Wellness In Progress: January 2025

[itsfi]

2025 is literally just days away, BIC! Let's start off the year strong with making our health, wellness and self-care one of our priorities. We can make it fun, too, with another game of wellness bingo! 

Self-care can be a very personal thing - what works for one person may not work for someone else. Practicing wellness is a process - it takes time and effort. We have our good days and bad days - moments when we are thriving; and others, where we need to pause, take a deep breath (or multiple ones, for that matter), and reset. But even as our self-care journey is a personal matter, support, encouragement and just knowing there's something there doesn't hurt. Wellness takes work. Let's do the work together, BIC!

▶️  How to play:  There are many different ways to take part in this wellness challenge. A few are mentioned in the spoiler below, but if you have a way to approach wellness bingo that works best for you, go for it!

Spoiler

• Treat it like a game of BINGO, except in this BIC-version, you are your own moderator, either (a) selecting which activities you want to engage in or (b) putting them into a random generator tool, blindly pointing at a square, or writing each activity (or each square) onto a piece of paper, placing all of them into a bowl and pulling one out each day you intend to undertake a wellness activity, and then doing that activity.
• You can aim to do 5 activities in a way that earns yourself a BINGO!  5 activities across the same row, down the same column or across diagonally from upper left corner to lower right, and/or upper right corner to lower left. OR
• You can just go about your day picking one activity to undertake and work towards doing all the activities on this B Well card (but see notes on making adjustments below).
• You can choose to go row by row or column by column each week. Thank you, @Mellmars1185, for sharing how you went about your wellness bingo last month. It's such a great approach!

🗒  Monthly Self-Care Activities:

• The self-care activities in the squares change from month-to-month, with some appearing in a previous month's bingo wellness card, and others being new or tailored to the specific month/season. 
• For a more detailed description of the activities in each of the squares above, click on this link ➡️ January 2025 Wellness Bingo Activities
• If you're interested in seeing what others have done for some of the activities being repeated, you may want to take a peek at some of the replies from other members of the Community in previous wellness challenge threads -Wellness In Progress: November 2024 and Wellness In Progress: December 2024.

🌟  Posting Your Self-Care Activities. This challenge is certainly one you can do on your own. It's also something we can take part in together. If you feel comfortable, share about the activities you did to earn each square by replying to this original post - with words, photos, and/or a pic of the bingo scorecard with the activity / activities you took part in crossed out. You can post weekly or at the end of the month, depending on your preference. We love hearing from the Community and have learned about new ways of doing things that we wouldn't have thought of otherwise. 

🎀  Make Adjustments As Needed. We are all at different stages of our wellness / self-care journey. While it cn be good to challenge ourselves, sometimes, it's best to take make adjustments. I'm not at expert at this at all, and if there's an activity that is not something you are ready for or that you shouldn't engage in, make the adjustments you need to, or just skip that square altogether.

• Be safe. Consider weather conditions or where you are in your own wellness efforts. For instance, the second square in the last row is for a winter walk or hike - if it's storming outside or you're in an area where it is not safe to do this (e.g., weather advisory, shelter-in-place, etc.), then skip this one and stay indoors. Be safe. Also, for some of the activities listed in the boxes, particularly the physical ones, please consult with your physician or health care provider before starting, if and as appropriate, and adjust accordingly.
• Focus on one activity per week vs. one per day. We have BIC'ers who engage in wellness activities in some form every day, some more than one activity in a day. We also have BIC'ers who are starting out on their wellness journey or are coming back to self-care. There's be different objectives for each of us; make this work for you. If there's an activity in a square that you've been eyeing for whatever reason and you want to focus on that for the week, focus on working towards that activity for one day, two days, 3, 4, 5, 6, or 7 for the week. If there's another activity that piques your interest, give that a try for another week. 

⏲  Duration for Certain Activities. The time periods for certain activities included here are arbitrary.

• For example, the third square in the first row is for "Exercise (20 minutes)" - if you want or can do more than a 20 minutes, go for it. If you're starting out or if you're crunched for time, aim for 5 minutes and work up from there, when, if, and as appropriate for you.
• Same with the "Stretch (20 minutes)" in the third row, second square.
• If you're starting out or are aware of certain conditions that may make either a more challenging effort, please discuss these activities your physician or health care provider before starting, and adjust accordingly.

Excited for another month of wellness bingo, BIC. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year! 

