Sephora

itsfi · ‎02-01-2026

Hello, BIC! I don't know about you, but self-care is always one of those things I know I should do, but some days are better than others when it comes to actually getting it done, or getting it done meaningfully. There's a lot going on, all around us. Some are good things, some are hard things, some are stressful. Some of those things are part of our every day, normal routines; some things are not normal at all. In either case, in all cases, it's important to take time, to make time, to look after our wellness.

Wellness Bingo: February 2026

There are many ways to go about self-care, including this game of bingo. If you're new to wellness bingo (or BIC, for that matter), welcome! 👋 If you're returning for another month of wellness bingo here on BIC, welcome back! 🙌 As always, more information regarding wellness bingo as well as the self-care activities listed on this month's board can be found in the links below.

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Description of Activities

Whether or not you choose to join in a game of wellness bingo here on BIC (at home or on the threads), please give yourself a little extra time this month to look after your wellness and the wellness of those around you.

[NOTE: I took a slightly different take on this month's board, incorporating some themes within the self-care activities inspired by a few of the events and occasions we celebrate and honor this month, which I talk briefly about in the description of activities. One thing you will see is that some of this month's squares include words in quote, in addition to the self-care activity for a particular square. Those words are lyrics to one of the 6 songs nominated for Song of the Year at this year's Grammy Awards, which I made an effort to connect to the wellness activity - some connections required more creative license than others. A 🎶 emoji is noted in the Description section for those activities with a musical tie-in and that tie-in is discussed briefly at the end of the description of the particular self-care activity.]

For March 2026 wellness board, check out Working Towards Wellness: March 2026

nuinui933 · ‎02-19-2026

Date yourself and RAOK - started my solo date early in the morning with some time at the cat tea cafe with some cats and a matcha latte while waiting for my reservation time at the museum a few blocks over to open. My RAOK was that I purchased a gift card for an hour time slot with drink and a mini cat snack, and asked one of the owners to help me pay it forward to someone they thought might find it to be a nice pick me up. Then I spent a couple hours at the museum, and afterwards took a 10+ minute walk to have fresh made noodles and dumplings yum 😋

Childhood favorites and quality time - one of my older brothers was nearby for work and came in a few days earlier to hang out. When we were kids the two of us had this intense love for cup o’ noodle - we’d rarely have it but it was available at our extended family camping outings and we would find ways to get our other siblings’ and cousins’ share of cup o noodles and pool our winnings.

Our taste buds have changed since then but when he was here I made sure that the two of us got tickets to the Cup Noodles Museum and the two noodle making workshop and tours. We did a lot of walking and hydrating afterwards to work off all the calories and sodium. It was a fun thing to do with this brother; my other two bros would not have found it as enjoyable or nostalgic.

Tried one of those hot yoga classes and welp, I tried. 😌 I did drink a ton of water afterwards, and during too. I think I was the only person drinking water during the class but I did hydrate a lot then too.

danielledanielle · ‎02-25-2026

That's a cool RAOK @nuinui933

I love dumplings. I love that most major regions of the world have a dumpling... They are the best!

nuinui933 · ‎03-26-2026

@danielledanielle

my boyfriend is really into baseball and has this thing where he wants to visit all the baseball parks in the world so I told him my thing is I want to try every place's version of the dumpling: boiled, steamed, fried, in soup, deep fried, pan fried and any other way. He calls me the Forest Gump of dumplings, if that means I get my dumpling fix, I don't mind. 😅 Bring on the dumplings.

danielledanielle · ‎03-27-2026

@nuinui933

nuinui933

@danielledanielle

heh, heh, heh 😆

Samtian · ‎02-24-2026

@nuinui933 Sounds like a great week! Cat cafe sounds like heaven to me.

nuinui933 · ‎03-26-2026

@Samtian

it's a lot of fun and calming too. Great for people who can't have cats in their apartments.

itsfi · ‎02-23-2026

lol, I had no idea there was a museum dedicated to cup o'noodle @nuinui933 but I can see that being popular. Very cool that you and your brother were able to experience that together, especially given that bit of childhood nostalgia. I spy a BINGo too! And you've set yourself up for a couple more as well. Nice work, congrats!

Image credit Youtube

nuinui933 · ‎03-26-2026

@itsfi

awe, so cute, that gif. I love it, thank you.

shaeschaeshea · ‎02-19-2026

Made a handmade card for my gratitude and create squares along with a mini goodie basket for an early valentine's for my grandparents of fresh made muffins, lemon curd and tea.

Date myself was new to me but I tried it and it was great! I went to try this cute new restaurant in town that I've been wanting to try and got some reading in. Went on the same day as the Super Bowl and the whole block was pretty quiet except for the bar on the corner.

I learned a lot from the mental health square, thank you. I listened to the Doechii song (music therapy). Going for a run is usually what I do to help release anxiety but if I can’t do that I try breathing exercises. I didn’t experience any anxiety this week or last but I have been trying that 5 senses exercise in the description posts and it's been really good, another thing that's new to me.

itsfi · ‎02-23-2026

That goodie basket sounds delish and what a sweet and thoughtful gift @shaeschaeshea! Homemade muffins and lemon curd? Yum!! What flavor muffins?

itsfi · ‎02-18-2026

From the last week-and-a-half:

Digital Detox: Getting back into a consistent routine of it before bed and it's helped a lot with staying asleep through the night. I also committed to work on unplugging for most of the long weekend - didn't use my phone other than a few times during the day, and that was only to confirm reservations, meeting time & locations with people, and get point-to-point driving directions (given that everyone I was with were / can be pretty directionally challenged, I needed to make sure we knew how to get to where we were supposed to be when we were supposed to be there 😝). I was really good about limiting how often I checked to see if there was anything or anyone that truly needed my attention and how/if/when I responded. <<pats self on back>>

