45. Permission to Pause: Finding Balance When Life Gets Full

In this short and powerful episode of The Nurses' Break Room, host Jenny Lytle, RN, explores what to do when life feels like too much. Whether you're a caregiver, nurse, or simply juggling personal and professional demands, this episode reminds you that pausing isn’t quitting—it’s creating space for what matters most.

You’ll hear real-life stories about navigating medical appointments, supporting loved ones, and honoring your own capacity without guilt. Jenny also shares a simple reflection tool to help you identify your stressors, energy drains, and energizers so you can make meaningful change without overwhelm.

Takeaways & Action Steps:

• Why self-awareness is key to managing stress during busy seasons
• The difference between quitting and pausing with purpose
• A simple worksheet strategy to track your stressors and energy levels
• A journaling prompt: "What’s one thing you can pause or tweak this week?"
• An invitation to schedule a free call to talk it through

If you're feeling overwhelmed, this quick mindset shift is the reset you didn’t know you needed. 💛

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

• 0:00 Welcome and Summer Transitions
• 1:57 Unexpected Life Curveballs
• 3:25 Permission to Pause
• 5:09 Making Small Changes
• 6:20 Connect and Self-Care Reminder

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nurse's Break Room with Jenny Lytle RN. Today I am sharing a quick thought on what to do when life gets full. It's summer and sometimes that means that things are a little more chill. But right now we're in that kind of in-between where things are finishing up from the school year and just regular life and easing into summer, but that looks different for each of us. So I don't have kids at home and in school anymore, but we've got some grandkids that are out of school for the summer and life just feels a little different then.

Speaker 1: 1:14

But there's times when it throws us some curveballs too, where we have things kind of planned out. We feel like we know what's going to happen, and then we're reminded of the things that we don't have a lot of control over. And so over the past couple of weeks I've had some pretty big changes that have popped up and I've had a couple of family members that have had some medical issues and thankfully not super serious ones, but ones that do necessitate some further testing and appointments and follow-ups and things like that testing and appointments and follow ups and things like that and because of who they are and because of what's going on and because of being a nurse, I just I like to be involved in those things and it's it's something that's helpful for me and for them, and so that's something that has that's been added to my plate that I definitely wasn't planning on. And then I also have a friend who is going through a tough time right now, and so we have decided to help her out as much as possible because we're able to and because we want to. I mean, that's something that I feel called to do is to help people.

Speaker 1: 2:36

Something that I feel called to do is to help people, and especially when there's things that maybe are kind of a little out of their control. At the moment, and as I'm going through this, then I want to still do all of the things that I've been doing, but the reality is there's only so many hours in a day and I only have so much emotional and mental and physical bandwidth. It reminded me that I need to give myself permission to pause. And it's not about quitting. It's about what really creating space for what matters most right now, and that, I believe, is, when I talk about work-life balance, that's one of the things that I really talk about is that it's not about giving the same amount of time and attention to everything, because that I mean that just doesn't work, but it's about having that flexibility. It's more like a teeter-totter or a seesaw, depending on where you're from and what you call it, but it's focusing on what matters most in the moment and knowing that you can't always do everything at the same time, and that doesn't mean that you're failing. And as I say this like I'm saying it to you, but I'm saying it to myself as well, because it is we want to do it all and I get that. I still want to do it all and I want to do it all right now, but that's just, that's not realistic.

Speaker 1: 3:58

And I encourage you as you look at your own schedule, as you look at your own stressors and think about the way that you're feeling about things. Is there anything that maybe needs to be put on pause for a little bit? I sent out a worksheet earlier this week with kind of a way to think about your energizers, think about your drains and your stressors and really just get that down on paper. When we take the time to write something down, it helps us to think about it differently and it also helps you to come up with a bit of a plan for when this happens, because life's going to throw you curve balls from time to time. So what's the one thing that feels heavy right now, what's the one thing that you may be dread doing or that just feels like it's going to take up so much of your time or energy, and is that something that you can possibly pause or tweak?

Speaker 1: 5:03

Throughout this, remember that you're not alone and you are human, and it's okay to recalibrate, it's okay to pause and change things up if you need to. So you know what is one small change that you can make this week, and I would love it if you would reply to me. If you're listening on Buzzsprout, then that's something that's easy to do. You can just do that via text. But if not, reach out to me. My email is Jenny Lytle at Jenny Lytle dot com, and I would love to hear what you're going through and and feel free to schedule a free call if it's something that you want to talk through. It's something that can help you and it also helps me, because then I know more what you're thinking. And until next time, remember that self-care isn't selfish. It's essential if we want to continue to serve others and live our best lives. Thanks so much. Have a great week.