Paradise, California's best kept secret

Best Kept Secret

Many people are familiar with Lake Oroville, Lake Almanor, and many other lakes dotting the Northstate. However, many fail to realize we have yet another beautiful body of water residing in our very own backyard—Paradise Lake, a jewel of possibilities that will ensure a day well spent. Whether you’re relaxing by the water, hooking a trout, or getting lost in the captivating woods, Paradise Lake welcomes all adventurers to explore every single possibility. Life moves at 100mph, and, as the wise man Ferris Bueller once said, “If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” These words ring true every day, so as life passes by, taking advantage of small opportunities can turn into lifetime memories. We hope you can curate some here. Paradise Lake is a little known, beautiful tucked-away landscape featuring a variety of hiking trails and fishing coves. The terrain is vast, offering the perfect scenery for a Sunday family picnic and an afternoon of kayaking. With an area of 244 acres, and a shoreline of 7.5 miles, there's plenty of room to roam and ample opportunity for privacy—unlike most other shorelines at this

There’s far more to Paradise Lake than hiking or fishing though—kids will absolutely love the playground featuring all sorts of fun activities, including a horseshoe pit. If you plan on staying all day, we recommend renting out a gazebo. It's a great way to guarantee shade and a perfect spot next to the lake. This is truly a special place in Butte County, and is home to wildlife of all kinds. Be on the lookout for bears, as they seem to enjoy summers here as much as we do, but leave the pup at home, as they’re not allowed on the lake. If you're lucky, a bald eagle may grace you with a plunge dive for its next meal. Speaking of fish, Paradise Lake is filled with tons of trout, bass, and perch, providing the perfect opportunity to lure your next big bite. Trails surrounding the lake are ideal for young or inexperienced hikers and provide the type of views you would only expect from advanced-level hikes.

Finding a comfortable and quiet place to relax can be difficult in our fast-paced lifestyles. Paradise Lake provides a peaceful locale to decompress. There are countless trees for those who enjoy hammocking, and nothing beats letting the wind gently rock you back and forth into complete serenity. This secret getaway has long been one of our favorites, and we hope everyone has a chance to experience not only the beauty but also the recreation this waterway has to offer.

Aside from Wednesday, Paradise Lake is open daily from 5 am to sunset. Make sure to bring $3 for a parking fee when staying onshore. The lake holds an important purpose as it supplies water for the community of Paradise as one of only two reservoirs. Since the lake provides sustainable water, it is regulated to ensure the highest quality. If you're looking for an easy getaway for the day, Paradise Lake is a fantastic option. There are countless options from floating atop the glass-like water via kayak to enjoying a beautiful sunset as the day gives way to slumber.

We celebrate this jewel of a recreational treasure and encourage you all to get out and see for yourself.

Great Skin is Always in Fashion!

We all want smooth, youthful looking skin, but even your best outfit won't look good if your skin is dry, dull, blotchy, or broken out.

The seasons take their toll with temperature changes and environmental factors such as pollution, wind, chlorinated pools and spas, and pollen or smoke in the air.

The quality of your skin can be protected with the skin care products you use, and corrected with the use of lasers, lightbased treatments, and limiting exposure to detrimental factors.

Eating right, drinking lots of water, not smoking, and getting plenty of sleep all help to keep our skin glowing and healthy. There are ways to correct the damage that has already been done, with regular aesthetic treatments like lasers, radiofrequency, pixel resurfacing, photo-facial, and microdermabrasion. We can improve dark spots, scars, sagging skin, fine lines and wrinkles, acne, rosacea, and many other skin imperfections. Facial contours and deeper wrinkles can be addressed with injectables such as Botox and dermal fillers. Botox relaxes the muscles that make frown lines and crow's feet. Juvederm and Voluma are dermal fillers that can re-contour deep lines around the mouth, replace volume loss in the cheek area, and plump the lips.

While we can't turn back the clock to stop the aging process, we can improve skin tone, texture, and elasticity with the proper application of skin care products and services.

