Self-care bingo

Most self-care is pretty fun. (I don’t know about you, but saddling up in the stirrups at the OBGYN’s office and trying to answer the dental hygienist’s questions while she stabs my gums aren’t really my idea of thrill rides.) Talking about self-care isn’t always that pleasant, though, because we can begin to realize how much we’ve been neglecting our health or our relationships and we often start stressing about what our church members will say if we leave the office at 3:00 on the Thursday of a 55-hour work week. That kind of thinking can sap some of the excitement over a night out with friends. (Kind of defeats the purpose of self-care, eh?)

I want to make reflecting about our self-care practices enjoyable! To that end I give you self-care bingo. Ten different PDF bingo cards are available for download here. Use them however you like, but here are a few suggestions:

• Play a traditional game of bingo at a clergy gathering. Cut up one of the grids into 25 cards, shuffle the cards, and have a caller shout out one self-care action at a time. Offer a prize to the first person to get a BINGO.

• Use the bingo cards for a get-to-know-you activity. If you’re at a gathering of ministers who don’t know each other well, give each person a bingo card and a pen. Ask people to mingle and find someone who has completed one of the self-care actions in the last week. Have the person initial that square and tell a brief story related to the self-care action.

• Create an ongoing self-care challenge. Distribute the bingo cards among your peers, then go about your week. See who can get a bingo first by completing five adjacent self-care actions.

Comment to let me know how you used this resource…er, game!