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Indigo Sahara

A travel and lifestyle blog: cultivating purposeful experiences

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January 6, 2021

5 Benefits of Cultural Competence in Everyday Life

Over the past decade, we have seen the conversation of culture, cultural competence and cultural diversity grow exponentially. However, between experiences of cultural injustice, cultural appropriation and redefining patriotism, discussing the benefits of cultural competence has somehow begun to trigger feelings of a burden rather than of excitement or appreciation.

Before you roll your eyes and completely dismiss the idea of becoming culturally competent, know that there are, in fact, personal reasons to become culturally competent.

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Filed in: Faith, Journal Entries, Lifestyle, Mental Health, Mental Wellness, Personal Growth, Relationships, Thoughts, Travel, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 1 Comment

December 9, 2020

Best Fall Drive in Wisconsin: Directions and timing for a fun fall day trip

Wisconsin day trip itinerary to see the best fall colors (directions and timing included) | Indigo Sahara

It’s no surprise that one of the benefits of traveling to and around Wisconsin is the prevalence of all four seasons — especially fall and its correlated colors. After traveling all around the state, the route for the best fall drive in Wisconsin has been unveiled.

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Filed in: Travel, Travel Guides | By Indigo Sahara | 1 Comment

December 3, 2020

15 Travel Gifts for Mom: Perfect gifts for moms who love to travel

15 Travel Gifts for Mom: Perfect gifts for moms who love to travel | Indigo Sahara | Travel & Personal Growth Blog

Every one of the travel gifts for mom listed here will brighten your mom’s day, fill her with joy and wanderlust, and maybe even prompt her to book her next flight (possibly inviting you along, too).

“I don’t need a vacation,” says no mom ever — unless she’s using passive-aggressive sarcasm. Regardless of the gift occasion (Christmas, birthday, Mother’s Day or just because), she will love the meaningful sentiment put into each of these adorable travel gifts.

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Filed in: Lifestyle, Relationships, Style & Beauty, Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 1 Comment

December 2, 2020

18+ Perfect Travel Gifts for Friends or Sisters Under $25

18+ Gift Ideas for Girl Friends or Sisters Who Love to Travel | Indigo Sahara | Travel & Personal Growth Blog

Looking for nice, awe-worthy travel gifts for friends or sisters without breaking the bank? You’ve made it to the right place.

Curated here are over 20 unique, practical, high-end brand and totally travel-inspired gifts that all cost less than $25.

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Filed in: Relationships, Style & Beauty, Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | Leave a Comment

November 26, 2020

19+ Best Gifts for Dads Who Travel

19+ Best Gift Ideas for Dads Who Travel | Indigo Sahara | Travel & Lifestyle Blog

Need a list of gifts for dads who travel?

Dads who travel are a whole different breed of dad. They flip from dad-joke goofy to suit-and-tie professional in a matter of seconds, and even though they are often away from home, they value family more than anything deep down. How can we repay their provision and support? With a personal gift! Here are the best gifts for dads who travel.

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Filed in: Personal Growth, Relationships, Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 1 Comment

November 11, 2020

20+ Funny Travel Gifts Under $25 that Travelers Will Actually Use

20+ Funniest Travel Gifts Under $25 | Indigo Sahara | Travel & Lifestyle Blog

Every traveler enjoys receiving funny travel gifts.

What’s better than a funny travel gift, though? A funny travel gift that is totally practical that the receiver will actually use.

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Filed in: Lifestyle, Personal Growth, Relationships, Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 3 Comments

November 10, 2020

25+ Best Travel Gifts for Him: Ideas for Your Boyfriend, Fiance or Husband

Travel gift ideas for him: for your boyfriend, fiance or husband | Indigo Sahara | Pinterest | Travel & Lifestyle Blog

It’s easy to find cute travel gifts for her, but what about for him? These unique travel gifts for him for all price ranges will make your boyfriend, fiance or husband feel completely loved, supported, handsome, and, of course, excited to continue traveling (and maybe even let you tag along!).

