Welcome to this mindfulness meditation technique called RAIN.
RAIN is a powerful technique that you can use to help yourself process emotions,
Understand what triggered an emotion or a response,
And help you self-soothe your stress and anxiety.
You can use this meditation and this technique anytime you find yourself in a tough moment.
RAIN stands for Recognize,
Allow,
Investigate,
And Nurture.
And we're going to use that technique right now.
So taking a moment to find a nice,
Comfortable seat.
Take a moment here to roll the shoulders around.
You can drop right ear to right shoulder,
Left ear to left shoulder,
Releasing any tension you might have in your neck and shoulders.
Allow the body to soften.
And bringing your awareness into your breath.
First,
Just noticing the breath here.
Notice how it feels.
Notice any sensations.
And as you continue to build on this awareness,
Continue to deepen the breath.
Long,
Slow inhales through the nose to draw the breath all the way down deep into the belly.
And then fully and completely exhaling the breath all the way out.
Continuing with that breath a couple more times here.
This breath in and of itself will help to calm the mind.
It'll help to calm any anxiety or stress that might be building up.
And from this relaxed state,
Moving into the R,
Recognize.
Taking these next few moments here just to recognize the presence of the breath.
Taking these next few moments here just to recognize and notice what is coming up for you in this moment.
What feelings are showing up for you?
Are there any sensations in your body you can identify?
What's going on around you?
Can you recognize any thoughts?
Just seeing if you can identify what is going on for you is such a powerful and important step.
And one we often ignore.
Now that we have recognized and we have a pretty good understanding of what is going on for us,
We move into the A,
Which is allow.
Allowing this experience to be exactly what it is.
Allow the thoughts,
The experience,
The feelings,
The emotions,
Allow them to just be as they are.
Don't try to resist them.
Don't try to change them.
When we allow what is coming up for us to bubble to the surface,
It gives it space to process and move.
And eventually the heightened stress and anxiety will begin to dissipate.
So being in this moment,
Allowing the feelings,
The thoughts,
The sensations to just come through.
And now moving into the I,
Which is investigate.
So taking a moment here to get really curious.
Really start to investigate and uncover what is going on in your body.
Really start to investigate and uncover how this emotion was triggered for you.
What happened in the moments prior to this heightened level of stress and anxiety?
Really get curious.
And as you get curious and investigate this situation,
Do so with kindness.
Do so with compassion.
And now that we have hopefully a good understanding of what is going on for us and we've infused this kindness into the situation,
We move into the N,
Which is to nurture.
To nurture ourselves moving forward.
This is the part of the process that many of us tend to forget.
Nurturing is about heightening our natural awareness.
Being aware,
Being open,
But not over identifying with the situation and not making it bigger than it needs to be.
So how can you nurture yourself with kindness and compassion moving forward?
What does that look like for you?
Instead of beating ourselves up and saying,
Why did I find myself in this situation again?
We say,
I'm human.
I'm really stressed out.
I'm really struggling right now.
And how can I nurture myself moving forward?
Taking a nice big deep breath here.
And I encourage you to maybe jot down a couple things that came up for you in a journal so you can remember these things the next time you are triggered into stress or anxiety.
Remember you are human.
Be kind to yourself.
And come back to this meditation as often as you need.
Sending you so much love.
Namaste.
