RAIN stands for Recognize,
Allow or Accept,
Investigate and Nourish.
You can use it with any experience.
Make it a standalone meditation practice and return to it with ease in daily life.
It is especially helpful with difficult emotions and thoughts.
So sit comfortably and begin bringing your awareness to your present time experience.
Give yourself a minute or two after closing the eyes to notice what you hear,
What you feel in the body and what is occurring in the mind.
Bringing up a difficult experience or emotion,
Start with recognition.
Recognize the thoughts coming up,
The sensations in the body and the critical inner voice you often hear.
Spend a few seconds just acknowledging the presence of the difficulty,
Tuning into the different ways it manifests in your experience.
Move to the next phase,
Allowance or acceptance.
With unpleasant emotions,
The habit of the mind is to try to get rid of these experiences.
Instead,
Allow it to be present in you.
You may try offering this simple phrase,
Right now it's like this.
Continue to work with acceptance for the next couple of seconds,
Bringing the mind back when it starts pushing the difficulty away.
Now begin investigating more deeply.
You recognized what you were feeling in the first step of RAIN and in investigation,
Allow curiosity to take over,
No judgment.
Ask yourself where you feel vulnerable,
How this emotion serves you and if you believe you can be free from this pain.
Now we turn towards nourishing ourselves,
Nourishing yourself with self-compassion and love.
And in the practice of self-compassion,
You are tending to the pain with awareness rather than denying it.
Making a dedicated effort to invite compassion,
Opening the heart.
Recognize,
Allow or accept,
Investigate,
Nourish.
We're going to end this meditation with a couple of powerful intentions through I am statements.
I am bold.
I am strong.
I am joy.
I am passion.
I am curiosity.
I am playful.
I am gratitude.
I am love.
I am enough.
I am me.
Thank you for showing up for yourself.
