Working Towards Wellness: July 2025

[itsfi]

Hey BIC, let's kick off the latter half of the year with some wellness bingo! Whether you're just starting out wit focusing on your self-care or you're a seasoned pro at it; or, you're somewhere in between, with your good days, and your not-so-good ones, welcome! (See spoiler below ⤵️ "How To Play" for more details)

We're each on our own personal self-care journey, one that, if you're like me, varies - some days (weeks, months, years) are better than others. Wellness is a process - it's about progress, not perfection. It takes work. Much of that work falls on us individually, and our efforts towards self-care, as it should, but that effort is and can be helped, inspired, encouraged, and supported by others, be it friends, family, coworkers, acquaintances, or the members of  this Community. Wellness takes work - let's do the work together, BIC!

How To Play:

Spoiler

The short-and-sweet of it is to just jump right on in, by undertaking one or more of the activities described in a square. Once you've performed the activity, that square is yours - check it off however you like. Just remember, be safe and make adjustments, if and as applicable.

This game of wellness bingo is about YOU and YOUR WELLNESS. If you want to try for BINGO (5 squares in a row - across, down, diagonal), go for it. If you want to pick activities that are already part of your wellness activities or are ones you've been interested in trying, have at it. You can also choose to go about this by picking a row or column to focus each week, or for the entire month. Tailor your approach to meet your self-care needs and the time you have to give towards it in a particular day, week, or month. 

More information on "How To Play" can be found here ➡️ Ideas For How to Go About Wellness Bingo

Posting:

Spoiler

If you feel up to sharing about the self-care activities you undertook, please do, no matter the number of activities! We love hearing about what worked or what didn't work for you. And, we're always down for picking up some real life tips, tricks and techniques. To post, click "Reply" in the lower left hand corner of this original post and write away in the box that will appear. You can list the activities you performed, with or without your thoughts on the activity. You can if you choose, attach a copy of the wellness bingo card with the applicable squares marked off. 

Looking forward towards working towards another month of wellness with you, BIC!

[ather]

I have likely hit more of these but I’ll start here.

Summer stroll: I like to go on walks every night after supper so I think this is an easy one to check off. I went for a stroll tonight!

Have a cool refreshing drink: Sat by the kiddie pool sipping on a lemonade today! Very refreshing! 

Engage in in creative activities: I have been self teaching myself Macrame and I have been trying to practice as much as I can. I have just learned how to do a coaster! 

Soak up the sun: I spent a week in my hometown at the beginning of the month. I found a wading pool and we hung out beside it almost all week! I miss wading pools in the summer. Where I live we just have a splash pad. 

Audiobook: I had a headache on the plane and I didn’t want to watch anything so I put on an audiobook for the whole flight. It was relaxing! 

Explore a new to me spot: Went to my hometown and explored a few places I haven’t been to! 

Seasonal Fruit: one day on vacation we went to a u pick strawberry farm and picked a ton of fresh strawberries 🍓 yum! 😋 

[CorgiMommy]

Nothing like freshly picked strawberries.   @ather 

[ather]

@CorgiMommy  the best!!! I wish we had the u picks here!

[Samtian]

@ather Sounds like you are having a fantastic summer!

[ather]

@Samtian  I am! But now back to work 😢 unless I take more time off. 

[Samtian]

@ather ugh work!

[ather]

@Samtian  Do you have any summer trips planned?

[itsfi]

Fabulous work on wellness activities - on vacay and at home. Ooouh, a coaster @ather? I bet it will be beautiful - I'm impressed you're teaching yourself macrame. Your first piece looked amazing; can't wait to see how the coaster turns out.

Ahhhh, berry picking! Did the little one just love doing that? Fresh picked strawberries, yum!! 

I'm so sorry you had a headache; I can't imagine how awful that must be while on a plane. It's hard when they happen when you're home. Glad to hear the audiobook was relaxing. Hopefully no more headaches?

[ather]

@itsfi  I have done a few coasters! 

 

this one isn’t fully finished. I brush the ends out. I’ll snap a pic when I have another completed one. I took enough string with me to make one on the plane. And I left it with my mom. She loved it. 

Yes! Little man loved picking strawberries! 🍓 and also eating them all. It was fun and rewarding activity!!! 

sigh I get migraines all the time. Mostly when the pressure changes. Hence on the plane. And if weather changes fast. I am use to it. Where I live happens to be the worst for me. Or it could be my age and hormones. But luckily I can take a pain reliever and I’m usually good after an hour! But listening to audiobooks was my new fav thing to do on a plane! I normally watch movies or shows and the audiobooks I felt was a good distraction!! 

