A meditation on acceptance.
Acceptance is seeing things as they actually are in the present.
Accepting the thoughts or feelings that pop up during mindful meditation is a conscious action.
Mindful meditation also offers an opportunity to practice radical acceptance in the face of difficulty.
The more we can meet any difficulty or pain with presence,
Compassion and kindness,
The easier we can move through it.
It requires that we learn to stay by turning toward the difficulty rather than pushing it away.
There is a mindfulness meditation with the acronym RAIN.
Recognize,
Allow,
Investigate,
Nurture which guides us in bringing mindfulness and compassion to an area of difficulty or pain in our life.
With practice we can find our way home to open-hearted presence in the midst of whatever arises.
So beginning by choosing your posture with care,
Ensuring you feel well-supported,
Bringing a sense of ease and alertness and intentionality to your practice today and taking a few moments and a few breaths to settle mind and body,
Leaving behind the day thus far,
Setting to one side the day to come,
Bringing your awareness to this moment,
This breath,
Engaging with the RAIN meditation requires us to bring to mind a current situation in which you feel stuck,
Bringing to mind something that elicits a difficult reaction,
Anger or fear,
Shame or hopelessness,
Pain,
Be it physical or emotional.
And take some moments to enter the experience,
Visualizing whatever comes up,
Remembering words spoken or thought,
Sensing any difficult or painful moments or feelings,
Contacting the charged essence of the story is the starting place for exploring the healing presence of RAIN.
And so we start with AH,
Recognize what is happening.
You can awaken recognition simply by asking yourself,
What is happening inside me right now?
Call on your natural curiosity as you focus inward.
Try to let go of any preconceived ideas and instead listen in a kind,
Receptive way to your body and to your heart.
What sensations are you most aware of?
What emotions?
Is your mind filled with thoughts?
Take a moment to become aware of your felt sense of the situation as a whole.
Can you feel how the experience is living in your heart and body as well as in your mind?
The A of RAIN is allow life to be just as it is.
Allowing means letting be the thoughts,
Emotions,
Feelings or sensations you discover.
You may well feel a natural sense of aversion,
Of wishing that unpleasant feelings would go away,
But as you become more willing to be present with what is,
A different quality of attention will emerge.
Allowing is intrinsic to healing and realizing this can give rise to a conscious intention to let be.
Send a message to your heart to let be this entire experience.
Find in yourself the willingness to pause and accept that in these moments,
What is.
.
.
.
Is.
You can experiment with mentally whispering words like yes or allow.
You might find yourself saying yes to a huge inner no,
To a body and mind painfully contracted in resistance.
You might be saying yes to the part of you that is saying,
I hate this.
That's a natural part of the process.
At this point in RAIN,
You're simply noticing what is true and intending not to judge,
Push away or control anything you find.
The eye of RAIN is investigate with an intimate attention.
Now beginning to explore what you're experiencing more closely.
Calling on your natural interest and curiosity about your inner life.
You might ask yourself,
What about this most wants my attention?
What most wants my acceptance?
Notice where you feel the experience most distinctly in your body.
Are you aware of heat,
Tightness,
Pressure,
Aches or squeezing?
As you continue to investigate,
You might find it helpful to ask,
What am I believing?
If this leads to a lot of thinking,
Drop it,
But you might find that a very distinct belief emerges almost as soon as you ask.
Do you believe that you're failing in some way?
That you'll not be able to handle whatever is around the corner?
How does this belief live in your body?
What are the sensations?
As before,
Send the message of yes,
Allow or let be.
Allowing yourself to feel the fullness or intensity of the difficult experience.
As you contact and allow what is happening,
What do you notice?
Is there a softening in your body and heart?
Can you sense more openness or space?
Or does the intention to allow bring up more tension,
More judgment?
Does it intensify or change what you're feeling?
Investigating with kindness.
The N of RAIN is nurture with self-compassion.
Self-compassion begins to naturally arise in the moments that you recognize you're suffering.
It comes into fullness as you intentionally nurture your inner life with self-care.
To do this,
Try to sense what the wounded,
Frightened or hurting place inside you most needs.
Does this suffering part of you want recognition,
Acceptance,
Forgiveness,
Love?
As you sense what is needed,
What is your natural response?
Here,
You might offer yourself a wise message,
A kind word.
You might gently place your hand on your heart.
Feel the physical warmth,
The soothing,
Nurturing touch.
After the RAIN,
Simply notice your own presence and rest in that wakeful,
Tender space of awareness.
In the same way that the earth blossoms following a spring shower,
After RAIN,
Realization naturally arises as to our true nature.
We're no longer identified with passing states like fear or anger.
We're free to inhabit the wholeness of our being.
We simply rest in natural awareness.
