RAIN is an acronym for a practice that supports us in meeting challenging or difficult experiences with compassion.
To begin,
I invite you to take a posture that is upright,
Dignified,
And at ease,
Perhaps starting with one or two deep relaxation breaths to arrive in this moment.
You may be coming into this RAIN practice with a fresh experience of a challenge,
Or you may recall a situation from the past where you have felt some stickiness.
I invite you to choose a situation that is neither triggering nor traumatic,
Perhaps a level of intensity about 5 on a 1 to 10 scale.
You may replay this situation as if watching a movie,
Seeing yourself come into the scene,
Your interactions with another or others,
Or perhaps this is a scene of meeting some internal experience of discomfort,
What teacher Tara Brach sometimes refers to as the trance of unworthiness,
A feeling that something is wrong within ourselves.
Re-noticing where the moment arrives that you wish to exit the scene and pushing the pause button.
The R of RAIN is one of recognizing that we're here with this moment of challenge.
And then the A is one of allowing ourselves to stay present when we feel we would rather flee or back away.
Allowing is not the same as agreeing with the situation.
We don't need to enthusiastically embrace it to acknowledge that this is the life that is currently here and we will stay present with it.
It signals this allowing by internally whispering,
Yes,
Let be.
This too belongs.
And then the I of RAIN invites us to investigate our present moment experience of meeting this aversion.
In this very moment,
I invite you to notice the sensations that are present in your body.
Perhaps even running a very mini body scan,
Noticing the sensations in your scalp and face,
The feelings in your jaws,
In your neck,
Chest,
Back,
Belly,
Arms or legs.
As you meet this experience of challenge,
What do you notice in your body?
This investigation invites us to notice with some compassion the emotions that are present.
We may also notice the thoughts that are arising in this moment.
Along with these thoughts,
The beliefs.
What am I believing about myself in this situation?
What am I believing about others in this situation?
How might this experience be if I didn't hold these beliefs?
This investigation or inquiry also invites us to notice what about this experience is most asking for my attention?
If this experience of aversion were a messenger,
Bring to me.
And finally,
How might I care for myself as I meet this experience of challenge,
Of difficulty,
Which leads into the first N of RAIN,
That of Nurturing.
We might nurture ourselves through gentle physical touch,
Perhaps placing hands on your cheeks,
Perhaps wrapping your arms around yourself as this gentle physical contact can stimulate the release of oxytocin,
A hormone of both connection and resilience.
We might nurture ourselves by internally repeating a phrase of encouragement and acknowledgement.
As the teacher Thich Nhat Hanh would say,
Darling,
I care about this suffering.
I'm here and I'm staying with you.
The final N of RAIN is one of non-identification,
Which invites us to see that this experience of aversion,
This difficult moment,
Real,
Is not the truth of all of life or all of who we are.
We might consider it like a drop of red ink.
If we put that ink into a glass,
All of the water will turn red.
But if we place that drop of red ink instead in a larger body of water,
Like a lake,
It's still there,
But it doesn't change the color of the water around it.
Use time,
The telescope of time,
For this non-identification piece,
Asking,
In 10 years,
Will this experience have the same grip that it holds right now?
Non-identification invites us to bring awareness to the much larger space or context around this moment of suffering,
Seeing that while it might be like the choppy surface of the ocean,
Part of the ocean,
It does not define the entire ocean,
Which is calm in its depths.
To transition out of this RAIN practice,
I invite you to practice Metta for yourself,
These phrases or others of your choosing.
May I be safe and protected.
May I be peaceful.
May I live with kindness and with ease.
May I open my heart to all beings,
Including or especially myself,
Without judgment and without fear.
You may be able to return to your breath and then notice the sound of the bell.
