The Practice of RAIN recorded by Adele Stewart,
MBSR teacher in May 2020,
Winona.
RAIN is an acronym for a way of engaging with our difficult experience in a wise way.
We can practice it formally with something that's troubling us and also informally in a minute or two in the middle of a busy day when challenges arise.
R is for recognition.
Just recognising when a difficult experience is present involves turning towards with a willingness to see,
To feel,
To know.
This first step is honouring rather than avoiding our experience,
Opening to the difficult as well as to the pleasant in our lives.
Perhaps labelling the emotion.
A is for allowing or acknowledging that the difficult emotion is here,
Giving us some space for things as they are in this moment.
Some space to be with rather than the problem-solving mind to jump in.
Some space so that rather than moving on autopilot into a reaction or perhaps a reaction to our reaction,
Allowing and acknowledging the difficult emotion physically,
Mentally and seeing where it takes us.
I is for investigation.
This isn't an investigation as a cognitive or thinking exercise but an investigation of perhaps the emotion in the body.
In MICBT we investigate the sensory characteristics of the emotion,
Noticing heaviness or lightness,
Noticing any temperature,
Noticing movement or stillness and noticing tightness,
Denseness or looseness,
Diffuseness.
And perhaps the investigation might also include the thoughts and stories that arise in this moment,
Perhaps even asking if there's a message the emotion has for us.
Not thinking about this but allowing the experience to arise.
The N can stand for either nurturing or non-identifying.
Non-identifying is not something we can actively do but may arise when we've been able to step back and see this experience as not personal but just the phenomena of shifting sensations,
Emotions and narratives,
Staying around for a while and then changing.
Non-identification may begin to give you more space to see what underlies or fuels your difficult emotions.
It can also open us to the fact that all humans are in the same boat,
We all suffer.
But perhaps sometimes non-identification doesn't come easily,
In which case using the N for nurture,
In what way can we be really kind towards this difficult emotion?
Perhaps breathing around it,
Around it,
Through it,
Perhaps putting some sort of imaginary space around it,
Whatever comes up without thinking too much.
Perhaps a compassionate hand placed over the part of the body that's suffering,
Imagining that this hand is a spiritual figure or a dear one that gives us unconditional love and acceptance.
Noticing how leaning into our difficult emotion may be different from our usual blocking out or fighting the experience,
Or even drowning in the experience.
Noticing if any insights arise.
