2025/2026 Guest Specials and Booking Perks
Becky Claffy
September 30, 2025
Learn about our resort and get the scoop on our 2025/2026 NEW GUEST SPECIAL in less than 1 minute!
A Fast Track to Wonder!
Being a kid seems like a century ago for many of us. At best, we get to remember childhood feelings of wonder vicariously, through our own children and later, our grandchildren. Read on to ponder the issue and also explore an easy solution that may help fast track you back to some of that reckless childhood joy! It’s possible!
When "Wonder" was Everywhere!
Blog published 6/5/25 by Sunshine Village : Topic: Discover a path back to childhood wonder and living in the moment. Learn about Chase Sanctuary in Webster, FL.
With children, extended states of excited activity and amazement seem never in short supply.
Ahhhh – those were the days, right?
When we observe a child’s excitement while anticipating Christmas Day, or building a first snowman, or opening a birthday present, it reminds us of how we once felt about those very same things. While it’s wonderful to witness their excitement and also remember our own, it’s not the hyper charged wonderment we can only faintly remember.
When Life Repeats Itself
Truthfully, by the time we are adults, we have experienced certain tasks or occasions so many times, it’s natural for them to become monotonous or at best, lack luster. We may find that enthusiasm, joy or mindfulness for those events can become quite difficult to muster. Even during a welcomed birthday celebration with family and friends, our minds are constantly checking out of the activity and ruminating about past experiences or future possibilities.
As adults, many of us may find ourselves “fighting” to reconnect with that joy, and unfortunately, we might even feel societal or family pressure to do so. In part, however. what you are actually fighting for goes against the basic survival wiring of the brain since the beginning of the human race!
Survival? Here’s the Theory!
When we engage in repetitive or familiar events overtime, several important brain processes are activated – many of which are deeply connected to survival mechanisms. Put simply, familiar environments and activities pose less threat, so they eventually are processed in different regions of the brain. It’s a natural process that frees up mental energy for new and unexpected challenges. We simply don’t need to be “all in” these activities to remain safe.
Another hard wire is that our brains have evolved to detect the negative. Back in the day while living in the wild, it was quite useful in avoiding things like animal attacks.
The Place Where Joy Resides
Joy can be found in the present. Afterall, it is the only place where life unfolds, new emotions are experienced, connections are forged, and new memories are created. To ponder this possibility, let’s circle back and consider what plays a huge part in perpetuating a young person’s wonder and excitement: EXPERIENCING NEW THINGS and LIVING IN THE MOMENT!
Naturally, when you experience new things, there will be surprises and UNKNOWN outcomes. So, as an adult, with all our survival wiring still very much intact, our brains naturally switch to a higher gear and a more singular level of awareness to manage through the experience.
A popular term used today is MINDFULNESS; the practice of restraining your thoughts into the present moment rather than attaching them to experiences or thoughts of our past or anticipation of the future. It’s a state of mind that most young children operate in – everything is new. For adult, our minds are full of experiences and can interfere with mindfulness. For adults, it can be practiced in almost any context from cooking dinner, playing bridge, to climbing Mt. Everest.
There are many ways to “train” your brain into a state of mindfulness, like various forms of meditation, or with cognitive behavioral therapy. Both methods require the continual restriction of unrelated thoughts and past experiences from entering into your present experience.
The present is a very good place to be! There are thousands of research studies supporting the fact that being there reduces stress, increases well-being and improves health.
The Fast Track Back to Wonder!
Retraining your brain to focus on the positive and the present is a process which takes a little time and practice. In the meantime, there’s a simple fast track for achieving instant mindfulness: experience new things! If you “mindfully” look around where you live, you’ll likely find plenty of new potential experiences.
We Found a New Experience!
(On Earth Day 2025)
During a recent trip to Chase Sanctuary in Webster, just 10 miles away from Sunshine Village, the members of our group each felt blessed to reconnect with a little childlike wonder. There were so many odd, funny, and beautiful creatures that we had never seen before – outside of TV or videos.
