karisaathompson-blog

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Personal Totem Pole

 Have you ever experienced something that you thought shaped you in a way? Made you understand the world a little bit better? Today i am going to talk about my totem pole and what this means. 

If I were to have a totem pole it would look like this;

dogs

music

the relationship with my mom

a turtle

live photos 

Everyones totem pole is going to look differently because everyone is different in their own way. My totem pole starts with dogs because since i was little Ive always been around dogs, big, little, fluffy, fat, loud and noisy dogs. I have always had a dog as my pet but everywhere i go i find a dog and they make me feel a sort of comfort. They are very intelligent animals and always seem to know what to do when you’re upset or happy. My parents have always told me i had a way with dogs but i never believed them until I was on vacation and I had never interacted with so many stray dogs in my life, I was in love and wanted to bring all of them home with me. Heres just one of the dogs I met. 

The next thing on my totem pole would be music. Music has been such a big part of my life, I have built a connection to songs that help me manage my emotions better than I used to. I find a lot of peace in music, artists are able to put a lot of my feelings into words that I was never able to express myself. I listen to music when I’m overwhelmed, upset, angry, happy or anything else. Music helps me block out the world and my thoughts and just listen to the beat or the lyrics. 

The next thing on my totem pole is my relationship with my mom. My mom has always been a big part of my life, and I have always had the best relationship with my mom. I think being able to talk to my mom about anything makes going through challenges a lot easier. There has never been a time in my life where I didn’t think I would be able to talk to my mom about something I have been going through. Breakups? Holly was always there to wipe my tears. Hard classes? Holly was trying to teach herself what I was learning so she could help me understand. Friend breakups? Holly was there to take me out for dinner or get my nails done. She has always made sure I was never going through something alone and it has made adulting heck of a lot easier. So here’s me and my mom, we look alike I already know!! 

The next thing on my totem pole is a turtle. This is important to me because I am Native American and the turtle is my clans symbol. There are 4 generations of Caldwell member's in my family. My papa and my dad have a turtle tattoo in representation of our band. The turtle is a symbol of wisdom and knowledge and my family members are incredibly smart. A turtle to be represents my family and our strength and our bond as a family. We are all incredibly close even though we don’t all live near each other or get to see each other as often as I would like. 

The last part of my totem pole is live photos. Photos in general play a very important part of my life, they tell a story and keep that memory of that day or celebration alive. Live photos allow you to capture a few seconds before the original photo and a few seconds after, it captures the audio and it is a magical thing. You hold the photos and it’s like a replay of the moment. You can hear the laughs behind the photo, the photographer saying cheese, capturing the full expressions of the moment, gets the hug, watches the tears fall. I have a photo of my parents looking at each other and when I hold the photo, I can hear my dad telling my mom how beautiful she looks and I just love how magical and special that is to have captured that moment and I’m able to rewatch and be almost go back in time and be right there all over again. 

So thats my life and totem pole in a nutshell. I am sure there are other things that make your totem pole unique and screaming you. So after reading this blog I want you to give yourself a totem pole and think about all the special and important things that carved who you are. 

[karisaathompson-blog]

Barefoot Walks

Hello everyone and welcome back to another blog post! I hope you have been enjoying my posts so far. this post is going to be about another self care activity and tips. 

Have you ever considered going for a walk without shoes on? I know this might be a crazy idea for most of you, but let me tell you all the benefits of doing this before you think I am crazy. 

When walking barefoot this gives our feet bare contact to the earth wether this be walking on dirt, grass or sand. Our body is able to collect nutrients from the natural ground and give our bodies antioxidants. These antioxidants help enhance our health and makes our body feel positive vibes. 

Taking a stroll without shoes might seem like an odd thing to do but it actually helps build our relationship with our environment. Our environment plays a very important role in our mental and physical health, it helps our sleep and it reduces anxiety. Taking a walk through a forest getting to breathe in all the fresh air, listening to the birds and squirrels play through the trees, maybe even see some wild life in the process, this gives us a break from the ‘real’ world. It lets our mind wonder and just relax, only focus on the things around you and be present in the moment. 

I remember taking a walk through my home towns conservation area after having a rough day at school, while i was walking it gave me a chance to rethink the day and my actions and just collect my thoughts again. I felt unaware of my surroundings until i found a little bench and i was able to just watch the bird fly around and smell the roses as people would say. 

Next time you want to go for a walk, try taking your shoes off and connect with the world and environment around you and under you, you might even get some clarity of things going on around you. 

Until next time, 

Karisa 

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Go take a Nap!!

Have you ever been told by your family, friends or partner that having a nap is bad for your sleeping schedule, or “if you nap now you wont be able to sleep later” Well i am here to tell you that they are wrong. There are plenty of upsides to taking a nap. Im going to get into these now. 

Naps are a good way to reset your body and mind at the same time. When you take a nap you let yourself be fully relaxed and recharge. Naps are recommended when you know there is going to be a fluctuation in your regular sleeping patterns. Like if you are going to be working a night shift, it might be beneficial to take a nap before going to work. 

Another benefit to taking a nap is it should improve your mood and performance. Studies have shown that taking a midday nap can improve your work performance by helping your memory. If you take a nap after you’ve learned or listened to something earlier in the day, it can help you remember and help store your thoughts better. This also helps with your brains problem solving, taking a nap might help your brain connect dots between things you didn’t think connected but actually did. 

You don’t need to be a toddler to take an after lunch nap, naps are for everyone. Naps can help you be more alert to whats going on around you, it might just be the thing you need to get that umph back in your step. But if your’e going to take a nap, make sure its not longer than about half an hour, if it’s longer you might end up feeling more tired than you originally started. 