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Filed in: Lifestyle, Personal Growth, Relationships, Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 2 Comments

November 4, 2020

20+ Best Travel Gifts for Her: Ideas For Your Girlfriend, Fiancee or Wife

Does your favorite girl love to travel? As a full-time female traveler myself, I’ll be the first to say that your girlfriend, fiancee or wife will adore any and all of the “travel gifts for her” listed here.

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Filed in: Lifestyle, Relationships, Style & Beauty, Travel, Travel Guides, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 4 Comments

July 30, 2020

6 Top Waterfalls in Northern Wisconsin: Everything You Need to Know

Big Manitou Falls | Superior, Wisconsin | Waterfalls in Wisconsin | Indigo Sahara | Travel & Lifestyle Blog

There’s an indescribable feeling that many know well and the rest don’t know they crave: hiking miles through thick forestry and finally hearing the sound of a waterfall as you approach it.

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Filed in: Travel, Travel Guides | By Indigo Sahara | 3 Comments

March 14, 2020

TRAVELING AND THE CORONAVIRUS: A pilot daughter’s perspective

ORD to CDG, 2018.

Despite a global shortage in toilet paper, hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes, there is absolutely no shortage of opinions voiced on social media regarding the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Filed in: Faith, Lifestyle, Thoughts, Travel, Travel Tips | By Indigo Sahara | 5 Comments

Indigo Sahara

I'm Indigo, a 22-year-old United States native who believes that we are all called to the nations. Join me on pursuit of lifelong purpose and boundless exploration!
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@INDIGOSAHARA