Gratitude: I've been keeping a running list of things I'm grateful for; it's often something I keep logged in my head, but I've been trying to remember to make note of it on my phone so that when I get home I can either memorialize it in my journal or on a slip of paper and place it in my gratitude jar, or in some instances, both. I try to make a habit of clearing out that jar around the end of each month or not too far after the very beginning of the next month by going through and revisiting the notes included in the jar. Sometimes, if I'm coming off of a hard day or if the weight of the world (my little microcosm of it, or the greater one) gets to feel a bit too overwhelming, I'll reach in and pull out one or two. Not to escape, deny or avoid the struggle, the pain, or the heartbreaking realities that exist, but as a way and a reminder to not be consumed by it; but rather, to have hope and cultivate resilience and joy in the midst of all of it.

A few things I am deeply grateful for this month:

Being on the receiving end of random (some, very random, 😆) acts of kindness and generosity from friends, acquaintances, and even strangers alike
Opportunities to spend quality time with loved ones
Full-on belly laughs
The gift of hindsight
Quiet moments to exhale

Healthy meal: I've been trying to find my way back into better eating habits. There have been a handful of missteps that were delicious and that I don't regret but that will not become routine. Balance. Moderation. I've been recalibrating some ideas for meal planning this and last week and have come up with some things that I think I'd like to include for meals during the winter-spring transition. Made kimchi fried rice one night (that tasted better a few nights later when I added a soft-boiled egg on top) and had a steak salad another day in full disclosure, I did not cook the steak part of the steak salad, as it would not have turned out nearly as good in taste or presentation.

Spoiler

RAOK: I'm typically more inclined to keep my acts of kindness, random or otherwise, private, anonymous, under the radar, etc., but in the spirit of sharing, a couple of instances that I was very happy to have been able to be a part of:

I was out at brunch and one of the people at the next table was an elementary school teacher (in the city, the teachers had recently reached an agreement to end their strike). As I left the restaurant, I took out a few Target giftcards I had in my purse and handed them to her to use for school supplies for her classroom.

I was on a run/walk, fine, it was pretty much a walk 😂 the other day and coming from the opposite direction was a kid with his parents, learning to ride his bike and he was a bit scared, didn't want his dad to let go for too long and the kid would stop not long after his dad would let go; his parents would say 'it's okay, you don't need to stop, keep going ...''. So when I was getting closer towards them I waved and said to the kid, "you're doing great! You can do it, you got this!" I saw him (and his parents) smile and I heard him say as I was walking past "I got this!" It was really cute and I'm pretty sure I got a lot more joy out of it than he did.

Create & Quality Time: My niece and I recently finished our 3-week series of DIY cheese and charcuterie boards. Next up ... Onigiri (pronounced on-ee-gee-ree or own-knee-gear-ree), Japanese rice balls, probably with a variety of fillings. Speaking of which, note to self .. Self, make a list and get to the grocery shop later this week.

Samtian · ‎02-24-2026

@itsfi You are an amazing person! Those raok made me smile so big.

itsfi · ‎02-24-2026

Awww, thank you @Samtian, that's very nice of you to say. It was great to be at the right time and place to be able to do those things. 😊

shaeschaeshea · ‎02-19-2026

@itsfi those raoks are very thoughtful and those meals look delish. My fried rice always sticks together, yours looks so good and colorful and healthy.

itsfi · ‎02-23-2026

That's very kind of you to say, thank you @shaeschaeshea. For fried rice, a couple of tips I learned was to use day old rice and long grain or medium grain rice.

miss8 · ‎02-16-2026

@itsfi , What Do We Cross Off After #Giving 😋

adamsev · ‎02-15-2026

- All the purple dots all were part of the “Date Yourself” activity. I’m not great with eating by myself in public and get self conscious and anxious about it. If I’m on a work trip I get something delivered to the room or order room service if I’m not with coworkers or other people. I was on a work trip at the beginning of the month and the rest of my team had their flight delayed. I decided to do a spur of the moment solo date and found this restaurant near one of the sites I checked out so our team didn’t lose any time when everyone’s flights got in. I listened to music and a podcast and tried to let go of my anxiety and being self consciousness.

- cozy comforts and social wellness - we've been up in the mountains with friends for a couple of days. getting some time on the slopes in the day and hot chocolate at night has been tons of fun.

- Last week I met up with my bestie at a wellness retreat for a few days. It wasn’t a full day of unplugging for me but there was lots of dedicated time for journaling, meditation time mixed in with digital detoxes or directed unplugging time and lots of healthy foods and meals. The childhood fave is that they had a s’mores night. I was all in for that alone! I was half expecting it to be a let down, it’s at a wellness retreat for crying aloud but it was awesome. The traditional s’more and the Reese’s s’more were my top picks. I was not a fan of the tropical s’more.

- gratitude - it’s an extra long weekend for me, i'm off thru tuesday. 😀 Happy to have the extra time. Feeling blessed to be away for the extra days. #grateful

missjeanie · ‎02-26-2026

@adamsev I can also feel very awkward when I'm dinning out on my own. More so in a 'nice' restaurant. I find that having those things to do like a podcast, or book etc etc really help me feel like I'm not just staring at people! Love that you pushed your self a little!

adamsev · ‎03-07-2026

Thanks so much it's nice to know I'm not the only one. I just don't know what to do with myself and staring at my plate the whole time just feel weird too, lolz. I might try it again on another trip if I happen to be on my own but it's not anything I would seek out to do. I'm glad I tried it 'cuz now I know I can and how to make it less awkward. @missjeanie