Episodes

BE YOU Week 10: Be your Best Self “Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life, because you become what you believe.” -Oprah Winfrey For many years we have heard both campers and staff say that camp is where they can be their most true, authentic selves. Being your true self is an important value and we want you to celebrate your differences and what makes you exactly who you are. We want to encourage you to continue focusing on being your best self all year long. Depending on...

BE YOU Week 9: Change the World “This world needs somebody like you.” – Anthem Lights At GAC, we believe in bringing positive changes to the world. In fact, it’s one of our core values that our campers and staff leave GAC ready to be leaders by bringing positive changes to the world. There is a lot going on in the world today. We can choose to complain about what we don’t like about the world (what many adults do) OR we can take a small action ourselves to help bring a positive change. What ...

BE YOU Week 8: Get Stronger “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – Tony Robbins There are many ways to get stronger. We get stronger physically by exercising or playing sports, but we can also get stronger mentally or emotionally by pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zones. Sometimes we need to test the waters and see how our bodies and minds react to trying something new. We might start to climb the ladder at high ropes and realize that our heart is racing and our ...

BE YOU Week 7: Celebrate What Makes you Different “Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” – Dr. Seuss One of the most important things you can do in your life is to be yourself by being different. Your differences and quirks are the coolest things about you. Let’s embrace our differences to truly be our best selves! Camp is one of the best places to completely be yourself. You are encouraged to dance silly, play crazy games, and embrace others’ quirks. When we all come together at camp...

BE YOU Week 6: Positive Self Talk “The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people.” – Jamie Lee Curtis The self-talk you do in your own head can help or hurt you. If you are talking negatively to yourself, it will hurt your confidence and your self-love. If you are talking yourself up and speaking positive things, you will in turn help yourself be more confident, and will hopefully love yourself all the more! The way we think changes how we feel and our behaviors. To be more...

BE YOU Week 5: Build Others Up “Be somebody who makes everybody feel like a somebody.” – Kid President One way we can be our best selves is by bringing out the best traits in others. When we’re at our best, we feel confident in ourselves and don’t feel the need to put others down. Building others up is a great way to boost the feelings of others while doing something nice for yourself. There are many ways to build others up. Think about things that make you feel more confident or happy, and ...

BE YOU Week 4: Appreciate, Don’t Compare Comparison is the thief of joy. – Theodore Roosevelt We are so excited to have Chelster join Sunshine this week for our #GACbeyou podcast. This week, we are talking about focusing on the qualities we really like in ourselves and trying to refrain from comparing ourselves to others. It’s our human tendency to see others and immediately compare ourselves to them. We tend to want to be like them and often lose sight of all the wonderful things we bring to...

BE YOU Week 3: What Stresses you Out? What Calms you Down? “Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway.” – Eleanor Roosevelt What are things that really stress you out or make you feel not so great? It is good to identify these things so that we can try to avoid them or work on strategies to manage them. This week, we want to focus on identifying those stresses and identifying ways to calm our bodies and cope in those moments. Emotional regulation is an impor...

BE YOU Week 2: Find Your “Flow” “If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” – Roald Dahl This week for our BE YOU theme, we’re focusing on finding activities that get you into a state of “flow.” Flow is a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi (pronounced “cheeks sent me high”) that refers to a state of optimal experience and involvement in an activity during which we are performing at our best. Watch Dr. Csikszentm...

BE YOU Week 1: You’re One of a Kind! “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson Have you ever thought about how amazing it is that there is no one else who is exactly like you? You are unique, original, and one of a kind! This week for our BE YOU theme, we’re focusing on what you like best about yourself. It may sound strange to think and talk about what you like about yourself. It may sound like braggi...