System re(boot)ing. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ If System re(boot)ing.
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If this was a space ship, where would we go? 🛰
It has been about a millennium since I last really It has been about a millennium since I last really introduced myself on here, so I thought I'd share a few facts about me 🌞:
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1. Hi! My name is Indigo. (Yes, that's my real name. No, indigo is not my favorite color. And no, my parents were not hippies. Hahahaa.)
2. Sahara is half of my middle name. My full middle name is Sahara-Marie.
3. I'm a travel writer and creator.
4. I'm from Wisconsin, USA.
5. I've also called Tennessee, USA; County Meath, Ireland; and Lille, France home. 🇺🇸🇮🇪🇫🇷
6. I speak English, Spanish and a tiny bit of French!
7. I'm currently pursuing a Master's degree in global leadership and pastoral counseling. I studied Spanish and journalism during my undergrad.
8. I'm engaged to my bff, @kennethzalas (wedding date TBD 🙃).
9. The weirdest food I've eaten is cow intestine.
10. I love beaches, but I actually HATE swimming in the ocean... I also hate being around large bodies of water at night. The emptiness and pitch blackness of the water absolutely terrify me.
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Now I want to get to know you... Where are you from? Do you speak another language? What’s the weirdest food you’ve eaten?
Did you know that Doritos get their name from a Sp Did you know that Doritos get their name from a Spanish phrase meaning "little golden things"? #sponsored
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Ironically, I feel like I've been transported to a salsa-infused Latin beach town when I place one of these Chili Cheese Nacho 3D Crunch Doritos in my mouth — despite actually being stuck in the Wisconsin tundra. HA.
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Doritos 3D Crunch have been released this month and are now available in Chili Cheese Nacho and Spicy Ranch at a Kroger store near you!
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#doritos3DKroger #roadtripsnacks @Doritos @FritoLay
If this week's events haven't already shown you th If this week's events haven't already shown you that we need cultural competence, maybe these PERSONAL benefits will:
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1. Job security.
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You need cultural competence on your resume. With a steady increase in globalization, companies will soon only be hiring individuals truly fit to work in a diverse environment.
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2. Your workplace will become more efficient and effective. (You gain control over team task completion.)
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Misunderstandings in communication between different cultures are inevitable, frustrating and often cause multicultural teams to give up.
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Cultural competence gives us the ability to better understand our culture in relation to others, which greatly reduces team confusion, task gaps, tension and frustration, creating more space for the team to accomplish the vision.
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3. You gain control over your emotions.
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Nothing screams "freedom" like being able to recognize your culturally rooted emotional reactions that you don't even know exist. Once you are able to recognize these cultural reactions, you can step back on the onset of a negative emotion (e.g. anger, frustration, hurt, fear, etc.) and ask yourself whether or not you're reacting to a moral issue or a purely cultural issue.
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Find more personal benefits to becoming culturally competent in this week's blog post. Link in bio.
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#challengeyourworldview
Sunrise? Fire. Cliff? ICY.
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I may or may not have had to crawl on all fours to take this photo. The other photographers there gave me weird looks at first. Once I survived without slipping into the hypothermia-inducing ice water, they ended up crawling to get the same shot. ☕️
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Photo: @kennethzalas
10 things to do on Washington Island in any season 10 things to do on Washington Island in any season (Save for your next road trip idea!)
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1. Washington Island Ferry Line
2. Washington Island Stavkirke (small church modeled after a medieval Norwegian stave church)
3. Stavkirke walking and prayer trail (can cross-country ski here in winter)
4. Schoolhouse Beach (for the iconic white Washington Island stones)
5. Fragrant Isle Lavender Farm and Shop (spring/summer)
6. Historic Island Dairy lavender field (all seasons; check out the Norwegian architecture here in winter)
7. Washington Island Farm Museum
8. Scandinavian restaurants and gift shops
9. Percy Johnson County Park (swimming beach in summer)
10. Mountain Park Lookout Tower
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Have you been to Washington Island yet? As someone with a lot of Norwegian blood, this place made my heart melt. It also temporarily satisfied my desire to travel internationally. Norway next? 🙏🏻
Here's a New Year's resolution you need to impleme Here's a New Year's resolution you need to implement but aren't even aware of: becoming culturally competent.
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Believe it or not, cultural competence is a trait you can learn. And you should want to learn it, too, because it will make your entire life a more positive experience. You'll actually be able to harness and control your behaviors and emotions that are subconsciously rooted in cultural norms.
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Yes, that's right. Every single action and reaction we take are constructs of (1) our conscience morality and (2) our home culture. We all have a conscience, but the ways in which we positively carry out our conscience are majorly influenced by how others around us do so.
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Understanding the differences in how morals are carried out between cultures (AKA becoming culturally competent) helps us communicate better with everyone — from our family members, to our friends, to our colleagues, to the entire world.
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Like and save if you want to know HOW you can become more culturally competent in 2021. 🌱
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#challengeyourworldview
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Photo: @kennethzalas
Imagine dating a girl who was diagnosed with OCD a Imagine dating a girl who was diagnosed with OCD and panic disorder two months before a pandemic broke out for which she is considered to be at-risk.
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Oh wait, I am the girl. Kenny’s the one dating her.🥲
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Out of all of 2020, January was actually the worst month of both of our lives. We spent every single night in a full-blown panic attack, curled up on the floor in a fetal position, sobbing, depersonalizing, crying out to God for help. Some of the panic attacks lasted over 12 hours.
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This photo is from January. We were in Arizona. At the time, we didn't know this trip would be the only "big" trip we'd take in this year. Luckily I somehow managed to make it through the four-day trip with only one attack.
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All relationship OCD and codependency symptoms aside (haha), I don’t know what I would have done this year without K's support, encouragement, patience and desire to become a stronger couple. (And this isn't even half of the stuff we’ve been through together.)
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However, I do know that our experiences have made us infinitely more mutually supportive, encouraging, understanding and powerful both as individuals and as a couple.
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I share this not to make it seem like “we have it worse” (I feel like this is happening a lot this year), but instead to start a new conversation —
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a conversation about challenging your worldview as it pertains to culture and cultural norms;
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a conversation about building truly powerful, healthy relationships with those around you;
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and a conversation about the presence and importance of global emotional intelligence.
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And Kenny, thank you for drawing even closer to me during my countless attacks. Thank you for showing me safety. Thank you for your desire to learn and understand more about me and yourself for the sake of us. GO US!! ♥️♥️💪🏻
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#challengeyourworldview

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