We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. – C.S. Lewis

All too often we embrace the raucous and break-neck pace of 21st century life. I think there should come a time in every day when we stop for a moment and seek out solitude and silence. For me, the best way to do this has been meditation.

I don’t always succeed at remaining focused on the present moment. In fact, I often find my mind coming up with amazing ideas about future creative projects during that time. While some might say that that is a failed meditation, I disagree. To free oneself from the bombardment of sights and sounds, is a success in itself. The fact that my mind is at its most free and imaginative when relieved of so much outward stimuli is wonderful.

Thus, in an effort to facilitate my meditation practice I have bought a Saje Nebulizer with my $50 gift card from Metropolis. I won the gift card in an online contest and this is my third win of the year. More about the other two wins in a moment.

I have used the nebulizer twice and so far I think it is helping me to breathe more easily and feel more relaxed in my meditation environment, which is generally my bedroom. Now, if I were reading this blog post, my comment at this point would be, “Hey, wait a minute Rsaloust, I thought you said that you needed to reduce stimuli in order to have a creative and fruitful meditation. By using a nebulizer, aren’t you adding stimuli to your environment?”

My alter ego has a good point…which I will now refute. The nebulizer changes the stimuli in the room. Scent is always present. You cannot totally get rid of it in any location and, believe me, as a clean-freak I have tried. Thus, your only option is to change it to something pleasant, but not overpowering. In choosing a scent for meditation purposes, I would recommend also choosing something you enjoy, but not love. That way, you won’t focus on it, but it will simply make the overall environment more pleasant.

In the coming weeks, I’ll keep trying this particular nebulizer and will provide a more review-style post about the product itself. Right now, I’m just enjoying the wanderings of my imagination.

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Wins 1 and 2 were very small. So small, in fact, that I didn’t think they merited a blog post. The first occurred in Chinatown during Chinese New Year when I spun a fortune wheel and won a red and white baseball cap. It has some Chinese characters on it and I’m not sure what they mean. I have made it a practice never to wear anything that displays words in another language unless I know exactly what the translation is. A cautionary tale: a friend of a friend went to China and got what she believed to be the word “temptress” tattooed on her back in Chinese characters. Unfortunately, she later found out that the true translation was “whore” – ouch!

Win #2 was a magnet from Nutella I won in an online contest that could result in a $10,000 trip to Italy, so fingers crossed that the chocolate gods continue to be generous!

Total estimated winnings so far this year: $60