Hello everyone,
Welcome back.
So this is a mindfulness strategy that comes from Tara Brack that I found to be one of the most useful strategies in terms of dealing with difficult,
Frustrating,
Or unwanted experiences in a very mindful and balanced way.
So take some time to get comfortable.
You can sit down,
You can lay down,
You could be standing.
And once you're comfortable,
Pause if you need here to get comfortable because we don't want any feelings of discomfort to be interrupting with your meditation.
So once you're comfortable,
Take some time to just recognize what's going on.
This is the first letter of RAIN,
Right?
We're just going to be letting it rain.
So we start by just recognizing what's going on,
Right?
Perhaps your child is going through something difficult or perhaps something bad just happened to a loved one or something is not going well in your life.
Whatever it is,
Just noticing it,
Recognizing it.
Take a few moments to do that and if you need to,
You can pause the recording.
Just recognizing,
Just noticing.
Good.
That's it.
So the A in RAIN,
It's actually kind of a double A.
So the first A is just accepting it.
It's already there.
What's the point of fighting it?
There's nothing crazier than not accepting what is right now.
So we're just accepting it.
We're just accepting it,
Letting it be.
And then we're also allowing it.
If it's there,
If it's in our space anyway,
Not accepting,
Not allowing just creates more strain,
More stress.
So we're just accepting.
We're just allowing.
Remembering that just because it's here now doesn't mean that it'll be here forever.
The odds are that whatever stress you're going through is probably going to be temporary and even if it's not,
You can still recognize,
Accept and allow.
Just letting it rain as long as we need to.
Good.
Take your time.
If you need to pause the recording again,
You can here to give yourself more time to accept and allow.
So the next step or the I in the RAIN acronym is investigating it.
Double I,
Investigating with interest.
What's going on?
No wonder I'm feeling this because this happened,
A happened,
Then B happened and it make me feel C and so and so is doing this thing or this thing should have gotten here sooner and it didn't come or this person's really sick or whatever it is.
Pandemic stress,
Financial stress,
Relationship stress,
Health stress,
Whatever it is.
We're just investigating with interest whatever's going on.
The odds are we'll notice pretty good,
Pretty good reasons to realize why we're feeling what we're feeling and the more space,
The more investigation we give this with interest that can lead to wisdom and acceptance,
Which was the A,
Acceptance and allowings and also recognizing,
As you can tell,
They all kind of build on each other.
So just taking some time to investigating with interest and that includes a sense of curiosity.
You can investigate where you feel this stressful feeling in the body,
What thoughts it produces and what feelings it produces and even behaviors it has produced and images in the mind and how they can all kind of strengthen each other and mutually reinforce each other just investigating with interest kind of like a science would,
A scientist would from a position of curiosity.
Just investigating,
Just allowing,
Sorry just investigating with interest and allowing and then recognizing.
Take your time and again you can pause here if you need to to spend more time investigating with interest.
And this,
These next steps,
The most important steps I think,
The end is nurturing.
Also a double end,
The first part of the end is nurturing.
With the same position that we would with a puppy dog or a newborn baby,
We would nurture it when it cries or it screams,
We would hold it,
We would rock it back and forth,
We would pet it if it's a pet dog,
Just nurturing.
The energy of nurturance and caring,
Affection,
Compassion,
Tenderness are very soft and grounding.
Nurturing and nurturance are associated with the blood pressure lowering,
The immune system boosting with connection,
Connection eases,
Softens.
So more nurturing that also produces oxytocin,
A bonding hormone which we could be producing it right now with ourselves which is really important.
So we nurture and I think the most important part of the end too,
Perhaps even more than nurturing is non-identification,
Right?
It's not so much my anger or my sadness or my fear,
It's the fear,
It's the sadness,
It's the anger.
Just like the weather,
Right,
Just like the acronym RAIN,
It's angering,
It's saddening,
It's fearing,
It's not even yours because if it was someone else's life,
The odds are they would feel similarly.
Anyone in your situation would probably feel very,
Very similarly.
So it's not even really your feeling through this difficult moment,
It's anyone or most people who would be in your shoes right now.
So we nurture,
We non-identify.
You can pair this with certain images or music,
Body sensations,
Maybe images of,
You know,
Someone hugging you,
Nurturing you,
Whatever it is.
Just nurturing and non-identification and then we can put it all together.
Take your time here,
You can again pause if you need to but just putting it all together,
Recognizing,
Accepting and allowing,
Investigating with interest and nurturing and non-identifying.
Take some time here to put it all together and notice how it feels.
To be letting it rain,
How it's a very viable and attractive alternative to what we usually do when we're suffering which reacting,
Getting lost in addictions and counterproductive behaviors,
Instead we can let it rain.
Take some time here,
I'm going to let it play for a few more minutes and then I'll gently wrap up.
Good.
Just letting it rain.
Thanks for letting it rain with me.
Thank you.
