52 Week of Yes Month One! Meditation, Bottling My Own Wine & Tibetan Singing Bowls

I’m four weeks into my 52 Weeks of Yes! During my 50th year, I’m challenging myself to do something different, unique, fun, unusual, or out of my comfort zone every single week. This month, I (tried) to meditate, bottled my own wine and balanced my chakras with Tibetan singing bowls. Join me on my journey as I share with you 52 Weeks of Yes Month One!

Verdict: I’ll rate each activity on a scale of 1 to 10 wine glasses
(1 glass means please don’t ever make me do that again and 10 wine glasses means more please)!

My first week started with a bang as I celebrated my 50th birthday in Costa Rica. You can read all about the first week of my 52 Weeks of Yes! challenge here.

52 Week of Yes!

Week 1 – Costa Rica trip of zip lining, feeding wild monkeys & swimming under a waterfall

Week 2 – Meditation

Om, Om.

I was determined to balance my chakras 🙂 and keep my mind in the present so learning to meditate sounded like just the thing I needed.

Little did I know when I walked through the doors of the meditation center with a few of my friends, I was actually walking into a Buddhist center! This hour and a half class was part meditation and part group discussion. Led by an instructor, the topic this week was compassion and the other attendees (most of whom were regulars) seemed to know all the chants and songs.

This week’s topic was compassion and we spoke about self cherishing. While I always thought that was a good thing, they said that self cherishing keeps us from thinking of others which in turn keeps us from reaching true happiness.

Then she led us in a meditation that lasted around 15 minutes. As my stomach chanted along (why hadn’t I eaten before I came?), my mind was filled with thoughts of piles of laundry to my grocery list to sinking my teeth into a juicy Five Guys hamburger (which coincidentally was just a few doors away in this suburban shopping center). Needless to say, it was very difficult to stay focused especially since I had no idea what I was doing.

Note: Inner zen was not achieved and while I didn’t love this class (I could have done without the self help aspect of the group discussion), I would love to really figure out how to meditate. Two of my friends LOVED it and plan to go back and another felt the same way I did (and she loves to meditate).

The biggest let down was that I didn’t even get a burger after class!

Verdict: 3 wine glasses 

Week 3 – Bottle My Own Wine

I am part of a garage wine making group. Before you laugh, know that it was started by our friend who is a science geek and this is next level wine. While our “winery” may not be pretty and we don’t have our own vineyard (we had 2 tons of California grapes shipped to our humble garage last fall), we have fun and the wine tastes pretty damn good!

We have a few get togethers a year including a fall “crush” and a spring “bottling and racking.” While I am usually content to sit back and enjoy the party (and drink all the wine), I haven’t really gotten my hands dirty but all that changed when I dove head first into bottling the wine. I took some video of the wine bottling process and posted on my Instagram that you can see here. The wine was bottled, corked and sealed and then everyone got to take home the fruits of our labor!

I really threw myself into the spirit of the party and made these grape cluster cupcakes that were a huge hit!

Verdict: 10 wine bottles!

Week 4 – Tibetan Singing Bowls

Tibetan singing bowls, when struck with wooden mallets, create sounds and vibrations that are said to shift the body at a cellular level. The soothing tones of the singing bowls are supposed to open the flow of energy in our bodies.

My neighbor raved about doing this and said she was so relaxed, she fell asleep. She woke feeling refreshed, restored and fabulous. Sign me up!

I enlisted my experienced neighbor and another friend (promising that we would go out for a glass of wine after) to try this out so we packed up our yoga mats, blankets and pillows and off we went.

Stay tuned for next month’s 52 Weeks of Yes!

Learn more about my 52 Weeks of Yes! here.

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