Working Towards Wellness: January 2026

[itsfi]

Happy New Year, BIC! Let's start 2026 with a fresh, fun and fierce month of self-care à la wellness bingo!
If you're new here (to BIC and/or to wellness bingo, welcome!! If you've taken part in a round of wellness bingo before, welcome back!

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 will have our good days and bad days - moments when we are thriving; and others when we need to pause, take a deep breath (or multiple ones, for that matter), and reset. 

Working towards wellness is a life-long, evolving process that takes into account our individual needs and circumstances. Self-care is not about perfection, but progress. Likewise, wellness bingo isn't about winning or being the first to get bingo or clear the board. It's about finding what practices we can incorporate into our daily / weekly / monthly routine to support, maintain and/or improve our quality of life. All while having some fun along the way. 

Getting Started

To help you get started with this month's game of wellness bingo, here are a few links that may be of interest to you:

How to Play / How to Post 
Description of Wellness Activities

• Rows 1 & 2
• Rows 3, 4 & 5

Looking forward to hearing about your wellness practices this month. Please join in as you feel comfortable. 

[itsfi]

@caitbird, I find that I can get in more wellness activities on these cards when the month starts around a weekend or in the case of this month, a holiday weekend. More time to get things in so I front load it, I guess.  The tea has been a nice way to try some from a different part of the world. 🫖 And good for this time of year.

[adamsev]

I did a lot of combining things - 

- self care focus and give permission to went hand in hand for me. I'm going to focus this year on trying to not having everything be perfect and giving myself permission to not be perfect and not care what people think. 

- aromatherapy and stretch - I bought a bunch of candles during the after Christmas sales and have been using them every chance I get and use them when I do some at home yoga.

- exercise and music - it’s too cold and wet for me to run outside so I get on our Peloton and listen to my playlist.

- fruits and veggies - there's been a small farmers' market by our gym and they're expanding so we've been going to the gym earlier and getting our product from the market after we're done.

- arts and crafts - I got a coupon for a series of flower arrangement classes for Christmas and went to my first one this week. 

[Samtian]

@adamsev Flower arrangement sounds fun! Great work!

[Shosh85]

@adamsev  Oh, I love farmers markets! Glad there's one that's super convenient for you!

Flower arranging and candlelit yoga sounds amazing! Happy you were able to treat yourself a little bit!

[caitbird]

@adamsev  awesome job! I love your approach of combining different wellness activities, that's so smart! Candlelit yoga and flower arranging classes sound like fun, hope you enjoy!

[itsfi]

There were so many great post-Christmas sales this year @adamsev; love an at-home candlelight yoga sesh - it's such a great way to combine a few wellness practices as you unwind and stretch. Any favorite candle(s) and/or yoga poses?

Congrats on your BINGO, too! You're off to an excellent start to the year, and it looks like there could be a couple more bingo's to come this month! 🙌

[adamsev]

I like anything lavender scented; I have a lavender honey candle that is divine. For yoga poses, I like the inversions and warrior poses alot @itsfi. 

[missjeanie]

@adamsev A flower arrangement class sounds like so much fun!  Enjoy

[blackkitty2014]

Okie I’m catching up with both of you @itsfi @Samtian 😘 Since it’s raining dogs and cats, I use that raining imoj 😂🤣 

Selfcare focus: yes I’m joining that thread shopping your stash to remind me sometimes less is more

Aromatherapy: last year I had bad allergy so I stoped using anything with fragrance but now I’m back 😘

Eat Healthy Meal: yes any meal should come with some kind of vegetables or mostly vegetables 

Check in with loved ones: check in with Mom daily

Financial Wellness: I live in CA aka high tax state so the goal is do as much as I can to maximum tax savings … checked ☑️ 

Exercise: I’m doing that monthly challenge on my iwatch again. I’m only 12 out of 14 to go on one and 6 out of 7 on another.

Seasonal fruits and veggies: we’re enjoying our tangerine from the back yard. This year we have a new variety that is better than the older varieties 🥰

Body care: checked 

Hydrated: yup green tea .. lots of green tea for me beside regular water. 
Music therapy: checked

[caitbird]

@blackkitty2014  awesome job! Hope you get some sunshine soon. Having tangerines growing in your backyard sounds wonderful! I lived in California for the first 8 years of my life, and I do miss a lot of the flowers and fruits we were able to grow in the garden there (I live in New England now, which is also beautiful but has a very different climate, lol).

[missjeanie]

Boooo to all that rain, but you've accomplished so much already @blackkitty2014 Talk about setting yourself up for success!

[Samtian]

@blackkitty2014 Whooo congrats on that Bingo! The rain is horrible. I live in Idaho and almost every day rain. I told Mom we are becoming part of the PNW for real. Just saying we have a lot A LOT of people from California moving to Idaho 🙂 

[itsfi]

Oh my goodness, we need the rain @blackkitty2014 but it's been anything but a typical California fall / winter. Love the cloud & rain emoji, very cute and very appropos! 🌧 And looky you, a BINGO right off the bat! First bingo of the year for BIC wellness bingo! 🙌 Brava! 👏

I'm with you on the veggies. I try to have a good amount of some kind of vegetable with lunch and dinner. Slacked a bit during the holidays but have been ramping up since the beginning of the year. 

Ahhhhh, your backyard is a dream!! I bet those tangerines are delicious. That's a good reminder about drinking more tea, and green tea specifically, thank you! Yes, yes, less is more. Going to focus even more on using what I have and being extra thoughtful about what and when I purchase this year. 

[Samtian]

Week 1- Champagne Bottle

Brain Teasers- Clue, Wordle, and Connections. I actually got a perfect on todays Connections.

Read- Getting close to finishing my Bourne Book.

Create- Always editing

Music- Listened to some good stuff on my way to work!

[caitbird]

@Samtian  great job! I need to check out Wordle and Connections - I've been curious about them, but haven't tried them yet.

[Samtian]

@caitbird Thank you, I hope you give them a try soon!

[missjeanie]

@Samtian Connections is hard!  Great start to the year!

[Samtian]

@missjeanie It is!

[itsfi]

You are starting off the year with some excellent self-care activities @Samtian! 🙌 Woohoo on a perfect Connections score today, that's awesome! 🙌 My plan was to play Connections every day this month but ummm, it's the 4th and I haven't played a single game of it all year. Ruh-roh. Maybe I'll try playing every day in February, it is a shorter month after all. 🤣 I'll have to start building up a routine for it. Exciting that you're coming close to finishing a book, yaaay!

[Samtian]

@itsfi Thank you! I lucked out and that one was about Football for a tougher category haha. Finished the book last night and made a list on Goodreads for the books lined up on my shelf to read next. My goal this year is 6. Last year was 5. 

[itsfi]

There’s definitely an element of luck to it @Samtian. Oh wow, good for you for finishing the book and upping your goal for this year. That’s a great goal and smart of you to have books lined up and ready for when you’re done with the next book and the next ..,