Wellness At Camp: How to Keep Feeling Your Best This Summer

By: Heather Moffatt

Wellness, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “is the quality or state of being in good health especially as an actively sought goal.” Now, this is a little technical for what I want to talk about, but it’s always good to have a little background before learning something new. How I personally define wellness is doing whatever makes you feel good and allows you to be the best version of yourself on a day-to-day basis. That can look a lot different person-to-person, and that’s okay because whatever works for you isn’t always meant to work for someone else.

For example, my personal version of wellness is drinking some electrolytes, listening to music, and allowing my body to rest by just sitting and enjoying whatever space I’m in, whether it’s my room (or cabin in this case) or under the Dining Hall during “counselor come-down” each night.

My advice to new counselors (or even returning ones) is to find what works best for you in your normal life and then adapt it for a camp setting. Camp life is a lot different than real life, and that’s part of the beauty of it because we are in our own little bubble up on the mountain, but if you don’t prioritize your own well-being, it can become difficult to enjoy that beauty.

Camp is also about serving the campers and giving them experiences that they’ll remember forever, and those experiences are heavily influenced by our behavior and enthusiasm, so if we’re not on our A-game, that can have a negative impact on the campers.

However, well-being has a special intersection in that it refers to physical health, but also your mental health. While drinking electrolytes, eating well, and drinking lots of water (as in more than just one a day or one glass at meals) does wonders for your physical well-being, it doesn’t really do much for your mental well-being.

It is just as important to be mentally healthy doing this job as it is to be physically healthy. Mental well-being looks just as unique person-to-person as physical wellness does. If we go back to what I said works for me personally in making sure I am doing okay, I mentioned allowing my body to rest and enjoying the space I’m in, this is both a form of physical and mental well-being for me.

The reminder that I am in a beautiful place surrounded by people for whom I care deeply is what helps keep me grounded on the days the world feels crazy or loud. My advice is to find your equivalency, whether that’s reading your bible every day (either on your own or at Morning Spark with Matt) or just lying out on the Grassy Knoll during your open free-choice period and enjoying the sounds of camp.