[Shosh85]

Thanks so much, @Mellmars1185! I was sort of a weird teenager/young adult and would go to bookstores and libraries for "fun," and just sit for hours looking up quotes in quote books and writing down the ones I liked in my notebooks. It was kind of therapeutic for me - always helped me feel better when I was feeling down or depressed. 😊

[peculiarzmakeup]

@Shosh85  I love this 🥹 that is such a great skill you utilized it makes me

happy reading that! I used to collage in a book and would kinda go on the internet and find quotes I think they are so healing! Good for you!

[Shosh85]

@peculiarzmakeup  Oh, putting together a collage of quotes sound fun!

[peculiarzmakeup]

Beautiful work! Wow you got so many squares already! I love how organized and how much thought went into each activity, it’s truly so meaningful! Thank you for the diagram I think visuals are such great reminders. Such a beautiful dish and lovely song choices, I’m glad you got some mask time In that’s always relaxing and ahh wax melts are so soothing. Great work! And amazing resolutions! @Shosh85  ❤️

[Shosh85]

Thanks so much, @peculiarzmakeup! You are too kind! 😊

[Titian06]

Wow, this is awesome, @Shosh85 ! 🥰  I do the chin tucks as well as shoulder shrugs and circles when I'm in the shower. 😄  I was recently diagnosed with cervical dystonia and found this helps with the neck/shoulder pain.

Dinner, playlist, mask...if you want to do a girls' night, feel free to call me! 💖💖💖

[Shosh85]

Thanks @Titian06!  Yup, the shoulder shrugs/circles is another part of my stretching routine.... I'm sure it's even better in the shower when your muscles are all warmed up and loose! 

Haha! 😂 I'm totally down for a girls night! 🙌😃

[itsfi]

You are extraordinary @Shosh85! 😊 Excellent work for this first week! I have so much to say and inquire about, but first, I love your wax melter. It's beautiful! Your playlist is awesome - you should post it to 🎶✨Song of the Day and Music Thread!✨🎶; I'm bookmarking it for myself. Love, love, looooove your motivational quotes. Reading through them gave me lots of feels! 💗 I also love that you have a book of quotes! 

[Shosh85]

Thanks so much for creating this thread, @itsfi! I'm really loving this challenge! It's definitely helping keep me accountable 👍
I'm really loving the wax melter! Just looking at it gives me cozy vibes, and the cinnamon roll wax that's in it definitely adds to the coziness! 😊

[Shosh85]

I really love this! Such great idea @itsfi! These are all great and I could definitely need a reminder/motivation to just about everything you have listed here! Looks like I missed out on the past ones you've done, so I'll have to back and read everyone's responses! 😃

[itsfi]

Yaaaay, I'm so happy to see you on BIC @Shosh85, and here for this. The past threads are a fun read - and offer up some great ideas for these wellness activities. In a nutshell, it's all about our own wellness needs and how to fit in what we can, when we can, with everything that goes on in our day to day.

[ather]

@itsfi  Yay! Thanks again for creating this! I love to follow along and check off as many as I can! 

Jan 1- I have already came up with my resolutions so I can check that one off! 
1. Healthy nails -work on being more mindful and getting healthy nails. 
2. healthy hair. Take better care of my hair. 
3. no/low buy. 

[itsfi]

Yessssss!!! Those are great resolutions @ather! And a square on day 1 - you're on top of this! 

[Mellmars1185]

@itsfi Thank you for this! Yes - Let's start the year off strong! I found my planner and I am going to start adding these to my daily list to make sure I get my self care in ☺️

[itsfi]

Ahhhh, can I just  say that I love that you have a physical planner @Mellmars1185?! 💗 I also need to say 'thank you' - for reminding me I need to grab mine. 😂 

[Mellmars1185]

@itsfi Thanks! It really helps me out and keeps me accountable ☺️

[PrettyPaint]

@itsfi Thanks so much for setting this up - looks great! 💙

[itsfi]

@PrettyPaint, thank you! I sometimes feel like the first of the year has its ebbs and flows - excitement at the newness of things and also busy-ness with getting back into the swing of things. Hoping our little game of bingo is a fun and helpful way to remind us that our wellness matters. 

[peculiarzmakeup]

Beautiful wellness challenge so excited to join in thanks for all your effort and beautiful organization to plan this for everyone much appreciated @itsfi 

[itsfi]

@peculiarzmakeup, thank you. It'll be fun to kickstart the new year together with a focus on making sure we're all cared for, whether it's just one square marked off, or all of them, or some mix of activities that keep us well. 

[CynthieLu]

This challenge card looks good @itsfi  and a really mindful way to start 2025. 💝 Thank you for starting this!