Chase Sanctuary wasn’t like a zoo where you observe animals like monkeys, giraffes or tigers from afar. We’ve all visited zoos on many occasions. Chase Sanctuary was uniquely set up so you could get close and also interact with animals like anteaters, sloths, lemurs, a full-grown deer, and more.
"We Felt Like Kids Again"
Our time there was quite exhilarating. Each of us seemed drawn to different animals so we quickly branched out to seek and discover! We all got so charged up yelling back and forth to each other about what we were seeing. We definitely felt hyper-charged and that feeling continued in the car all the way home. We plan a trip back because there is a host of interactive experiences you can have with the various animals.
Goodness, who knew that “being a kid again” was so attainable and so close to Sunshine Village all along!
Ahhhh … these ARE the days, right?!!
Fun Facts
I’d like a BIGGER BRAIN please!
Who would have thought it was possible? Numerous long- and short-term research studies comparing people who practice mindfulness meditation to those who don’t, have revealed significant structural changes in the brain between the two groups. While these changes are most evident in long-term meditators, research indicates they can begin almost immediately.
For a more accessible article on understanding mindfulness research and its findings, visit “What is Mindfulness? A Simple Practice for Greater Well-Being.”
A 2019 study of first-time meditators who underwent 40 days of mindfulness meditation training showed significant changes in brain structure, including gray matter volume and cortical thickness – areas linked to lower depression scores when compared with non-meditators.
A 2020 study of 50 long-term meditation practitioners between the ages of 24 and 77 found significantly lower rates of annual brain tissue loss in meditators.
More on Chase Sanctuary!
Chase Sanctuary, established in Webster, FL in 2014, is home to a diverse array of mostly exotic animals. Many of these animals are endangered or rescued from private ownership. The majority of the animals are not indigenous to Florida, or the U.S. so cannot simply be freed back into the environment. They are cared for in environments that were created to closely mimic their natural foreign habitats.
Witness the Wonder!
A feature that sets Chase Sanctuary way apart from a regular zoo, is their menu of awesome interactive experiences! Joy and wonder are the best ways to describe the expressions on people’s faces during these sessions. Participants are truly LIVING IN THE MOMENT!
You can get a quick handle on how exciting these interactions are by reading some of the many excellent google reviews and loads of GREAT pictures. (See Google Reviews)
Experiences
Painting with Primates: The lemurs, definitely like to get in there and help with the creative projects. They are friendly and accustomed to human interaction.
Private and Group Tours
Lemur Yoga: An instructor provides the focus while the lemurs provide charming and hilarious distractions!
Keeper for a Day: Get behind the scenes, help care and maintain the animals. Learn a lot!
Rock Painting with Primates
Various add-ons with some of the above packages are possible. They will expand your interactive experience to include anteaters, sloths or otters.
Use this LINK to go straight to pricing and details about each interactive package. All experiences must be prescheduled!
Amazing Things You'll See!
Meditative Interactions
Lemur Yoga! It’s Good for your Soul!
Relax, Meditate & Become a Sloth!
"Blogger Comments"
Hello to All! I wanted to share one of the most joyous videos I’ve ever found on the internet.
When a 66-year-old color-blind man see’s bright colors for the first time, an extreme and beautiful change occurs over him. Not only is he outwardly ecstatic to see vibrant colors for the first time, but his entire adult body begins to take on the physical mannerisms of a child again – a child who is immersed in a complete state of wonder!
The man’s new experience seemed to instantly reconnect him to a faraway and “ancient” place of joy and excitement. A place that he most likely hasn’t visited in a long, long time.
Personally, I’ve sent this video to all my brothers, sister, and also my children as “proof” that there is a place in our minds where we can experience joy again from the tops of our heads to the very bottoms of our feet – LIKE CHILDREN!
Now let’s all go experience something new again! Take an airboat ride, catch a fish, go for a seaplane ride, solve a live murder mystery. Once you start looking, you’ll find great new experiences everywhere and CLOSE BY! I plan to continue sharing these places through this blog. Kindest Regards, Becky Claffy
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