Rain Meditation Start with a breath.
Tune into your breathing and notice what's going on for you right now.
You may be breathing shallowly or feeling constraint in your mind and body.
Your breathing may be rapid or irregular.
Just take a few moments to experience some long,
Full,
Slow,
Deep belly breaths.
Pay attention to how the air fills your lungs,
Chest,
And stomach on each inhale.
Notice how your body deflates on each exhale.
When you have settled comfortably on your breath and breathing,
Give yourself permission to be willing to experience everything this moment contains right now as best you can.
See if you can invite in a quality of beginner's mind or curiosity to your experience.
If you find your mind wanders to evaluating,
Judging,
Or thinking about what you are experiencing in this moment,
Gently return to the breath as soon as you have noticed.
Take a moment to recognize what is happening right now.
What thoughts are here?
What feelings are here?
What physical sensations are here?
Breathe in and out of this awareness.
When you are ready,
Turn your awareness to seeing if you can be willing to allow whatever you are experiencing in this moment to just be here,
Just as it is.
See if you can make space for whatever it is here in your internal world.
If there is resistance to doing so,
See if you can make space for that too.
Turn your willingness dial all the way up as best you can.
Let it just be just as it is.
Invite in the quality of compassion and patience for yourself and your suffering.
Breathe in and out of this awareness.
Now expand your awareness to investigate or inquire about the experience,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Physical sensations.
Notice what is present in your body,
Including the texture,
Layers,
Changing nature,
Pressure,
Anything else that occurs.
Emotions,
What is the basic feeling or tone of the experience?
Positive,
Negative,
Neutral?
What emotions are specifically present?
There may be many different emotions present.
Ask yourself,
What does this feeling want from me right now?
What does this mean?
What else could it mean?
What is it trying to tell me?
Thoughts,
Just notice what thoughts are passing through your mind.
Perhaps ask yourself,
What stories am I believing right now?
Just notice what is here without judgment,
Implications,
Or consequences.
Notice this as if the first time.
Breathe in and out of this awareness.
And when you are feeling settled in this,
Expand now to notice if or how you have identified with this experience.
See if you can,
With the quality of allowing and with the space you've created for all of this,
To now defuse from the direct experience of this,
Welcome in this difficulty.
You can do this by using language,
Here is blank,
Fill in with your experience,
Whatever it is you have identified.
If it's sadness,
Here is sadness,
Or sadness is here,
Welcome sadness.
If it's hurt,
Hurt is here,
Or here is hurt,
Welcome hurt.
Whatever it is,
By recognizing,
Accepting,
Or allowing it to be just as it is,
Investigating and by not identifying with this,
You create a different relationship to this experience.
Now taking the next few minutes to practice doing this,
If there are more layers that arise,
You can start again,
Using recognizing,
Allowing,
Investigating,
Non-identifying as your guide,
Taking the next few minutes to do so.