[itsfi]

Oh, that's beautiful @ather. So much so that I don't know if I'd put anything on it; it makes for a lovely piece of decor on its own. 😍 Ahhhh, love that you made a coaster for your mom; woah, you made one on the plane?! You're amazing!!!

It's fun to find something you enjoy dong on a plane ride - it makes that whole part of traveling more enjoyable and go by so much more quickly. 

[ather]

@itsfi  Awww thank you!!! 😊 I find the older I am getting the more I’m not a fan of flying. Could be also all the plane issues lately too. So it was nice to have something to focus on. 

Here is one I finished last night!!  

[itsfi]

Wow, that’s fantastic @ather! The ends make them look like a sun ☀️ How fun that you’ll have these coasters in your home. 

[ather]

@itsfi  Yes! Totally looks like a sun!! ☀️ Pat says I should put a happy face on them! 

[itsfi]

That’s a great idea @ather; seeing these does add cheer! 

[ILNJGIRLI]

That is so cute, I love it!! 💗

[itsfi]

@ILNJGIRLI, it's been such a fun way to keep wellness top of mind, and encouraging and inspiring to hear what others are doing for their self-care.

[ILNJGIRLI]

Of course, it’s such a great thing!

[itsfi]

So true @ILNJGIRLI; is there an activity that you enjoy or are interested in for self-care or that's a go-to for you?

[itsfi]

First check-in for the month: self-care activities over the last week-and-a-half marked with an orange ✖️

Work on Joy: There were two occasions that stood out for me when thinking about this wellness square. The first involved being carded. 😳😊 I kept my amusement and joy dialed down a bit as I watched the clerk doing the math in his head, realizing that I was well over the 21-year age threshold. 😆 Thank you, young man, for giving me a reason to smile, and for the raucous laughter that ensued when I recounted that moment with friends later that evening. Moments like those, where a smile breaks easily, or when laughter comes with such ease doesn't always happen that often. #grateful 

Another moment that provided an opportunity to work on joy came in the form of tears. I'll just say that it brings home one of the many, many valuable and enduring insights brought home in the Pixar Inside Out franchise - that you cannot have joy without sadness. Or, put another way, "to have one without the other would render each completely useless." (from Stephen Rodgers' "Disney’s Inside Out Shows Emotional Teamwork: Sadness and Joy"). I'd say the occasion was cathartic. I wouldn't say it made my joy complete - that I feel is always a work in progress. So, we keep working on it. 👊 

Summer Stroll: There's something to be said about being in a climate bubble in the Bay Area. While it's chillier and windier than it typically is, it has been good for some leisurely strolls, including one where I ended up at the Fillmore Jazz Festival this past weekend. 

Have a Cool & Refreshing Drink: It's cucumber mint infused water in the fridge this week. Ahhhh, spa vibes. Also have been making smoothies with spinach, peaches and mangoes. 

Brain Teasers: A self-care twofer - I have a sudoku daily desk calendar that I try to get around to on a daily basis. The operative word there is "try". I took with me the pages for the days I was on vacation and each day, after finishing (or mostly finishing) the puzzle for the day, I would flip over the sudoku page and jot down what I was grateful for - big or small, one thing or several, etc. It was a nice practice and one I decided I would try to keep up with it when I was back home. So here we are. 

Childhood Favorite(s): Ice cream. 🍨 I loved ice cream as a kid. I love it as an adult. World Chocolate Day 🍫 was July 7, and, I felt compelled to celebrate it, in some fashion or another, along with my chidhood favorite. Hardest part was deciding which chocolate ice cream to go with. 😉 

Digital Detox Before Bed (30 Minutes): I have a new digital detox routine for the summer. I'm not quite there  keeping up with this every night, but am working my way towards that cadence. After washing up and going through my skincare routine, it's 10-minutes of reading (a physical book ) or journaling, followed by 10 minutes of stretching or a wind-down yoga sequence, and ending with 10-minutes of (trying) to be still and wind down my brain.

Routine - Keep, Break, or Reset: See Digital Detox Before Bed - the particularly challenging part of this new routine is the last 10 minutes. Trying to quiet my brain isn't always easy.

Read - Audiobook - Podcast - TV/Movie: Reading is part of my summer digital detox before bed routine - it's been less time spent on my phone and more time spent reading.

Hydrate: I've been particularly good the last couple of days <<pats self on back>>

Practice Gratitude: See Brain Teasers above.

Photo credit: Pixar. Work on joy

Childhood favorite; actually, a favorite at every age

Brain Teaser: Sudoku

Practice Gratitude (with a cup of tea)

[Samtian]

@itsfi That digital detox is a really great plan!

[itsfi]

@Samtian, I think I've found a routine that'll work nicely; fingers crossed that I can stick with it and not get distracted. 🤞🤞