7 Healthy Team Building Activities for Dry January & New Year’s Resolutions
Ringing in New Year offers a fresh start— a chance to make this year better than the last and reset for new challenges. It’s also a great time for some healthy team building and bring the team together to kickoff the year. Since many of your team members might be participating in Dry January or have other health-conscious resolutions, you’ll want to plan some healthy team building that can bring the whole team together. While we love a virtual happy hour, these activities will have you and your team feeling focused, mindful, and build community.
Host A Virtual 5k
A virtual race is an exciting, healthy team building activity to bring awareness to a charitable cause, promote fitness, or simply bond over running a race together. The best part about hosting a virtual race is that there are no geographic limits, meaning your team doesn’t have to worry about getting to specific starting line. You can set your race day for the end of the month to give your team something to work up to, or have one at the start and end of the month so they can try to improve their time. And if you don’t know exactly how to get your virtual race set up, Charge Running has some tips that’ll bring you to the finish line.
Taste Waters From Around The World
Gotta stay hydrated! Virtual water tasting is a healthy team building idea that checks off two boxes: drinking more water and appealing to those participating in Dry January. Water might not seem like the obvious choice for a tasting event, but trust us when we say the world of water is much more nuanced than you think. A water sommelier (yes, that’s a real job) will walk you and your team through a professional tasting, with bottles from around the world sent straight to your door. It’s a unique team building activity we guarantee your team hasn’t done before!
Practice Group Meditation
Mindfulness in the workplace has many benefits from reducing stress and anxiety to increasing creativity. A group meditation practice is a great way to help your team relieve a little stress and remind them to take a moment out of the day for themselves to reconnect with their surroundings. We recommend launching a meditation program and practicing on a weekly basis to really see the benefits. You can even add a yoga session or two!
Take A Plant-Based Cooking Class
Eating healthier or more sustainably is sure to be a resolution for many. And after a busy holiday season, we welcome a delicious plant-based meal! Whether the goal is to eat more plant-based on regular basis or try something new, learning how to make a plant-based meal from a professional will definitely improve cooking skills and take the fear out of preparing those types of meals. Here’s a list of great online cooking classes that everyone can participate in.
Flavor Trip With Magical Berries & A Color Changing Mocktail
Flavor tripping is an engaging and quirky way to keep team building fun while staying healthy. Make a mocktail that changes colors right before your eyes, then trick your tastebuds with magical berries that will turn anything sour into a sweet treat. Not only will your colleagues be amazed, but they will also have a chance to connect with their senses. Plus, all the materials are delivered to their door and a host will lead the activity, meaning you get to enjoy it too.
Start A Book Club
If #BookTok has taught us anything, it’s that reading brings people together. Bonding over a book leads to the exchange of ideas, respectful discussion, and the chance to explore new themes through literature. While your book club can focus on books related to work or self-improvement, there’s also the opportunity to escape from the work day by diving into some fiction. Reading is an enriching, healthy team building activity perfect for the New Year.
Plan A Self-Care Day
Encourage your team to participate in a self-care activity that makes them happy and/or is related to their New Year’s goals. This could range from hitting the gym, doing a hobby they enjoy or learning a new one, taking a walk, etc. Have them share what they did the following week. Self-care days don’t need to be much more than doing what makes you happy, as long as you actually set time aside to do it! Letting your team members know that there’s room for self-care at the workplace shows that you value their well-being.
You don’t need a new year to organize some healthy team building activities! Try out any of these activities at any time the year to keep encouraging positive behaviors and most importantly, a positive workplace.
