Character Development

Gratitude Practices to Change Your Happiness Set Point

“Concentrate on naming, savoring, and feeling gratitude for the blessings you do have — your love for your kid, the pleasures of eating the food you like, the sight of the sky at dusk, the entertaining drama of your unique fate. Don’t ignore the bad stuff, but make a point of celebrating the beautiful stuff with all the exuberant devotion you can muster.” — Rob Brezsny If you feel like your life isn’t as joyful as you’d like, here’s a sure-fire strategy to replenish your joy quotient. Research shows that […]

10 Things Successful People Do Each Day

At our summer camp outside of Chicago, we try to role model ways to live positive lives. An article from the folks at Barking Up the Wrong Tree (summarizing an book by author Tim Ferriss) offers ten ways we can follow the lead of others to lead happy, successful lives. Summary below, with the whole article at the link at the bottom. Have a mindful morning ritual: Don’t start the day reacting. Get focused. Turn weaknesses into strengths. Don’t ignore the clichés: Many are spoken so often because they […]

4 Ways to Live a Happy Life

At our midwest summer camp, we always try to encourage healthy living. An article from the folks at Barking Up the Wrong Tree offers a few good tips. Summary below, with the whole article at the link at the bottom. Here are the different happy lives: The Pleasant Life: PLEASURE GOOD. PAIN BAD. Schedule more fun. The Good Life: Do what you’re good at and go as far down that rabbit hole of “flow” as you can, Alice. The Meaningful Life: The Good Life + helps others. The Full […]

4 Easy Rituals to Relieve Stress

At our summer camp near Chicago, we continually try to improve how we can live healthy lives and treat ourselves well, so as to positively influence our campers and ourselves. An article from the folks at Barking Up the Wrong Tree offers a few good stress-relief tips. Summary below, with the whole article at the link at the bottom. Clench your facial muscles and relax them Take slow, deep breaths Splash your face with cold water Play some music and do a little dance New Neuroscience Reveals 4 Easy Rituals […]

Why Children Make Great Role Models

Check out this article by Denise Fournier Ph.D. on PsychologyToday.com to hear why children make great role models. A role model is someone we admire and wish to emulate; someone after whom we want to model our lives in some way. When we choose our role models, we tend to choose people who are older than us or have more life experience. We look to people like our parents; our bosses; or people deemed successful by society’s standards, like world leaders, entrepreneurs, celebrities, or famous athletes. But who says role models have […]

Dare to Embrace Difference

I hope that you are well, or as well as you can be during these tumultuous times. Depending on your worldview, you might be considering what to do in response to the what you see in the larger world—to defend rights, to counter hateful rhetoric, to rebuild movements and momentum for positive change. I ask that you support Kupugani and our mission to continue to create a version of the world that we want to see—where issues of difference can be celebrated, and our commonalities can be recognized and appreciated. […]

Are You Culturally Competent? Do You Want to Be?

Given the historic levels of what some have deemed a “cultural crisis” in this nation, perhaps now’s as good a time as any to challenge yourself with our cultural competence quiz. Are you culturally competent? (Do you want to be?) Are You Culturally Competent? Find Out Here

4 Ways to Be Free of Stress

When we’re at our summer camp near Chicago. It’s pretty easy to be free of stress while enjoying the beautiful land, playing games, or just hanging out with friends. When we’re not at camp, we might need to be a little more intentional about limiting stress in our lives. Below are some good scientifically-backed research tips on how to stay stress-free. Summary below (from the folks at Barking Up the Wrong Tree), with the whole article available at this link. Clench your facial muscles and relax them Take slow, deep […]

Are You Culturally Competent? Find Out Here

Especially in today’s social climate, it is increasingly important to be mindful and respectful of people of a variety of backgrounds. It can be all too easy to demonize and denigrate someone who you classify as “other”. If you think you’ve got what it takes, check out our fun, informative quiz to see if you are culturally competent. Keep Up to Date Have access to incredible articles and keep up to date with all Camp Kupugani life here!

Recognizing Bias to Work Toward Cultural Competence

At our summer camp outside of Chicago, we strive to achieve cultural competence as an organization, as counselors and staff, and as role models for young people. Our goal is not to be “colorblind” or to negate differences, but rather to celebrate and appreciate ourselves as individuals, while striving to be a community that continually progresses positively. Part of being able to be culturally competent is recognition of innate biases that we may have, so that we can act accordingly to adjust or realize our behavior. Check out this link […]

The Art of Peace in Times of War

1. Staying in the Room to Work Things Out: This is not always easy, especially if we morally, spiritually, politically, or religiously disagree with someone. Also, we might emotionally leave, even if we’re still physically in the room. So, the real commitment here is our willingness to remain emotionally and physically present and open to working things out. 2. Remaining Curious: It is often convenient to stop listening when our truth is in competition with someone else’s truth. The hard part is being curious about what they mean and how […]

Explaining Your Shyness to Folks Who Don’t Believe You

As a director of a summer camp, people often don’t believe me when I say that I’m shy. A recent post by Jenn Granneman of Introvert, Dear summarizes the challenges of “outgoing introverts” quite eloquently, as below: Outgoing Introverts Exist, Are You One? So, you just found out you’re an introvert. Now you have a new way of understanding yourself and how you relate to the world. You can’t get enough of your new identity, so you’re reading every listicle and blog post about introverts that graces your Facebook news feed. […]