70. Rest, Boundaries, and Grace: A Holiday Survival Guide for Busy Caregivers

This week on The Nurses’ Break Room with Jenny Lytle, RN, we’re talking about something so many caregivers struggle with during December: slowing down without feeling guilty.

The holidays bring pressure — expectations, invitations, comparison, and the constant feeling that you should be doing more. But rest isn’t laziness. It’s essential for your mental health, your energy, and your ability to care for others.

In this episode, Jenny shares practical ways to release end-of-year pressure, set loving boundaries, protect your time, and build simple micro-moments of rest into even the busiest schedule.

Perfect for nurses, caregivers, and anyone feeling stretched thin this season.

Takeaways / Action Steps

• Give yourself grace for goals you didn’t meet (life changed — you adapted).
• Set small, loving boundaries around spending, events, and expectations.
• Say yes only to what aligns with your energy and capacity.
• Use micro-rest moments (coffee pause, extra sleep, simple meals, 5-minute resets).
• Let go of “shoulds” around decorating, hosting, or doing it all.
• Honor your capacity instead of pushing through burnout.

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 

Feeling stressed? Grab my quick and easy Busy Nurses' Guide to Less Stress for practical stress relief that truly fits into your life! https://www.jennylytle.com/guide

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 Holiday Overwhelm
• 0:48 Redefining Expectations And Pace
• 2:28 Personal Story: Letting Go Of Perfect
• 4:35 Releasing End‑Of‑Year Pressure
• 6:47 Boundaries With Love And Money
• 8:16 Smart Yeses, Short Visits
• 9:06 Next Week’s Focus And Closing
• 9:46 Micro Moments Of Rest

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:58

Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Nurses Break Room with Jenny Lytle RN. As we're getting closer to the holidays, we're going to talk about pausing, about resting, about not being go, go, go all the time. We don't have to shop until we drop. We don't have to buy all the things. We don't have to attend everything that we're invited to. But sometimes it can feel like it's expected. Or maybe we don't want to miss out. But slowing down isn't laziness. It doesn't mean that we don't care about the people that are involved. It doesn't mean that we don't appreciate the opportunities that come our way. What it does mean is we're human. You likely have lots of things going on. Working in healthcare, there's not a lot of days off. The holidays are great, but there's no big long vacations. There's still people to be taken care of. There's still work to do. And that goes for a lot of people in service roles. This year for me, things have been extra busy. And like most of us, life is pretty busy overall, but I've had a lot of great opportunities. I've also had a lot of things going on in my personal life with family that have taken up a lot of time. And while I'm incredibly thankful to have been able to have that time, it also means there's less time for other things. So here it is: the going into the second week of December. And I have very little bought or even planned for Christmas. I do not have my tree up. I don't have things decorated at all. And honestly, it weighs on me a little, but I also understand that it's just the way it is right now. And so I'm not feeling incredibly guilty about it. I'm not feeling super down. It's just reality. And now we are in a different situation. You know, it's it's just me and my husband. We're empty nesters. And so it's not like we're, I don't feel like I'm letting down my whole family. But our youngest adult kids, they usually do come and enjoy the tree and things. But the reality is we just haven't done that yet. Now, have we had some time that we could have done it? Yes. But instead, we've chosen to relax a bit and to prioritize sleep and to prioritize time with family. Yesterday we had an extended family uh Christmas get together that we do annually, and it's just a bunch of food and hanging out and getting to see each other because although some families get together really regularly, we really only do it once a year. And so it's very nice to be able to do that and just relax. And we do that at a uh park building that's an indoor building, but that allows for not needing to clean beforehand, not really needing to clean up much afterwards. Everybody pitches in food and we just come together and just enjoy it without the stress that can sometimes come with all of that prep. Now, I love hosting here at our house because we lived in a small house when we were raising the kids, and like adding more people to our house would have been a lot. But we do live in a bigger house now. And one of the things that I wanted to do was be able to host for the holidays and things like that. But we've had some things going on where that's probably not going to happen much for extended family this year. And um, it's not necessarily the way I would love things to be, but sometimes we've got to just accept the things that we can't control. So as we continue into the holidays, I'm really trying to focus on releasing that end-of-year pressure that sometimes we can put on ourselves. You know, maybe we haven't met all of our goals that we wanted to meet. And that's okay because likely there's things that we accomplished that we didn't originally plan on accomplishing. And some of that may be as simple as like making it through some really hard times. Because the reality is when we set our goals at the beginning of the year or the beginning of the season, whatever that looks like for you, life can be very different than it is now. Things can change dramatically in a 12-month time span. And so allowing ourselves some grace when maybe we aren't where we thought we would be, um, that's a that's a beautiful gift to give ourselves. When it comes to other people and other commitments, being able to set small boundaries with love is something that can really decrease the pressure this time of year. And that may mean not buying presents that we can't afford for people that really don't need them anyway, and instead opting to do something together or to buy a family gift, or to just spend some time together. Maybe it's saying no to holiday parties with people that maybe you like, but they're not your list of top priorities, or maybe they're people you even really don't like. If it's something where you feel like you have to go for business reasons, or um, because it's somebody that that is close to you, then maybe go for a short period of time and duck out. There's nothing saying that you have to be there for an entire event for it to count. And prioritizing yourself and your own needs allows for you to show up better for yourself and for those people who really do matter most to you. And lastly, build in little micro moments of rest into your busy schedule. So maybe you can't take a full day off. Maybe you can't even take a full afternoon off. But what's something that you could do that would help you to feel a little more relaxed, a little calmer, a little more cared for? And maybe that's going and just enjoying a cup of coffee before or after or in the middle of your shift. Maybe that's catching up with a friend or making sure that you get some extra sleep. Maybe it's eating a really simple meal or ordering takeout so that you don't have to cook. Just figure out those little things that feel stressful when you think about I have to do X, Y, and Z, and think of how you can eliminate or change that up a little to be maybe less daunting. Now, next week, we are going to talk about traditions and survival during the holidays when maybe things are different this year. And that may mean because somebody is missing from the family. Or it could just be that as our families grow and expand and change, that things are different. And maybe we need to look at the things that we enjoy versus the things that we just do because we feel like we should. 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 week.