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. 

[missjeanie]

I normally feel like January takes forever to get through, but this month has been... busy.  

Spoiler

-Aromatherapy -- I'm so proud of how much I've been remembering to light candles in my home!  I normally fall off quite a bit after the holidays.
-Healthy Meal -- I was again watching my nieces quite a bit at the beginning of the year and we made quite a number of things from scratch which I always feel is healthier than buying the processed versions in store.  One of the girls asked me if I knew how to make bread and she started quite the bread making kick for me this month. 
-Check in with a loved one re: THEM.  I did a few different check ins this month with more purpose than I normally would.  One family member has been sick quite a bit, in and out of hospital and I think was feeling quite down.  I took it upon myself to make up a few casserole style meals and deliver them in disposable pans so that they had a weeks worth of dinners and sides that they didn't need to think about.  I also have a Grandmother in a home who's.. not enjoying being there despite the need to be there.  I made a conscious effort to take off from work a few hours early each week in order to go visit for the afternoon.  I can't help them escape (despite being asked) but I can sit there and be present. And then I also have another friend in my life who I could just feel something was off with.  I didn't want to pry but over a few dinners this month they ended up confiding about some issues they were having and their plan to start fresh.  I am now able to be more aware of what they are going through and support better.
-Brain Teasers... Same as last month, I do the NYT games in the morning with a few friends in office for some good natured competition as to who can do them better.
-Permission to... Not be as focused on work and spend more time focused on the people in my life and what is going on with all of us outside of work. 
-Financial Wellness is always something I take to heart.  I meet with my financial advisor regularly but took this reminder and a friends current plan to start fresh as an opportunity to review my budget and how that fits with my financial goals. Made a few little tweaks here and there after comparing to my expenses and I feel pretty good about where I'm sitting.
-Podcasts/TV/Movie -- I'm very able to toss on a random Netflix show and watch all night.  I live on my own and am not as inclined to go out in the winter weather so it's easy for me to fall into this category.  This month also brought with it quite a bit of driving to a town about an hour and a half away so I enjoyed downloading some podcasts to listen to while driving. Would love to get into Audio books... does anyone have any good app suggestions?
-Digital Detox happened by pure happenstance.  I was trying to encourage little ones to quiet down and so followed my own advice in order to lead by example. 
-Exercise -- I'm still counting shoveling snow as exercise.  It can often be more than 30 minutes at a time.... 
-Joy List -- I spent an evening listing out things that I'd like to do travel wise this year and then that branched out into listing out a few beaches that are on my must see list for the summer.  
-Gratitude.  This one fell hand in hand with so many people I'm close to having health issues this month.  I'm very grateful that I'm in good health and that those around me are so able to access medical help when they need it.  My nieces loved so much doing some deliveries over the holidays to others that we decided to do a monthly feel good day where we do nice things for others.  I'm grateful that these kids are such good humans and that we got to show our thanks this month to the staff at one of our OPP offices by dropping off some Ordered Pizzas, Home made baking, Energy Drinks, and cards to say thanks for helping to keep us safe. Yes, the home made baking were doughnuts.  
-Occupational Wellness.  I'm trying to work from home a few days a week.  I like the quiet and not being around a few people who's wellness is impeding mine in office. 
-Seasonal Fruits and Veggies.  It's January in Canada.  There's 6 feet of snow on my lawn.  I chose to interpret this as being thankful that I have the ability to can fresh fruits and veggies in the summer to enjoy now.  
-Prioritize Sleep.  I mean... I'm a sleepy gal, but I did allow myself to go to bed when I wanted regardless of the time.  Oh it's 7pm and you're tired.  Bed time it is!
-Body Care.  I went through and picked out some winter scented products to enjoy this month, (new tub of scrub, new fragranced body wash, new lotion) and tried to stick to a self care Sunday night where I take my time and enjoy using said products. 
-Hydrate.  I've been exploring more of the Liquid Death waters, and flavoured San Pellegrino's.  I've also kept up with my daily goal of one non carbonated water a day.  Even when I have to slam that drink like it's 1999 and I'm just coming back from a club knowing that I need water in order to survive work the next day that starts in 3 hours. 
-Create -- I'm calling my current obsession with only making bread at home my arts and crafts this month.
-Let it gooooooooooo.  The fact that some people do dumb things and I can't control them but only my reaction to them.  This one is a work in progress.
-Music Therapy.  In addition to my podcasts in the truck while driving I've made a few new playlists of songs that all share the ability to be belted out loud in the truck alone.  I think I'm a fabulous singer.  No one else does... but when I'm alone in the truck... I'm a one man show!
-Stretch -- I've actually been following along twice a week to a lady online who does stretching videos.  It reminds me of when my mom would exercise to videos in the 80s.  I enjoy both the nostalgia and laying on the floor afterwards. 
 

My nieces also followed along this month and shared using my squares.  They were quite happy to pipe in with ideas on how we could fill in more squares and tbh... there were a few that I would not have done were it not for their influance. 

[itsfi]

I spy multiple BINGO's @missjeanie and fancy rocks for stampers! 

Check ins can mean more than you know; you're good people, missjeanie! Baking is an art and a craft in my book; love that your nieces are serving as INSPO on so many levels for wellness bingo. 🙌 

What kinds of books / stories do you like reading? I know for sure a book/audio book to recommend you not listening to. 😲 or perhaps you put much lower on your "must read" list 🤣. 

Oh, what Netflix shows/movies have you found interesting? 

[missjeanie]

@itsfi I realized over the holidays that I can very easily get too wrapped up in things that are going on and not be present enough or checking in with others enough.  Right now I'm having to be very purposeful with them, but I'm hoping it can change to a habit. 

