51. Unstuck: Self-care for when nothing is working

Feeling stuck, drained, or just plain off? You’re not alone. In this episode of The Nurse's Break Room with Jenny Lytle, RN, we’re talking about what to do when nothing feels like it’s working.

Jenny shares 6 self-care tools to help you reset—not just mentally, but emotionally and physically too. These are gentle, realistic steps you can take today to get unstuck and moving again (even if it’s just a little bit).

In this episode, you’ll learn how to:

• Use gratitude to shift your state—even when it’s hard
• Step away and meet your basic needs without guilt
• Move your body to move your mind
• Brain dump your thoughts—audio or written
• Ask the powerful question: “If I did know, what would I do?”
• Talk it out with someone who helps you see the bigger picture

Whether you’re a nurse, a caregiver, or simply the person who’s always holding it all together, this episode is your permission to slow down, breathe, and care for you.

🎧 Tune in now and let’s help you get back to center.

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 Nurse's Break Room
• 1:14 Understanding When You're Stuck
• 1:55 Practice Gratitude First
• 2:43 Step Away and Move
• 4:33 Journaling and Brain Dumps
• 5:26 Stop Figuring It Out
• 6:26 Talk It Through
• 7:33 Closing Thoughts and Contact Info

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nurse's Break Room with Jenny Lytle RN. Today we're going to focus on what to do when you're feeling stuck, because we all have those times when life can be going along smoothly and then we get stuck. Or maybe life is not going so smoothly and we just feel like things are not going the way that we want them to go. Maybe it's feeling like nothing is really going our way, or it's one bad thing after another, and while that's natural, that doesn't mean that it's a great place to be in, and sometimes it can feel like we're not going to get unstuck. So just a few things that are simple not always easy, but simple to do and have them in your tool belt, because not everything will work for you at every time, but it's just nice to know these different techniques that you can try when you're feeling stuck. So one of the best and easiest ones is to focus on things that you're grateful for. Best and easiest ones is to focus on things that you're grateful for and I know that's something that can seem a little challenging when you're in the midst of something that's not great, or maybe you're grieving and taking just a little bit of time to. You can write this down, you can say things out loud, list a few specific things that you're grateful for. Say things out loud, list a few specific things that you're grateful for, and most of the time, even in the midst of bad circumstances, there are things that we can be thankful that we have in our lives, whether that be people, places, particular things or opportunities. So that's something that is a great way to start off. Another one is stepping away for a bit, and when we get very focused on trying to solve whatever problem that we're experiencing, sometimes it's easy to get caught up in all of the little details or that this won't work because type things. And if we step away from that for a bit, if we evaluate for a bit do I need to maybe get something to eat? Do I need to rest a little bit? Look at the very basic things, especially when we're feeling stressed or overwhelmed then that's something that can bring us back to a place of calm and make it a bit easier to think things through.

Speaker 1: 3:08

Number three is move, and that can be a change of location, moving from one area to another. Maybe that's even just in your house, if there's a place where you normally try to pay bills and things are seeming a little stuck in that particular area. You're not sure how you're going to fit everything in or you know which way to rearrange things If you move just to a different area of the house. Sometimes that can be enough to help your brain think a little differently. Another one is, in terms of move is getting some exercise. When we exercise, that increases the blood flow to our brain and to our muscles and helps us to think a little more clearly as well.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Number four is journaling, or a brain dump, and this is something that can be done even if you don't consider yourself to be someone who journals. You can do this in writing, like traditionally we think of with journaling, or you can do audio type journaling, and this is something that I do sometimes if I know I'm going to be driving, and we always have those best thoughts when we're in the car, when we're in the shower, places where maybe we can't easily be able to write things down, and so you can just talk that through without doing any sort of recording it. But I find that if I record it via a voice app or I use Otter it's an AI app for this. That just records it. But then it also will transcribe it and I can go back and see the ideas or the thoughts that I had. And basically I'm just driving along talking to myself. But it can be very helpful because as you talk then sometimes that helps to get some clarity around that.

Speaker 1: 4:57

Number five is stop trying to figure it out. Often, when we're really focused on trying to figure something out and we feel stuck, we can think I don't know what to do, like I've tried everything or I just don't know. And something that you can ask yourself and at first it may be a little bit frustrating but is well, if I did know, then what would I do? If I knew the answer to that question? What would the answer be? And sometimes, just pausing and asking that question and giving yourself a little bit of space to think about it, you can realize that maybe you do know the answer. You do have some ideas. You're just burying those a little bit deeper because maybe they don't seem super practical or because maybe you're just frustrated and you feel like you don't know seem super practical, or because maybe you're just frustrated and you feel like you don't know. And lastly, number six talk it over with someone.

Speaker 1: 6:05

We can get stuck in our own heads and sometimes we don't see things very clearly because we're right in the middle of it and that's something we're talking to. Someone else can help us to work through things like that. I heard somewhere a long time ago that it's hard to read the label from inside the bottle. When we're up so close to a situation, it can be very difficult to work through all of it, and so this is where talking things over with a friend and just saying, hey, I need to bounce this off of you, or if it's something that you think, oh, I don't know that I really want to go to one of my friends about this.

Speaker 1: 6:39

This is where coaching can come in as well, and this is one of my favorite things to help people work through. Is that feeling of being stuck or frustrated, or just hey, I don't know what to do in this particular situation, and so, if that's you, I'd love for you to just book a call with me. You can go to my website, jennylytlecom, you can book a free call right there, and let's get you unstuck and get you moving in the right direction. So 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.