DERM BAR MED-SPA 85 Declaration Dr. Suite 100 Chico, CA 95973 | 530.342.2672

Oral Myofunctional Therapy now at Loeta Robles, DDS

Suffer from?

Trouble sleeping

Teeth crowding

Clenching and grinding

Speech issues

Mouth breathing

You may benefit from OMT!

with Brooke Edgar, RDH, OMT

OMT is an exercise-based treatment, teaching exercises that relate to tongue placement, breathing, speaking, chewing and swallowing. Please, checkout our website for more detailed information!

101 Raley Blvd., Ste. 104 Chico, Ca | 95928 | (530) 893-8913 www.mychicodentist.com

New Upper Hand

It is safe to say that COVID changed workplace dynamics for the rest of our lifetime, and employers big and small are having to reevaluate their business strategies accordingly. Despite California reopening, businesses have still had to reduce hours and operations due to staffing levels, and things don’t appear to be changing anytime soon.

There’s a fine line between having a mutually beneficial relationship with employees by offering generous compensation packages and being completely powerless to your staff because they hold the power to not work. Understandably, business owners have scrambled to find quality employees and overpaid for below average workers, but not only is that not even a temporary solution, it’s just postponing and amplifying the staffing doom.

Responding out of desperation never results in anything positive, and spending the time attracting quality, stable employees is worth a few more days or weeks in the long run. Not only did COVID change workplace dynamics, but it also changed what employees value in a workplace, so offering applicable benefit packages is key to finding employees who can’t be swayed by a few months of unemployment and will be dedicated to your business through the next crisis. Butte County sure has taught us to always be ready for one.

Shelby Chase is the owner/operator of HRIQ, a boutique HR provider in Chico. She can be reached at SHELBY@UPYOURHRIQ.COM WWW.UPYOURHRIQ.COM 530.200.2663

Embracing Your Authentic Self

JESSICA DARLING WILKERSON, MA, LMFT 104464 LICENSED MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPIST EMDR CLINICIAN

It’s human nature to walk around with a mask; it’s not safe to be vulnerable and exposed all the time. But in these modern times, people are wearing their armor to bed. They are masked up when they look in the mirror and when they are alone in their vehicles. This is partially because we can now bring work home with us via email and because social media has been so invasive. Our subconscious doesn’t know where the responsibility to embody our persona ends and the safety to reveal our true self begins.

I want to affirm something right now—the world can be a scary place, but it can also be safe, supportive, and understanding. Our brain wants to keep us safe, so it stores all the threatening data of past events within a finger’s reach so it can gather it up and access it at a moment’s notice. Over time, this causes us to walk with either more hesitation or with more grandiosity. While this makes sense to keep us safe from lions in the safari, dark alleys, and dangerous-people-who-appear-normal, it too quickly gets applied across the board. We don’t want to be eaten, killed, deceived, judged, shamed, or rejected—all those experiences can have pretty serious consequences physically, emotionally, and professionally. We can’t walk through life with that fear just under the surface where we can’t see it, but we feel it. We won’t thrive. We won’t take the risks that get us the rewards. We won’t so easily and readily lift our faces to the sun or bop along to the music, and that’s no way to live.

Being authentic means your no means no and your yes means yes. It means allowing the absentminded parts of you to show when you’re having a forgetful day. It means not trying to live up to what you believe society thinks you should be. It means allowing yourself to ask, “Why am I angry?” and realizing that you’re really disappointed, hurt, or sad. Then allowing yourself to actually experience those deeper emotions. It means letting down your guard or mask now and then, giving people the opportunity to accept the

real you.

It has been my experience, and the experience of so many of my clients, that when we test being real with ourselves, then with trustworthy people, and slowly start branching out to colleagues and strangers, that we start to relax and settle into a happier and easier life of authenticity.

Jessica Wilkerson, MA, LMFT is a licensed marriage and family therapist in Chico, CA. She is an EMDR clinician as well as the owner/operator and clinical supervisor of Inspired Life Counseling. For more information, visit www.jessicawilkerson.com and www.inspiredlifechico.com. Jessica can also be reached via phone at (530) 809-1702