I enjoy that some of the squares on bingo are often repeats as it's giving me a chance to try and build some of those habits over time. 

I tend to enjoy mysteries or cheesy romance type novels when I have an opportunity to read.  I call them beach reads, nothing too serious or deep.  Something you can read on the beach and not have to put too much thought into.  I've very open to suggestions on apps to download and those to avoid!  

[itsfi]

It's a balance, focusing on the things in front of you, on your self-care, being present, checking on others, and the balance changes, but you're absolutely right @missjeanie - it becomes more natural and instinctive as you do it more. 

I'm tagging @blackkitty2014 for book recs; 2024 was the year of reading, a lot of leisure reading and 2025 was the year of not doing much reading,  but what I did read, or actually, what I finally got around to finishing after many years was great but it was not light reading at all. I will say I would push down the list "The Exchange" by John Grisham - it's a sequel to The Firm but ... yeah, just push it down that list or avoid. BIC Book Club!!! has some  recs for books. 

[eshores]

New things I did marked in orange and green

Self care focus was to get out and do more things with people and I did a couple of things with that in mind over the last two weeks of last month

✔️ winter walk with a coworker at lunch and hydrated too
✔️went to see a musical with a friend

Joy list - I jotted down a few things to do for joy and included some that involved my self care focus to get out and do things and be more social with other people.

Thanks for tagging me with this months board @itsfi appreciate it

[danielledanielle]

Congrats 🎉 @eshores , sounds like some major self care occurred

[itsfi]

Awesome work @eshores, way to close out your January bingo with a few BINGO's!!  Yaay for putting together a joy list and getting in some self-care activities with others! Which musical did you see?

[blackkitty2014]

Last report on the month of January: still miss digital detox and couple of squares but will definitely try harder in February 😘

PS: please accept arts, crafts, hobbies as trying to care for my 2 orchids. I try to rebloom one and prolong the blomming period of the other. Will report next month on my progress 😘 PS of PS everyone is doing such a great job in January. I’m proud of us 🌹❤️

[danielledanielle]

I had an orchid.  It grew beautifully, then BF (now hubbs) complained it was blocking the tv (it was).  I moved it and it died and I haven't been able to do that again... So it counts 😅 @blackkitty2014 

[blackkitty2014]

Thx you @Samtian @danielledanielle . ❤️🌹 Oh no hopefully one day you can do it again @danielledanielle . I’m still hoping I will see some new flowers. Fingers and toes crossed 

[danielledanielle]

@blackkitty2014 ... Some day , crossing all the digits🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽🤞🏽

[Samtian]

@blackkitty2014 Gardening is definitely a couple of those! Great work this month!

[itsfi]

Look at those BINGO's @blackkitty2014! Brava, brava! 👏 Well done!! Orchids and plants are most definitely hobbies. and as someone whose green thumb isn't very green, it's actually quite an art form and skill to care for both. I've lucked out with orchids and right now, I'm just hoping that I don't kill a plant I was gifted right away. I'd like to at least keep it alive for a little while ... 🤞 I'm excited to hear / see how your orchids are doing next month!

You're trying plenty hard, blackkitty. I think some months are more conducive to self care for us than others. Better to have good, meaningful, quality self-care in ways and at times you most need it, over quantity. 

[blackkitty2014]

Thx you @itsfi . Will definitely report back. One of my orchids was done with the flowers last July. So far looks liked it is happy and give me lots of nice big leaves. I was foolish enough to believe those YouTubers and cut down old stem. Take months for the new stem to grow and I accidentally broke the tip. Stupid me! I’m not give up yet. Might be a new stem will grow …. Will report back. the other one gives me a tiny bud (grok says it will be a flower bud). I guess we’ll see. If you have any tips, please pass over 😘

[itsfi]

lol, my orchids have only stayed alive by sheer luck of having  a window that gets just enough indirect light @blackkitty2014. All I've ever done is place them on a window ledge and give them ice cubes (1 to 2 for small pants and 3 - 4 for medium sized ones) on the same day and at the same time every week, maybe twice a week on those few days in the year when we have a heat wave or spare the air day. I've only moved them from that place when they are not in blooming season. I was once told that the Miracle Grow Orchid Food in the spray bottle works really well. I bought the product but I was too scared to use it and just kept doing what I had been doing. Hahaha! I think consistency is the key with them and if you're going to make any changes, it's got to be slow and steady ???  I had a couple die 😓 because I wasn't consistent or something happened out of the usual routine. 

If they start looking damaged and need repotting, you have to get it the right amount of water and humidity. I've never been able to do that and once it start to look worse for the wear, I'm like 'ruh roh' because I have never been able to revive one back to life by myself. 

Keeping my fingers crossed for yours. You can do it, blackkitty!!!

[curlychiquita]

Great wellness month, @blackkitty2014! Orchids and plants absolutely count as a hobby.  I didn’t craft even before the internet. My hobby is reading books.

[blackkitty2014]

Thx you @curlychiquita . I need to get back to reading this year too. ❤️🌹

[itsfi]

If you have additional self-care activities to share for the month of January, please continue to do so on this thread. 

When you're ready for February's wellnes activities, check out the bingo board at Working Towards Wellness: February 2026.

Spoiler

@adamsev @ather @blackkitty2014 @caitbird @CorgiMommy @curlychiquita @danielledanielle @eshores  @missjeanie @nuinui933 @PrettyPaint @Samtian @shaeschaeshea @Shosh85 

[ather]

I think I missed all of January 😫 @itsfi 

[danielledanielle]

Same @ather , ... Where were we?? 🤷🏽‍♀️🫠

We can get back!