character development

5 Ways Music Can Help You Live a Happier Life

Jill Suttie wrote a recent article detailing five ways that music can help you live a happier and healthier life. Click here for the full article, with bulleted takeaways below to a happier life. Reducing stress and anxiety. Listening to music can slow down your heart rate when it’s increased during an anxiety attack. Music lowers elevated cortisol levels that happen with stress and anxiety. It helps people sync breathing with heart rates which also makes it easier to breathe when stressed. Help decrease pain. Music can help release dopamine […]

Why Camp Counselors Make Great Leaders

A recent blog by Stanley Bergman, CEO of Henry Schein, Inc, a Fortune 500 company, underscores the skills and character of camp counselors. Bergman’s perspective underscores what we as camp directors know from years of experience seeing young people give their all to care for the campers in their charge. They commit themselves to continually caring for children, spending hours, days, weeks and months concentrating on maximizing the camp experience for those under their care. Even the most devoted parent spends maybe a couple-few hours with their child; imagine the […]

How to Deal with Mean People

During this October’s National Bullying Awareness month, even as we focus on bullying behavior, we can also examine what we as individuals can do if/when confronted by behavior that is mean. As we do at our girls-only and boys-only summer camps, we can focus on empowering ourselves to make our world a better place. Here’s a good article from sociologist Christine Carter on steps individuals can take when confronted by mean behavior from others. The whole article is at this link, with the main takeaways summarized below: To maximize social and […]

10 Habits Of People Who Never Worry

At our overnight summer camps near Chicago, we strive to be intentionally empowering and intentionally challenging, so that our campers maximize their potential. Amanda Chan posted this Huffington Post article, summarized below, (and in full at this link) describing ten (originally 11 in the article) habits of people who never worry: It is clear that there are some personality types that are more linked to worrying than others. And while everyone worries from time to time, it is possible to worry so much that it starts to have a noticeable impact on […]

The 9 Essential Habits Of Mentally Strong People

At our overnight summer camps near Chicago, we strive to be intentionally empowering and intentionally challenging, so that our campers maximize their potential. Carolyn Gregoire posted this Huffington Post article, summarized below, (and in full at this link) describing nine essential habits of mentally strong people: Mental strength is a difficult-to-define psychological concept that encompasses emotional intelligence, grit, resilience, self-control, mental toughness, and mindfulness. …It’s the reason that some people are able to overcome any obstacle, while others crumble at life’s daily challenges and frustrations. The ability to cope with […]

8 Life Management Tips to Minimize Stress

In trying to empower the children at our girls-only camps and boys-only camps, we help them maximize their personal development. Especially for those of us who prefer summer sunny blue sky days to those of sometimes cloudy winter, it can also be helpful to manage stress during challenging times. A recent article by Diana Rodriguez, medically reviewed by Rosalyn Carson-DeWitt, MD, delineates 8 good tips to help minimize stress. Please see below for highlights and this link for the complete article. Managing Stress: When You Experience a Sudden Spike Put […]

How to Avoid 9 Happiness Mistakes

A recent Huffington Post article emphasizes that, while incorporating “happiness” habits may be a manageable way to integrate joy into our lives every day, we should be mindful of nine potential mistakes we might be making that are detrimental to our overall happiness. Summary below: You’re placing too much emphasis on fulfillment. Concentrating too much on achieving happiness may actually be making you more unhappy. The study found that those who put a higher pressure on themselves to be happy felt more lonely on a daily basis than those who did not. […]

Are We Wired to Want Stuff?

With the recent coming and going of the craziness of “Black Friday” and its rampant commercialism…with the holiday season ramping up…with my son in the second grade, exposed to classmate talk about what presents they plan on getting in the next few weeks, it reminded me of an article by social psychologist Christine Carter discussing whether we’re “wired to want stuff.” Like the author, as intentional parents, we want to foster positive emotions like gratitude and altruism-to bring meaning, connection, and positive memories. So how can we do so at this challenging […]

Developing Good Listening Skills

A recent article noted some interesting attention span statistics, including some good tips on how to improve attentiveness and foster good listening skills. A great thing to emphasize at our multicultural summer camp! Some interesting points: The average attention span in 2012: 8 seconds The average attention span in 2000: 12 seconds The average attention span of a goldfish: 9 seconds As we navigate a world of technology seemingly competing for our attention, it’s easy to get increasingly distracted and more difficult to do the one thing that may be […]

12 Things Happy People Do Differently

As a camp director at a multicultural summer camp, I’m aware of our focus on empowering children at our girls-only and boys-only programs. As adults though, we should also focus on our job of taking care of ourselves, so we can be better people for ourselves, our families, our friends, and our children. I came across an article by Jacob Sokol (citing positivity psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky) recently with a nice checklist of 12 things happy people do differently. For more details, including the scientific basis behind how and why these […]

Encourage Kids to Appreciate Diversity

At Camp Kupugani, as a multicultural summer camp that is intentional in our empowerment and safely challenging our campers, we teach about and bleed diversity. It’s part of our mission and as such we are in a structurally and intentionally diverse environment. But what can you do if you’re at home and not necessarily in a diverse and supportive environment? How then to facilitate those important lessons? One article I checked out recently emphasizes: “Parents are uniquely positioned to guide their children to appreciate the differences that make each of us […]

Are You Overscheduling Your Kids?

I recently came across a good piece regarding our tendency as parents to overschedule our children. Even with the best intentions (we are guilty of this at times even at our multicultural summer camp), we want our children to gain so many skills, languages, and other personal development tools that we lose track of what really benefits their self- and character-development. Check out this podcast discussing “Are You Overscheduling Your Kids?” The basic points raised in it are that, to develop truly well-adjusted children need sufficient daily doses of play […]