This meditation uses the acronym RAIN to support you to manage difficult emotions.
To begin,
Find a nice quiet place where you won't be disturbed.
Settle yourself in comfortably,
Move your body around,
And let's begin.
RAIN simply means recognize,
Allow,
Investigate,
And then nurture with kindness.
And as we begin,
Just start to notice your breathing.
If you can,
Just let your breaths be a little longer and a little deeper for the next few breaths.
And you can either leave your breaths a bit longer or deeper,
Or just let them resume in their natural rhythm.
With this RAIN meditation that deals with difficult emotions,
Think back over the past week or month to something difficult that may have happened for you.
It could be a difficulty with a family member,
Something at work,
Feeling burnt out.
It could be something that you've done that you're not happy with,
That you're worried about.
Just anything that has a really difficult charge for you.
And just think of the emotion.
It could be sadness,
Overwhelm,
Grief,
Confusion,
Anxiety.
There's no right or wrong with this.
Just noticing whatever's there.
Just recognizing.
This is how it is for me right now.
And that leads us to the A of RAIN.
Acknowledge or allow.
I have this difficult thing happening for me and this is how it is for me right now.
I am allowed to feel like this.
I don't have to push it away.
I can just be with this difficult emotion and any thoughts that are associated with this.
Just let yourself be with this for a moment.
Without judging it,
Just acknowledging it.
Almost like you're seeing it and giving it permission to be there.
Yes,
It's hard and this is how it is for me right now.
And then we come to the I of RAIN.
Investigate.
And this is not investigating with our head,
With our thoughts.
This is investigating with our body.
So just dropping into your body and just noticing,
Investigating.
Where am I feeling this difficult emotion and these thoughts that are associated with it?
Where am I feeling it the most in my body?
It could be a tightness in your throat,
Your chest,
Your neck and shoulders,
Your stomach area.
There's no right or wrong place to feel this.
It also could be in your head area or your arms and legs.
Again,
Just noticing without judgment.
Where am I feeling this?
And for many of us,
It can be more than one part of our body that feels these strong,
Overwhelming feelings and thoughts that are associated with this.
And so just pick one area,
Perhaps the area that came up first,
Or it could be the area where you're feeling it the most.
And now just dropping into this area,
Just settling into this area in your body and noticing the sensations.
Where am I feeling this?
What is the sensation like?
Is it sharp?
Is it dull?
Does it hurt?
Is it near the surface?
Or is it quite deep?
Just noticing whatever's there.
And as you do that,
Just allowing the next few breaths to go right into this area.
So letting your next in-breath go right into this area and allowing that breath to almost surround this part of you.
And then breathing out on your next out-breath.
And then for the next few breaths,
Just imagining that your breath is going right into and around this area.
Not to make it go away,
But just to hold it in safety.
Just to hold it and let it know that you see it.
You see it and you're there.
And if it helps,
You can imagine that your breath is like a healing white light breathing in and around this area.
And then as we investigate this part of you that has these strong emotions,
Just gently asking it if there's something it wants you to know.
Or is there something it wants you to do for it?
And just waiting for an answer to come from that area,
From that part of you.
So again,
Your thinking mind can step back and just see whatever's there.
And it may be something simple.
It may be a sense of release or it may be an answer to let you know what you need to do moving forward.
Or there may not be an answer.
And that is okay too.
This exercise is just allowing you to get in touch with what's going on in your body and to breathe in and around and make space for this difficult emotion and these thoughts that are associated with it.
The N of RAIN is then to nurture with kindness.
If the sensation is in a part of your body where you're able to place your hand on it,
You can place your hand on this part of you right now.
But if it's in a place where it's not able to be placed,
That's okay too.
Placing a hand just brings awareness to this part of you.
And as we nurture this,
We can imagine that our hand is the hand of someone very kind and nurturing.
It could be a spiritual leader that we're aware of.
It could be a pet or it could be a kind friend or someone that you've met that you really like.
Or it just could be that your hand is magically absorbing the kindness,
The goodness,
The compassion of all the wise people around you.
And just for a moment,
Letting the kindness,
The goodness absorb right into that place in your body.
And just noticing how that feels.
Noticing if there's any change in that place in your body.
And then as we come to the end of the nurturing,
Just speaking kindly to this part of you.
And sometimes it's hard to think of something kind to say.
And we can imagine if a friend of ours was going through a similar difficulty to this,
What would we say to them?
Or it could be a work colleague.
Or we could imagine that we were a therapist and we were helping a client.
What would we say to this person in this situation?
Just thinking about what you might say to them.
And it may be as simple as you will get through this.
Or it could be we all make mistakes.
And how can I learn from this instead of beating myself up?
Or it could be that I need to take more time for myself.
Maybe go for a walk in nature.
Just thinking of something nurturing that is right for you.
And now if you've had your hand on this place,
Gently and calmly placing your hands on your lap.
And slowly and gently opening your eyes and coming back into the room.
And really congratulating yourself for taking this precious time for you.
