This is Janine Tandi and welcome into the practice.
Today I'll be offering you a compassion meditation that's focused on providing an opportunity to meet where you are with kindness,
Especially when we're noticing feelings that are difficult.
We're noticing discomfort in our bodies,
Hearts,
Or minds.
Maybe there's frustration,
Annoyance,
Or sadness.
Feelings and emotions that sometimes we leave out of the circle of compassion because they are difficult,
Or maybe we feel less skilled in meeting those with care.
So let's begin.
This practice is entitled RAIN,
And RAIN is an acronym for Recognize,
Allow,
Investigate,
And Nurture,
Which is what we'll be doing to what feels perhaps uncomfortable,
Heartbreaking,
Difficult,
And so on.
So allow yourself to have an alert quality to the spine,
Relaxed shoulders and jaw,
Just so that we can invite in a feeling that's perhaps a bit more relaxed,
Less tense.
When the body starts to soften a bit more,
It adds in the possibilities of meeting discomfort with a little bit more care and compassion.
So taking a few breaths,
The opportunity is there if you'd like to close the eyes,
So more of this internal gaze.
Otherwise,
You could soften the gaze downward so that there's a reduction in potential for distractions in and around the space that you're in.
And drawing your awareness over the next couple of breaths to the heart center,
Giving yourselves an opportunity to notice what's here right now,
What's felt,
What's maybe uncomfortable,
Difficult,
Hard.
Perhaps the body is holding some physical pain,
And that can be hard to meet with care.
Maybe that's something that feels ripe to work with right now.
Maybe there's a sensation of being numb or disconnected when there's pain.
Give yourself some time to notice.
And I often find that naming the felt experience is very potent.
So saying to yourself,
Perhaps,
Ah,
Frustration is felt or noticed,
Or sadness,
Grief,
Whatever it is,
Allow yourself to name that.
That in itself is a really important practice to be able to identify what we're actually feeling in any given moment.
And as you're naming,
Just inviting in space around what you are naming,
Especially if you notice that in naming and noticing what's here,
You can feel tension arise in the body or resistance as a result of connecting in to what might feel hard for you.
And this is okay,
This is all part of the practice to notice what's felt,
And sometimes any reactivity around what's felt.
That's awareness,
That's really heightening attention.
Now over the next couple of breaths,
We're going to move to the second part of this acronym,
Which is A or Allow.
And that's allowing whatever you noticed and named to be here,
That it has a place,
That it's more than okay to feel this way.
If it feels helpful,
You could even say to yourself with your hand placed over your heart center,
This too is allowed here.
So whatever pain or discomfort or difficulty,
This too is allowed space.
I find that when we allow difficulty to have a lived experience,
It softens that harder edge that it can have in our system.
So perhaps we feel like it's taking less hold of how we are moving through our day.
So this is really important,
Allowing it to be here in the same way we might want to really invite in those joyful and beautiful experiences.
This too,
And taking some slow breaths as you say those words,
This too.
And now gently moving into the third letter of this acronym,
Which is I.
And that is to investigate or inquire perhaps just a little bit more as to where this feeling or experience might be coming from.
It's sort of like lifting up the cover and looking underneath and with a light touch.
So it doesn't feel like it's too much to handle.
But if we're noticing sadness,
Perhaps taking a couple of breaths to see where that sadness might be coming from.
Is it from a conversation we've had?
Hurt we're feeling about something or someone?
Taking a little bit of time for a bit of self-inquiry.
It just provides some interesting feedback as to what's been going on in our lives,
Which in turn will allow us to better digest and move through difficulty.
And now we arrive at the last letter N in this acronym of RAIN,
Which is to nurture.
And how I like to do this is invite in a compassion phrase or a phrase of Metta,
Which means loving kindness directed towards this experience.
So whatever you have noticed and named,
Allowed,
Investigated,
We now say to ourselves,
May I meet where I am with kindness.
Repeating that phrase to yourself for a few breaths,
May I meet where I am with kindness.
This is a beautiful invitation of care and connection.
So often we send care and compassion out to our loved ones,
But we leave ourselves out of it.
And this is really important for our own well-being,
Our healing and our ability to really be with all of life's circumstances.
May I meet where I am with care.
And now letting go of that phrase and taking three slow cycles of breath,
A more luxurious inhale and exhale.
Just noticing how you're feeling after attending to yourself in this way,
In this compassion practice.
And I'd like to thank you for taking time to practice with me today.
Take care.
