62. Feeling Overwhelmed? 7 Ways to Calm Your Mind and Stop Spiraling Fast

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Feeling overwhelmed, burned out, or just stuck in a spiral of stress?
In this episode of The Nurses Break Room, host Jenny Lytle, RN, shares 7 practical and proven strategies to help you pause, reset, and reclaim your mental space—even on your busiest days.

Whether you're a nurse juggling long shifts or anyone navigating stress and responsibility, this episode will help you calm the chaos and return to center.

Takeaways & Action Steps:

✅ Use journaling or voice notes to brain-dump your stress
✅ Practice gratitude throughout your day to reframe your mindset
✅ Review and eliminate non-essential tasks from your schedule
✅ Get your body moving—even a quick walk or dance helps
✅ Use deep breathing to shift your nervous system from fight-or-flight to calm
✅ Incorporate short prayer or meditation moments into your routine
✅ Talk it out—connect with a trusted friend to gain clarity

You’ll learn:

• Why overwhelm can feel paralyzing
• What actually helps reset your nervous system
• How to identify and eliminate low-priority tasks
• The power of movement and breath in high-stress moments
• What to say to yourself when spiraling begins

Don’t miss this one—it’s a toolbox for your mental health.

🎧 Listen now and share with a friend who might need a reset too.

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

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the
Nurses Break Room with JennyLytle RN.
Today we're going to focus onwhat to do when you just start
spiraling, when things feeloverwhelming, when you feel like
you've got too much to do, whenit just all feels like more than
you can handle.
Now, for some of us, we kind oflive in a state like that.

(00:23):
And I know I have in the past.
But for the rest of us, it'sjust something that happens
every now and then.
And when it does, there are somethings that you can do to get
you out of that spiral, to getyou focused and calm down a

(00:44):
little bit and in a place whereyou can make better decisions
and start being productiveagain.
So here are some of my top tipsfor stopping the spiral when it
starts.
So something that we can do isto just simply stop.
Stop and journal.
And that can be just a braindump, just a stream of

(01:07):
consciousness type journaling,where you're letting everything
that's swirling around in yourhead get out.
And this works best if you do itwith pen and paper.
But if that's something thatfeels like too much right now,
then you can type that.
Another one of my favorite waysto do it is sometimes when

(01:28):
you're in the shower or whenyou're driving, that's when
everything just really startsgoing.
And so I often use my notes app,my voice recorder app, to be
able to really get some of thosethings out of my head.
And I'll just start talking.
And that captures everythingthat I'm wanting to get down,

(01:52):
everything that I'm afraid thatI might forget, or that's just
all spinning around in there.
And then I can listen back tothat, or I can use that info to
download the transcript andlisten to that later.
And sometimes it's just a matterof getting it out of your head.
It's going through and sayingall of those things or writing

(02:13):
all of those things.
Even if you don't do much withthat information afterwards, it
just helps to download it.
So another one is being morespecific about what you're
writing or thinking about.
And that's thinking of thingsthat you're grateful for.
I talk a lot about focusing ongratitude because it's so
incredibly important when weare, when we're feeling like

(02:34):
we're struggling with somethings that are going on.
When we think about the thingsthat we're grateful for that we
have that are going well, thenthat helps us to continue to
look for those things.
And it's something that you cando it of a morning, you can do
it of a night, you can do itthroughout your day.
Just train yourself to look forthe good in situations.

(02:55):
Number three is eliminate.
So look at your calendar and seeif you've got a lot of things
going on and you're feelinglike, okay, I am stretched too
thin.
I don't feel like I have anydowntime.
Then look at your calendar andsee, are there things that you
can eliminate?
And at first, maybe you think, Ican't because everything feels
important.
Everything feels important whenyou look at it.

(03:16):
That's why you have it scheduledto begin with.
But really take a look at thatand think, okay, what am I
trading for this?
Am I trading sleep?
Am I trading time with myfamily?
Am I trading just time to be anddecompress a little bit and look
at things in light of that?
And if it's something wheremaybe you feel like it's too

(03:37):
short of notice to cancel thingsin a day or two, look ahead for
the next couple of weeks.
Do you have some margin in thattime?
And if you don't, what can youdo to have that in place?
We all need downtime.
We all need time to rest andrecuperate.
Number four is move.
When we're feeling stuck or whenwe're feeling like things are

(03:59):
going too quickly, walking ordoing some sort of physical
movement.
And it doesn't have to beanything super high intensity.
Going for a walk, particularlyif it's in nature, is something
that can be really beneficial.
But even if we're not doinganything that much, just getting
up and moving around a littlebit, turning on a favorite song

(04:19):
and having a quick dance party,that helps to get things flowing
a little different and get itunstuck.
Number five is breathe.
And I talk a lot about breathingbecause we all breathe and it's
really important, but the typeof breathing we do is even more
important.
So when we're feeling thatspiraling out of control kind of

(04:40):
feeling, if we stop and take aslow deep breath in and let it
out and do that for a minute orso.
Just taking even a few deepbreaths can help to settle our
nervous system down and help usfeel like we're safe, like we're

(05:04):
not in that fight or flightmode.
And then we can think moreclearly.
Number seven, nope, number sixis pray or meditate.
Now, if you're somebody thatprays, then obviously that is
something that's a good thing todo when you're feeling stressed
out or out of control.
And if that's something thatdoesn't feel comfortable for

(05:27):
you, then just doing somemeditation.
And that doesn't have to be anyvery structured practice.
It doesn't have to mean an hourlong of sitting in silence and
having no thoughts.
It's just sitting quietly withyour thoughts and letting them
come, letting them go, justtaking time to just be and

(05:50):
realize what you're thinking andfeel what you're thinking
without judgment.
And last but not least is talkwith a friend.
We can feel like we're the onlyones going through things.
And sometimes when we're feelingoverwhelmed, it can feel like
there's not any good solutions.
But sometimes when you talkthings over with somebody, then

(06:12):
either they have ideas, or justas you're saying the things out
loud, you're like, wait, I guessI could do XYZ.
So reach out to a friend andcatch up, and chances are you'll
both walk away feeling better.
So I'd love to know which one ofthese stood out to you, or are
you someone who does somethingdifferent?
And if so, I'd love to hearabout that too.

(06:34):
So feel free to reply to me, oryou can reach out and email me
at jennyl at jennylytle.com.
I'd love to hear from you.
Until next time, remember selfcare isn't selfish.
It's essential if we want tocontinue to care for others and
live our best lives.
Have a great week.