Your Health at Camp
Advocating for yourself
It’s vital to advocate for yourself at Camp (and in life!) to ensure that your physical, emotional, and mental needs are met.
Camp can be a fun and rewarding experience, but it can also be challenging, especially if you encounter homesickness, health issues, or any other difficulties.
Speaking up allows you to receive the support and care you may require and deserve!
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Anxiety is a natural and often adaptive response to stress or perceived threats. Experiencing anxiety at camp is totally normal. Anxiety is a complex emotion that involves feelings of uneasiness, apprehension, fear, or worry about future events or situations. While a certain level of anxiety can be normal and even helpful in some situations (as it can motivate us to take action and be cautious in the face of potential dangers), excessive or chronic anxiety can be detrimental to a person's well-being.
The good news is there are lots of ways we can manage anxiety.
Being in a new environment at Camp can help lower stress and anxiety levels, especially when you disconnect from work and other responsibilities. Also, travel often requires you to be in the moment, whether it's admiring a scene from nature or trying some local cuisine, this mindfulness can help reduce rumination and anxiety.
Culture shock is a common experience for people who move to a new and unfamiliar cultural or social environment. It involves feelings of disorientation, confusion, and even anxiety that arise from being exposed to a way of life or a set of values that are significantly different from those in one's home country or cultural background. Culture shock can present in various ways, including homesickness, frustration, a sense of isolation or alienation, and difficulty in understanding and adapting to the new culture.
So how can we nip this in the bud?
Experiencing culture shock is a normal part of adjusting to a new environment. With time and effort, most people are able to adapt and find their place in the new culture. Keeping and open mind and learning about the culture can really help. As can staying in touch with home, creating a new support network and practicing self care - such as sleep, exercise and nutrition.
Homesickness can of course bring emotional distress but there are lots of things you can do to help alleviate it. The main things are staying busy and obviously being in Camp you’ll naturally be busy! Also talking to your fellow campers, counselors, and camp staff about your feelings can help as they may have experienced homesickness themselves and can offer support and advice.
There’s significant evidence that feeling connected improves both our physical and mental health. Humans are wired to connect and social isolation has a negative effect on our health. Friends hold space for us, they keep us grounded and offer perspective and support.
Connection is attainable for all of us! Especially when at Camp! Travel provides great opportunities to meet new people. When you travel, people are much more open to building friendships. As don’t forget it’s not just you who is having to build new connections, everyone is in the same boat!
The Oxford evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar laid out the seven pillars of friendship in his book Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships. The seven pillars are: language (or, better still, dialect), place of origin, education, hobbies and interests, worldview (ie your religious/ moral or political leanings), music tastes and sense of humour. The more of these we share in common, the stronger the relationship.
Diversity and inclusion represent what camp is all about. Camp is a place for campers and staff to grow and become the best version of themselves. So allowing everyone to be themselves without judgement allows everyone to enjoy their summer and get the best out of a summer camp experience.
Diversity and inclusion mean embracing the things that make us all unique and celebrating them. Diversity can vary from people’s ethnicities, religions, sexual orientations, religions, etc. Our world is rich in diversity from our different cultures, traditions and languages. When we include, embrace and celebrate these with respect, we all gain a better understanding of the world around us and can benefit from our broadened perspective.
Being in an environment that allows this openness and acceptance creates trust and a space where people can ask questions and be better educated on the things that make us unique. Diversity and inclusion is power. Allowing campers and staff members to live and breathe in their own unique, way creates an inviting space for inclusion which represents the magic of camp.
How do we help?
💻 Regular webinars leading up to the summer (January - May)
☎️ A direct line to a 1-on-1 chat with a designated Camp Canada Employee before, during, and after your time at camp
📹 Access to The Mind Map’s MindClass, an online portal full of helpful courses and articles on a range of wellbeing topics.
🏕️ Resources you can take to camp with you
🗞️ Monthly newsletters
🧑 Training and resources for your Directors to assist in your journey
🎓 Training for our Camp Canada employees on our Wellbeing Team!
💌 Education and helpful tips on our social medias and in the participant Facebook Page
The Camp Canada team are available on demand to assist you with any wellbeing complication you experience whilst on your placement. A dedicated team of camp-experienced staff will be more than happy to connect with you to see how you're getting on and work on solutions for your summer with you. Information on how to reach them will be shared closer to the summer but in the meantime, if you have any wellbeing related issues, you can connect with Aidan on the wellbeing team by clicking here.
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