EvenMORE For You

Stressed out?

Stress is the unwelcome guest who shows up at life's party, eats all your snacks, and refuses to leave even after the music stops. But is there a silver lining to this often unwanted guest: stress?

Stress is something we all have to deal with. Regardless of whether we are good at hiding it, suppressing it or expressing it, stress has symptoms: physical exhaustion, emotional depletion, a growing disinterest in work, and irritability. Yet, within this discomfort lies an opportunity for transformation and self-discovery.

Here are some tips and a little humor that can help you manage and even harness stress.

Cultivate mindfulness and self-compassion

Mindfulness practices can help you become more aware of your stress triggers and responses to them. Pairing this awareness with self-compassion can ease the journey, allowing you to navigate stress with kindness and patience toward yourself. Plus, it might be better than practicing scream therapy in the nearest public space - like the cereal aisle of your local supermarket. Sure you’ll get instant stress relief, but you might get banned from your local grocery store.

Seek meaning in discomfort

If you think about it, the discomfort of Stress is an illness, and illness is nature's antidote to healing. Seen as a psychological disturbance, stress serves a deeper purpose beyond its immediate discomfort. It implies that we have a disconnect between our reality and attitudes upheld by our ego—our sense of self-importance or our ideals. So stress isn't a problem that needs to be eradicated; it's an indication that something within us is seeking growth and self-awareness.

Stress, when approached to learn and grow from it, can transform from a source of suffering to a powerful agent of change. It prompts us to examine the discord between our lived experiences and inner selves, allowing us to realign with our true essence. In doing so, we mitigate the effects of stress and embark on a path toward deeper self-awareness and fulfillment. By acknowledging and engaging with our stress, we allow it to perform its most crucial function: to cure us. 

May Webinar: The My Benefits Work App

Robust Telehealth Services for Free

My Benefits Work is Crossroads’ central hub for free support services such as Teladoc, Teladoc Mental Health, Financial Wellness and Counseling Services through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

Because we are making every effort to share helpful information about accessing Crossroads’ benefits, the My Benefits Work App is the subject of our company-wide webinars in May. Please use the links below to join one of the webinars on Tuesday, May 14 or Thursday, May 16.

Learn about all that is available through this powerful portal from the informative and enthusiastic Alyssa Church. She’ll be taking us through the many services that are available for Crossroads team members and their families through the My Benefits Work app and how to access them on both an emergency and non-emergency basis for free.

Create Your My Benefits Work Account

If you haven’t already, download the My Benefits App on your mobile phone, tablet or computer before the Webinar following the instructions below:

1. Download the My Benefits Work mobile app from the App Store or Google™ Play
2. Register your account on the app
3. Enter Group ID: BENVEO002 (that's 2 zeros after the O)
4. Enter Member ID, found on your My Benefits Work membership card (if you need a replacement card, or your member ID #, call the number below)
5. Enter your email address and mobile phone number
6. Confirm - you will be prompted to confirm your account through text message or email. Enter the code to verify and continue

To set up an account on a computer desktop go to MyBenefitsWork.com and follow the same instructions. 

No Need to Register, Just Jump on!

Tuesday, May 14 at 9:30 A.M. – 10:00 A.M. CST
Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 220 737 386 506
Passcode: uL3mg5

Thursday, May 16th at 4:00 P.M. – 4:30 P.M. CST
Join the meeting now
Meeting ID: 292 038 732 20
Passcode: i5YmdK

Tanesha Fields is Wired to Give Care

Even as a little girl, Hospice Aide Tanesha Fields was a caregiver and a helper in her very large family. One of 12 children with seven brothers and four sisters, Tanesha remembered growing up “I was always a caregiver to my siblings.”

The mother of one, who’s blessed to still have her parents, explains that, like so many who choose to work in end-of-life care, it’s just the way she’s wired.

Born and raised in St. Louis, Tanesha observed hospice care at its best when her dear grandmother received end-of-life care. She observed how hospice care benefited not just her grandmother physically and emotionally, but her family’s needs too, “making the transition easier.”

Tanesha has been a hospice aide for 23 years, the last 10 with Crossroads. After working in hospitals and nursing homes, where she “always felt so rushed,” she relishes peacefully taking care of one patient at a time. And our patients benefit so much from her caring touch and calm manner.

Tanesha Fields, Hospice Aide, Crossroads in St. Louis

“You would be surprised to know how many people die alone in a nursing home,”  Tanesha said. At Crossroads she is happy to just be there “one-on-one” to talk to a patient and or just quietly hold a hand in the final hours of life. Tanesha is a personal advocate for Crossroads’ Evenmore Care (EMC) program with increased visits and care in the last seven days of life.

Going “above and beyond” is what Tanesha is known for by her supervisors and co-workers alike. That’s because it’s a known fact that she gives “100 percent” to all her patients and is always ready to lend a helping or mentoring hand to Crossroads colleagues and new team members. “They come to me to answer their questions,” she said because she’s so “helpful and well-rounded.”

Beyond Crossroads, she’d like to the world to know that “hospice is the very best choice you can make at the end of life.”