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

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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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
nurse's break room with JennyLytle, rn.
This week we're going to focuson being out in nature and how
good that is for stress reliefand for self care and just doing
some resetting.
So last week the focus was ongratitude and I talked about how

(00:21):
I was feeling stressed out dueto some things going on at work,
and it was just one of thosekind of days and really being
able to focus on gratitudehelped to change my mindset and
help me to be able to dealbetter with everything.
Well, this week I was feelingpretty good about things.

(00:44):
Overall, it's been a prettyproductive week, but life
happens and there's definitelysome things going on in our
lives that keep keep us on ourtoes a bit, and I got called out
to go make a visit a little bitlater into my shift and there
was just a lot of things thatwent into it, but basically it

(01:06):
was something that I wouldn'thave normally needed to go to,
but in this situation I did, andso I thought, instead of
thinking about the fact that Iam getting home two hours later
than I had planned on, insteadI'm going to make the most of
this, and so when I was donewith my visit and got my

(01:30):
documentation done, I looked tosee what time my ETA was to
arrive home, that way I couldput in my accurate end time.
And then I went to a local cafewhere they have these great
acai bowls and it's somethingthat helps me to fuel myself in
a way that I really enjoy andit's good for me and it's

(01:55):
something that I like to do whenI get down to that area and
splurge a little bit.
So I had that.
And then I was driving home andI thought it's been hot here
and so I haven't been gettingout and walking as much as I
like to.
And there's a park on the wayhome that I really like.
It's about half an hour from myhouse and it's mostly wooded

(02:17):
and shaded.
I'm gonna go and take a walkthere, and I did, and it was
just so incredibly refreshing.
One of the things that I reallylike to do when I go walk and I
talked about this in my book aswell is what I call photo
intervals, where I walk, walk,walk and then, when something

(02:38):
catches my eye, I stop and Itake some pictures, because
that's something that I reallyenjoy.
I know that's something thatbrings me joy, and so I do that
and I think about the way thatthings are impacting me and the
way that things speak to me.

(02:59):
And bear with me, because it'snot quite as weird as it sounds,
but you know how sometimespeople look at the clouds and
they see things in them.
I was never really one of thosepeople.
I looked at clouds and Ithought 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 itis letting go of expectations or

(03:24):
worrying about what somebodymight think or coming across as
foolish, and just being able tojust feel and think what I think
and feel without judgment.
And so I like to walk and Ilove bridges and paths.

(03:45):
I think that they're so symbolicfor the way our lives go.
It's rarely something that'scompletely straight and without
any challenges and instead wehave to go along the path or
take a particular path and thensometimes we can't see exactly

(04:08):
what's coming around that.
But when we're on our path, weneed 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 whatreally is going on.
Is this where we want to begoing or is it maybe taking us
in a different direction and weneed to course correct a little

(04:30):
bit?
One of the things that I reallyenjoy is looking at the
different trees in a wooded area, because there's some that are
such a mess they're falling allover, or maybe it's ones where
there's kind of some grapevinetype things and they're spiraled

(04:51):
and there's vines goingeverywhere and it just seems
very chaotic.
And then you may get to anotherarea where it's just a big
bunch of tall, straight, veryhigh reaching trees.
And to me that's what being innature does for me.

(05:12):
It takes all of that chaos, allof that mess in my head and
straightens it up.
It makes it more orderly andbeautiful and easier to see the
big picture.
And there are times when I willmaybe listen to a book or record
a podcast.
I've done that before when I'vebeen walking.

(05:33):
But what I really enjoy themost most of the time is just
being in nature and hearing thebirds and hearing the trees
rustle and water if there'swater flowing and just paying
attention to all of those littlenoises that you hear and that

(05:53):
we don't hear, because sometimesthere's just times when it's
really quiet and it's so nice tobe able to be in a different
spot and the scents aredifferent than when we're at
home.
And being able to take all ofthat in and one of my favorites

(06:14):
especially right now it'ssummertime here and being able
to see the sun shining throughthe trees and the way that the
light just plays with everythingthere in the forest, is to me
it's just one of the mostbeautiful things ever.
And then there's also, at thisparticular place, there's
wildflowers, and so there's beesand butterflies, and just being

(06:37):
able to see everythingcoexisting and floating around,
and it reminds me of howimportant it is to be able to
just be sometimes and to notworry so much but just to take
care of those basic needs and tobe able to take time to slow

(07:00):
down and breathe a little bitand just escape from all of the
technology.
Now I'm still out there with myphone and I do enjoy taking
pictures and I use the GPSbecause I'm directionally
challenged, but really justbeing able to turn inward and

(07:21):
upward, for me it's somethingthat's a very spiritual
experience too.
It's a way for me to connectwith God and his creation, and I
always end up feeling betterafterwards.
Now, in this particularsituation, I kept my shoes on,
but you know, when we are ableto and take the time to just get

(07:44):
out and get our feet in thegrass or in the sand, that's
something that is so incrediblyrelaxing and grounding and helps
us to really reset as well, andit'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 fromyou what types of things you

(08:09):
like to do to reset, and do youget out in nature?
Very often you can hit reply ifyou're on buzzsprout and send a
message that way, or feel freeto just reach out to me.
You can message me at JennyLytle, at Jenny Lytlecom.
I'd love to hear from you anduntil next time, remember

(08:31):
self-care isn't selfish.
It's essential if we want tocontinue to care for others and
live our best lives.
Have a great week.