3 Quick Ways to Turn Stress Around and Find Stress Support Services Online Right Now

Stress: an Epidemic

Let me balance with you: stress is a modern-day epidemic. 

That’s why we have days like today (International Stress Awareness Day). And why we have whole weeks like International Stress Awareness Week. These awareness days help us stop for a moment. They encourage us to acknowledge the actual impacts of stress in our work, personal lives, relationships, roles and organizations.

It’s not like our ancestors didn’t have significant stressors.

Most of us live pretty comfortable lives relative to our parents, grandparents and their parents. While many of us aren’t living through global wartimes, running from aggressive crocodiles in the Nile while trying to catch our food or experiencing famine, we’re living a different kind of stress these days. 

The kind of stress that’s less obvious and way more insidious.

Technology has created an always-on expectation of us that is more than exhausting. Access to all the world’s knowledge online at the tap of a finger (and around the clock) means that we’re privy to way more information, and we’re aware of so much more than previous generations. Layer on a global pandemic. Social disconnection. Loss of loved ones, jobs and businesses. The reality is that our systems, processes, our narratives, and ways of being aren’t quite working for anyone anymore. 

And you’ve got yourself some stress of epidemic proportions.

But don’t worry. We’ve got you.

“When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky.” — Buddha

It’s Why We Help the Helpers

It’s why we help the helpers here at Profi to maximize their impact. 

Because enabling those who have experienced the life-altering and debilitating impacts stress can have on literally every major system in our body to share their wisdom and expertise is why our platform exists.

So, let’s start with a couple of simple things you can do right this moment to become more aware of your stress.

1) Close your eyes. Take a deep breath as you scan your body. Is stress here? Where do you notice it, and how does it show up for you? Wherever it lives in you, acknowledge it. Thank it for letting you know that something important is happening. And, just stay with it for a few moments. You can even place your hand over your heart or the place where you feel physical, mental or emotional stress and let it know you are here with it. Breathe into that place for at least five breaths.

“I am here with you right now.”

2) Go to the closest window and look outside at the sky. Yes, right now. Spend a few minutes with your gaze on the sky wherever you are. Stress can be caused by either living in the past or worrying about the future. Either way, we’ve lost touch with our presence at this moment. So, hand it over… the sky can hold all of that. It represents a spaciousness and a higher perspective we can lean into when we’re caught up in our stress and have lost touch with the present.

Set your gaze on the sky for a few minutes to take in its spacious, higher perspective.

3) Go outside where it’s safe and either take a walk or sit on the earth. Just noticing the movement of your feet and limbs and their connection with the earth can help you ground your stress. Notice how stable and supportive having the earth beneath you is. Stay with it for a few minutes. Make sure to take in some deep breaths of nature’s perfumed air.

Take a walk or sit upon the earth to connect to the grounded energy of support and stability.  

Our Professionals Know Stress Management. Get to Know Them

Our professional service providers who use the Profi platform specialize in stress management, including financial stress reduction, work-related stress management. We also have professionals who can guide you to find more work-life balance, hormonal balance and balance using mindfulness and self-awareness practices, peace of mind, and emotional well-being and wellness.

So this week, we wanted to share our Profi Marketplace of professional service providers so you can take the next step you need to help you manage your stress, find more balance, peace and create more wellbeing in your business and life. 

Using Profi Marketplace’s Tagging to Find The Stress Support for You or Your Client

Our Marketplace of professionals using Profi presents like a blog, but with a built-in tagging system that allows you to quickly filter the health and wellness content (including articles, wikis, videos and podcasts) down to focus on what you need right now.

Follow the steps below to find stress support that’s unique to your needs.

Step 1: Navigate to Profi’s Marketplace of Professional Service Providers

First, you’ll need to navigate to our Marketplace blog by clicking this link or entering https://app.profi.io/blog into your browser’s search bar.

Step 2: Filter Through Content Fast Using Our Tagging Feature

To save yourself time (and your precious energy), try our tag search as demoed in the tutorial video above. 

You can use our Marketplace tag search in 2 ways:

First, you want to select the + Tags button in the top right corner of the Marketplace blog.

Then, you can filter mental health support content by either:

1. Selecting existing tags with a mouse click or tap that are organized into scrollable categories, including Emotional Wellness, Mental Wellness, Corporate & Organizational, to name a few.
2. Or entering keywords into the tag search bar at the top of the tags pop-up to zero in on topics and needs specific to you or your client’s (or organization’s) needs.

Or, you can focus on a specific type of content: like Profi Marketplace blog articles, Profi Wiki content or podcasts using the menu at the top left.

Since it’s International Stress Awareness Day (and week), you’ll want to make sure to include tags related to the issue itself, "stress" or the opposite of stress that you might be wanting more of, like "balance" and "peace" or “wellbeing.” 

If you’re not sure if your stress is ‘real stress’ or curious if you’re ‘too stressed,’ you can take this quick online stress quiz by Psycom, get a stress measure online by Be Mindful or download this PDF of the Perceived Stress Scale (the most widely-used psychological stress test in the world) to confirm where you’re at right now.

Then, seek support from professionals in our Marketplace who align with your tag search.

Once you select or search the tags you're looking for; you’ll notice different types of content from our professional service providers, including:

• Stress, balance and wellbeing topics on the Wiki – which are brief descriptions of health modalities and approaches to wellbeing
• Articles – written health support content
• Videos
• Podcast audio content

So you’ll find tips, articles, audio and visual support from professionals in the industry focused on your wellness in times of stress.

Step 3: Book Time With Health and Wellness Professionals

Stress awareness and self-education are just the tippy-tips of the wellbeing iceberg here. 

To work with professional service providers who specialize in the areas you’re searching, peruse their full professional bios and book a session with them directly from the article, podcast or video you’ve found helpful.

Supporting Your Balance Supports Others

“In the woods we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life — no disgrace, no calamity which nature cannot repair.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

So, that’s all for now. Hopefully, this is a helpful stress management resource for you and your clients (and the teams and organizations each of us works with). 

And at Profi this month (and season), we hope you can take some time to check in with yourself about your stressors and their impacts on your body, your relationships, your life and your business.