hello my darlings today we are going to be talking about meditation welcome to a
new episode of self-care summer I am really excited about this video because
there's going to be several times and I believe there already has been several
times where I have mentioned meditation and how amazing I think it is and how
important I think it is so I figured during the series I should definitely do
a how-to video and a video that explains my journey and my experiences and things
that I like to do to meditate if you are new to my channel I am Carrie Red hello
and nice to meet you you have chosen a great video to start off with because we
are right in the middle of self-care summer which is a series that I am doing
every other day in the month of June where we just indulge in inner beauty
conversations and different ways to practice self-care before we get into
the video please take a moment to make sure that you are subscribed to my
channel make sure you give this video a thumbs up so that I know that you guys
are liking self-care summer and also make sure that you turn your
notifications on for me that's that fell button right next to the subscribe
button which will notify you anytime I post a new video in just a moment I'm
going to explain to you guys exactly how I meditate and the tools that I use in
the way that I practice but before I get into all that I want to share with you
guys my experience with meditation why I love it and I also want to share with
you guys a story about me meditating and getting literally to the feeling of
ecstasy and just like in another world when I was meditating one time and every
time I meditate now I just think about that moment and I would just love to get
there again one day but I've never been able to achieve it since but I think
that's the ultimate goal with meditation when you're really into it you can get
to this moment of pure ecstasy where you're just like in another world and it
feels amazing the world that we live in is completely insane we are moving at
light speed at all times of the day I live in a city Los Angeles that is
completely crazy there's people running around all the time going from here to
there to meeting those two that I'm filming videos I'm
thinking about with the next thing that I'm gonna do I'm constantly going and so
meditation to me is the one time where I just slow down and I don't think about
anything and meditation is something that I've honestly practiced my entire
life without even realizing that I was meditating I really enjoy moments of
sitting down and not doing anything not reading not going through my phone not
doing anything not having my mind distracted by anything and my whole life
that's something that I've practiced I would sit on the couch as a little girl
and I would just kind of look up at the wall and I would just kind of like let
thoughts leave my mind and I always knew when I was younger how much I
appreciated that moment there was a lot of moments in my life that I can
remember back to specifically that were very common for me where I would just
lay down on the couch and I would just Zone into a world of just clearing all
of my thoughts there was some family drama when I was growing up I had my
parents divorced and I I definitely went through harder times when I was younger
but I was really able to tune out the world and go into just trying to clear
my thoughts and that was meditating when I was young without me really even
realizing that I was meditating meditating has become such a common
practice for people that is such a beautiful experience for them and it's
interesting to think back like wow I was doing that when I was a little I mean
didn't even realize it as I got older it was harder for me to achieve that
clarity that I had when I was young because there was so much going on in my
life there was so much that I needed to do there's so much work that needs to be
done and since I was 25 I've gone in and out of practicing meditation there were
times that I was really good about it and then there were times where it was
completely out of my routine and it wasn't something that I was practicing
at all but when I look back I realized how much more at ease I was and how much
clearer my mind felt when I was dedicating time to meditation there's a
time specifically that I remember and that I always think about and it was
about four years I was in a Bikram yoga class and it was
a hot yoga class and I did the whole yoga practice and then at the end of the
class we went into shavasana and so we just laid on the floor and the jungle
music was playing which was really interesting our yoga teacher just put on
some not necessarily jungle music it was like jungle rainforest more on the
rainforest side and you could hear streams of water you could hear birds
chirping you could hear like the bustle of the trees and the wind and I just
laid there and I went into a literal world where I felt like I was on the top
of the water laying down and just going down the stream in the rainforest I
could do not I can remember exactly how it felt on my back I can remember the
sounds specifically I did have music helping me out with that but it took me
into this entire world where I could feel the the air I could like breathe
the freshness of the air and I could see the rainforest and I was going down a
stream it was incredible it was one of the most amazing moments I've had in my
entire life I could you not and so I would love to achieve that again and I
achieved that without trying and I think that tells a lot about meditation I
think that it's so difficult to get ourselves to stop thinking and to go
somewhere else now when I think about meditation and I try too hard I always
end up in this feeling where I'm overthinking and so breathing really
helps me with that so that's what I'm going to get into now is exactly how I
use breathing to clear my mind and I do breathing exercises even when I'm not
meditating I use breathing exercises when I'm distressed I do breathing
exercises when I feel nervous and I use breathing exercises when I want to get
into meditation because breathing which I'm going to do right now because I'm
talking so much and I feel like haven't taken a breath breathing just really
helps with so many different things so I'm going to
get into exactly what I do and what breathing exercises I do for meditation
here we go when I sit down to meditate I think about my breathing first and
foremost I like to put my hand on this area of my stomach so that I can feel my
breathing I like to pick a spot above my navel so you can go here or you can go a
little bit higher but for me this area of my stomach is where I really hold
most of my tension and when I feel stressed I feel it here and I feel like
a lot of people feel that way but obviously we all hold our stress in
different areas of our body but for me I like to really focus on this area of my
breathing focus on your breathing and only your breathing
that's why putting my hand here really helps me but you don't necessarily have
to put your hand there a lot of people love placing their hands on their knees
which is something I like to do as well
and try to focus on only breathing and don't think about the fact if one breath
is shorter than the last or if your breaths aren't matching up that's
totally fine and try your best to tune out any sounds that you might hear I
live in the city so I am constantly hearing noises of ambulance and
helicopters and garbage trucks but I try my best to tune out those sounds as much
as I can don't be mad at yourself if your mind
starts to wander or if you can't just focus on your breath it's completely
normal for us to have a ton of thoughts going through our mind
especially if you're a beginner at meditation like I said focusing on one
thing like your breath but not over analyzing it is going to really help you
but another thing that really helps me is imagining where I am so for me like I
said earlier I like to imagine a rain forest not the most relaxing thing to me
and when I imagine me in a rain forest and focusing on my breath that is when I
can escape in to meditation
we just got really lucky with birds instead of a trashcan okay welcome back
if you decided to meditate with me in that moment I hope you are feeling
enlightened and lighter and that you're feeling good I love the process of
meditation and you just watching this video and taking the time to think about
what it's like to clear your mind and just putting positive energy out into
the world and in your mind is a really cool thing so thank you guys so much for
watching this video I hope that you really enjoyed it and I wanted to do
some homework as I've been doing for self-care summer for you guys in this
video I want to know in the comments when do you feel the most at ease what
do you do to feel the most relaxed and why do you think that you feel the most
at ease in this moment is it when you're writing is it when you're taking a bath
is it when you're reading what moment is it is it during meditation and if so how
do you get there and what is it like and why do you think that you feel the most
at ease when you're doing that for me meditation is definitely on the top of
my list but also taking a bath is really one of my most relaxing moments in life
because I love warm water I've always been super drawn to water so
whenever I'm closest to water I always feel the most at ease and so that's why
when I'm in the bath I feel my very best I will see you guys very soon in a new
episode of self-care summer which by the way I've been loving seeing your guys's
posts in the hashtag self-care summary so keep um comment and make sure you
give this video a thumbs up if you liked it I will see you guys very soon happy
meditating my me know if you guys try it I want to know how it goes for you
you