fear or anxiety that I'm feeling and just getting curious about what is going on. And none of it is meant to be a judgment, but it's just to explore the fear, the things that I'm feeling, a little bit more, to explore the fear, the things that I'm feeling, a little bit more. So what's one fear that you'd like to let go of or at least loosen your grip on? And I encourage you to try just one of these calming tools today and I'd love for you to shoot me a text or email and let me know how that went for you.

Speaker 1: 9:04

I want to finish with this quote by W Clement Stone Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will. Until next time, remember self-care isn't selfish. It's essential if we want to continue to care for others and live our best lives. Have a great week.