I know I have talked about the dimensions almost every week, but that is because they are so important and play a heavy role in our everyday lives and i want you to be more aware of them. Naps fall under two categories in my books. I think naps go under physical and environmental.

 I think it falls under physical because sleep is such a big part of the physical dimension and naps are a form of sleep. If you don’t get enough sleep, throughout the day you may find yourself feeling overly tired, irritated, or just unable to focus.  It falls under environmental because if you aren’t able to concentrate in your environment that might be a hint to take a break and have a nap. 

As far as it goes for how to ‘do’ or ‘complete’ this self care tip, I think you should put some comfy clothes on, put on a nice relaxing movie and curl up on the couch or in your bed and close your eyes and nap!!

This is where I found my information-- https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ss/slideshow-health-benefits-of-napping

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/napping/art-20048319

Bye, Karisa 

[karisaathompson-blog]

Self-care Tips!!

I know most people believe you need to be financially stable to have self care but self care is a big part of your everyday well being. Doing something for self care is actually a lot simpler than you might think. 

The topic I am going to talk to you about today is music. Music helps destress, increase self awareness and mindfulness and also just helps you relax in general. As we talked about the pillars in my last blog I believe music falls under the spiritual and intellectual pillars. I think this because music can help you better understand yourself and find a purpose in your life. As for intellectual, music can be a form of learning or understanding, there is a variety of types of music and some songs are very educational. 

To do this self care activity is actually pretty simple, you probably have already done this and just haven’t realized. You could listen to the radio, or go on youtube and just look up music. Even some TVs have different types of music channels. 

For me, self care is listening to music, I don’t have a particular kind of music it just depends on why I’m listening to it, like say I’m doing homework, i usually listen to country because it helps me focus and just relax and it actually doesn’t let me get distracted. If I am on a walk I would just listen to my everyday playlist just to help me stay in the moment. Sometimes when I am listening to a certain song or artist I have memories of something that happened or a person i miss. It almost brings me back to that moment and i get to relive it while listening ton that song. Its peaceful. 

So thats all I have for you this week, if you listen to any new music after reading this, just know you’re partaking in self care! 

[karisaathompson-blog]

The Dimensions of Wellness

Hello everyone, welcome back to my blog! Have you ever heard of the 8 dimensions of wellness? No? Okay well let me tell you all about them.

As I said before there is 8 dimensions, physical, emotional, environmental, social, spiritual, intellectual, occupational and financial. I am going to talk to you about each of these individually and how they impact your wellness. Below is a photo of the dimensions just giving a brief explanation of each topic.  

Physical is an important one to me, because if your body isn't in a healthy state then your mental state isn't going to be any better. You need to be drinking water, eating healthy, doing daily  physical activities and even making sure you are getting enough sleep. These all tie in together to continue to fuel your body.

Occupational wellness is a challenging one I find most people deal with. It is hard to try not to bring work home with you at the end of the day especially in emergency services. Being able to have down time and not think about work is challenging for me right now and all I have is a part time job. It is important to balance your work and home life and separate the two if them.

Spiritual wellness is the sense of a persons role in life. Finding this role might be through a religion, or mediation or a simply breathing exercise to ground yourself. These are examples of how to find spiritual wellness.

Social wellness is about who you surround yourself with, if you surround yourself with people who don't have as healthy lifestyles as you this may result in your lifestyle declining. You should surround yourself with people  who share the same lifestyles and who you connect with.

Financial wellness is being able to live your life with meaning but you're planning for the future. This could be in small steps or large ones depending on your situation at the time. But this is one of the dimensions that will help with all the others in the long run if you focus on this one and stay on track.

Emotional wellness is being able to understand your own feelings and responses to stress and other emotional triggers. This helps when situation arise you will be able to control your feelings and determine the response and understand from another persons perspective as well.

Environmental wellness is your layout of the land. If you live in a super busy and stressful city, this may carry over into your emotional and physical wellness. You want your environment to be as healthy and happy as you are.

Intellectual wellness this is ways to test your brain. This will help strengthen your brain and help with your intellectual learning skills such as multitasking, problem solving, long and short term memory, and learning tools.

Well thats all that I have for you this week, I hope it was interesting and you learned something new.

[karisaathompson-blog]

Getting to know Karisa

hey everyone, my name is Karisa Thompson. I am 20 years old but my birthday is in fact coming up soon! like next Monday soon, and then I'll be officially legal everywhere. I am a female and my pronouns are she/her. I am in a relationship with my boyfriend Jordan of almost 4 years. We live together now here in Oshawa, we have our puppy Zigs and our tortoise Tammy.

I am in my second year at Durham College, for 911 emergency communications. This has been a very interesting learning period, there is so many different things to learn and research. There are so many different technologies and soft wares to be trained on and to understand. My end goal is to work with the fire communications. Fire is the most interesting emergency service in my opinion. I have my grade 12 diploma from Strathroy District Collegiate Institute.

I moved to Oshawa to last year to start my college life, my boyfriend moved here in July so I didn't have to continue to take on Oshawa by myself. A couple interesting facts about me would be, I am able to say the alphabet backwards. I have a beagle that I train as a show dog and a rabbit hunting dog. I used to play highly competitive soccer but I had one too many concussions so I unfortunately i had to stop playing my favourite sport. While I was trying to recover from my latest concussion, I spent a lot of my time colouring and doing diamond art. I find it helps disconnect myself from 

This is me and my boyfriend, 

This is our dog Ziggy.