50. Using Nature as Medicine: A Nurse’s Guide to Fast Mindset Shifts

Feeling overwhelmed and under pressure? In this episode of The Nurses' Breakroom with Jenny Lytle, RN, we explore how reconnecting with nature can quickly reset your mindset and bring peace—even on the busiest days. Jenny shares a real-life story of how she turned a frustrating workday into a grounding, nourishing experience through simple outdoor self-care.

Discover how short nature breaks, mindful walking, and engaging your senses can bring powerful emotional relief—without needing a full day off. From "photo intervals" to finding symbolism in trees and paths, Jenny reminds us that nature holds lessons, healing, and space for clarity.

Keywords: stress relief for nurses, self-care tips, burnout recovery, outdoor mindfulness, grounding techniques, nurse mental health, nature reset, coping with stress, simple self-care practices, intentional living

Takeaways / Action Steps:

• 💡 Try a short walk in a shaded park—even 10 minutes can help.
• 📷 Use “photo intervals” to slow down and engage with your surroundings.
• 🌳 Notice paths, trees, and symbols in nature—what do they reflect in your life?
• 🎧 Unplug for a while. Listen to birds and breeze instead of a podcast.
• 🦶 Practice grounding—if you can, take your shoes off and feel the earth.
• ⏳ Build intentional nature time into your week—even just once.

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

• 0:58 Welcome to the Nurse's Break Room
• 1:36 Turning a Late Shift into Self-Care
• 3:43 Photo Intervals and Forest Symbolism
• 6:10 Nature's Healing Power for Mental Clarity
• 8:23 Grounding Practices and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the nurse's break room with Jenny Lytle, rn. This week we're going to focus on being out in nature and how good that is for stress relief and for self care and just doing some resetting. So last week the focus was on gratitude and I talked about how I was feeling stressed out due to some things going on at work, and it was just one of those kind of days and really being able to focus on gratitude helped to change my mindset and help me to be able to deal better with everything. Well, this week I was feeling pretty good about things. Overall, it's been a pretty productive week, but life happens and there's definitely some things going on in our lives that keep keep us on our toes a bit, and I got called out to go make a visit a little bit later into my shift and there was just a lot of things that went into it, but basically it was something that I wouldn't have normally needed to go to, but in this situation I did, and so I thought, instead of thinking about the fact that I am getting home two hours later than I had planned on, instead I'm going to make the most of this, and so when I was done with my visit and got my documentation done, I looked to see what time my ETA was to arrive home, that way I could put in my accurate end time. And then I went to a local cafe where they have these great acai bowls and it's something that helps me to fuel myself in a way that I really enjoy and it's good for me and it's something that I like to do when I get down to that area and splurge a little bit. So I had that. And then I was driving home and I thought it's been hot here and so I haven't been getting out and walking as much as I like to. And there's a park on the way home that I really like. It's about half an hour from my house and it's mostly wooded and shaded. I'm gonna go and take a walk there, and I did, and it was just so incredibly refreshing.

Speaker 1: 2:57

One of the things that I really like to do when I go walk and I talked about this in my book as well is what I call photo intervals, where I walk, walk, walk and then, when something catches my eye, I stop and I take some pictures, because that's something that I really enjoy. I know that's something that brings me joy, and so I do that and I think about the way that things are impacting me and the way that things speak to me. And bear with me, because it's not quite as weird as it sounds, but you know how sometimes people look at the clouds and they see things in them. I was never really one of those people. I looked at clouds and I thought they looked cool, but I just saw clouds. But over the past several years, as I spend a little more time outside and I think part of it is letting go of expectations or worrying about what somebody might think or coming across as foolish, and just being able to just feel and think what I think and feel without judgment. And so I like to walk and I love bridges and paths.

Speaker 1: 4:14

I think that they're so symbolic for the way our lives go. It's rarely something that's completely straight and without any challenges and instead we have to go along the path or take a particular path and then sometimes we can't see exactly what's coming around that. But when we're on our path, we need to trust that it's going to get us where we're meant to go, and part of that is also staying in touch with what really is going on. Is this where we want to be going or is it maybe taking us in a different direction and we need to course correct a little bit? One of the things that I really enjoy is looking at the different trees in a wooded area, because there's some that are such a mess they're falling all over, or maybe it's ones where there's kind of some grapevine type things and they're spiraled and there's vines going everywhere and it just seems very chaotic. And then you may get to another area where it's just a big bunch of tall, straight, very high reaching trees. And to me that's what being in nature does for me. It takes all of that chaos, all of that mess in my head and straightens it up. It makes it more orderly and beautiful and easier to see the big picture.

Speaker 1: 5:51

And there are times when I will maybe listen to a book or record a podcast. I've done that before when I've been walking. But what I really enjoy the most most of the time is just being in nature and hearing the birds and hearing the trees rustle and water if there's water flowing and just paying attention to all of those little noises that you hear and that we don't hear, because sometimes there's just times when it's really quiet and it's so nice to be able to be in a different spot and the scents are different than when we're at home. And being able to take all of that in and one of my favorites especially right now it's summertime here and being able to see the sun shining through the trees and the way that the light just plays with everything there in the forest, is to me it's just one of the most beautiful things ever.

Speaker 1: 6:58

And then there's also, at this particular place, there's wildflowers, and so there's bees and butterflies, and just being able to see everything coexisting and floating around, and it reminds me of how important it is to be able to just be sometimes and to not worry so much but just to take care of those basic needs and to be able to take time to slow down and breathe a little bit and just escape from all of the technology.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Now I'm still out there with my phone and I do enjoy taking pictures and I use the GPS because I'm directionally challenged, but really just being able to turn inward and upward, for me it's something that's a very spiritual experience too.

Speaker 1: 7:55

It's a way for me to connect with God and his creation, and I always end up feeling better afterwards. Now, in this particular situation, I kept my shoes on, but you know, when we are able to and take the time to just get out and get our feet in the grass or in the sand, that's something that is so incredibly relaxing and grounding and helps us to really reset as well, and it's something that we don't really do that often anymore and, like most things, it doesn't happen without intentionality. So I would love to hear from you what types of things you like to do to reset, and do you get out in nature? Very often you can hit reply if you're on buzzsprout and send a message that way, or feel free to just reach out to me. You can message me at Jenny Lytle, at Jenny Lytlecom. I'd love to hear from you and 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.