Greetings.
Start by coming into stillness together.
Find a sitting or lying down position that will support you and let you be fully present to your body and your experience for the next 20-ish minutes.
As you settle into that posture,
Beginning to find your breath,
That anchor that is always there for you,
The place to rest your attention that is somewhere elsewhere than dots.
Noticing whatever the breath is like right now,
Not controlling or changing it,
Just watching it as if you'd watch a bird flutter and dance through the sky.
Today we're going to explore a tool and general technique for working with whatever emotions are present for you at any moment of your life.
There's an acronym that we can use for that and I'll share a few different acronyms for it.
The primary one we're going to work with is called RAIN.
It stands for Recognize,
Allow,
Investigate,
And Not Personal.
It can also stand for Nourish or Nurture.
This is a general framework or kind of reminder acronym for how to approach and be with the emotions that you are experiencing and particularly to bring some kindness and care to them,
Especially when they're difficult,
But really any time.
We're going to start by noticing whatever emotions,
Feelings are present right now for you,
Whatever your world is like right now emotionally.
This is the R in RAIN,
Recognize.
We're just exploring with curiosity,
What is my emotional landscape right now?
I like to kind of join the Recognize and Allow,
The R and the A of RAIN together closely because it's very common for us to notice an emotion and very quickly,
Without much thought really or consciousness,
Awareness of it,
To have judgments about that emotion,
Especially difficult emotions.
It can be very common for us to immediately want to get away from that emotion to create some distance and not feel that emotion,
An immediate reaction.
The A is very,
Very important to bring together with the Allow,
Is very important to bring together with the Recognize.
As soon as we recognize an emotion that we are feeling,
Whether it's generally a positive one,
A negative one,
Or a neutral one,
Whatever we think about that as,
To accept and welcome the emotion with kind,
Curious attention.
I'll let you explore that for the next few minutes on your own.
Note that you don't have to go digging for an emotion.
Also,
You'll probably notice it'll change a lot in the next few minutes.
There may not be just one thing.
Just being with whatever's coming up,
Some of it may be very subtle and just noticing,
Maybe it helps to put a small kind of word with it if that's helpful for you.
Be immediately just allowing,
Allowing that.
Let's try that on our own for the next several minutes as you're working with exploring these emotions.
If anything is ever too much,
Just defined by you,
If you feel too overwhelmed,
It's too much,
At any time,
Feel free to open your eyes,
To stop the meditation,
To ground in physical sensations of your body that feel neutral or interesting to you.
Maybe there's a lot of feeling in the hands or to turn to sounds that you notice around you.
Reground to something to be able to refocus your attention if there's any traumatic memories or feelings that are coming up with this or any meditation.
As you're exploring what is present for you currently,
Your inner emotional weather report from moment to moment,
We will look at the I in RAIN,
Which stands for investigate.
The investigation here is really kind of a body-centric embodied experience of the emotion investigation.
Not necessarily doing a lot of logical processing of maybe all of the details of got you to the content of what got you to feeling this emotion or planning around how you're going to make the emotion feel better,
Go away,
Or things like that.
What we're really trying to do is shift from ideas and thoughts about the emotion to the direct experience of the emotion.
What is it like to feel this emotion right now?
So one of the key ways to do this is to notice how and where that emotion is present in your body.
And emotions you probably already have experienced in your life have a lot of physical emotions,
Manifestations.
So there's a lot of clues from our body of how we're feeling.
So just trying to explore that to really understand the felt experience,
The full felt experience of these emotions that we go through throughout our lives.
And part of that is the thoughts and emotions that can arise in reaction to emotions.
Feeling something can drive reactions in our body and it can also drive reactions in our thoughts and other emotions that arise as a result.
So let's spend some time next few minutes really touching to whatever emotions present now.
Where do you feel that in your body?
And what thoughts and emotions you notice in reaction coming up as a result?
Anytime we get lost in one of the thought trains that we jump on,
We can notice and just calmly step off that train coming back to what's my world like right now?
Again and again recognizing what's present even the really subtle states,
Maybe calm,
Peace,
Openness,
Warmth,
Allowing all of it.
Regardless of whether there's a lightning storm happening or a bright sunny day internally,
Notice what it feels like to touch into that emotion in a deeper and more intimate way than we may often be used to.
With emotions that can be difficult,
It's so common for us to immediately try to distract ourselves,
Something else to not feel the emotion.
You may notice a lot of nuance when you begin to really explore what it's like to really fully feel that emotion.
Leads us to our N in RAIN.
We've done recognize,
Allow,
Investigate.
And N is not personal or non-identification is another way to think about it.
So as you explore that the emotions that you go through on a moment to moment basis have these physical manifestations and these in your body and your thoughts and emotions,
Maybe some distance that you can kind of slight separation that you can feel from those emotions to the point that you can say,
There is sadness present in me.
There is happiness present in me.
There's gratitude.
There's anger.
There's distress.
There's anxiety.
There is worry present in me rather than I am sad or I'm a sad person.
So we're still completely allowing the emotion to be there.
Noticing how it's part of us right now.
It's a part and there's a lot of other stuff going on in your body at the same time.
Hopefully you can feel that it is not the whole you,
Even when it feels really,
Really big.
Sometimes it can feel like it's the only thing,
Especially with a really,
Really strong positive or negative emotions.
You can really identify with the emotion that is us.
So this can also land towards another way that we can think of the N in RAIN,
Which is nourish or to nurture.
And especially if we're going through really difficult emotions,
Sadness,
Grief,
Anger,
Anxiety,
Worry,
Stress,
We can kind of approach it with tenderness and passion.
We can say to ourselves,
This is hard.
This is a lot right now.
Maybe you can picture how you feel most comforted and imagine that feeling wrapping yourself in that feeling.
And equally,
If you're enjoying some pleasant feelings and pleasant emotions,
Just holding yourself in gratitude for this is what it's like.
This is what my experience is like right now.
Always coming back to,
Can I be with whatever is present for me right now?
Just be with it,
Acknowledge it.
And of course,
If the answer is never,
Is ever,
Is ever no,
Right now is not the time for me to be with these emotions.
Feel free to place your attention elsewhere.
That is a caring thing to do for yourself at the time.
So as we close,
Noticing all that you have experienced in this short meditation together,
How you're able to hold it,
Be kind to yourself.
Another way to think about the way that we're approaching emotions is with three Cs,
Contact.
So contacting,
Just simply making contact with the emotion,
The physical sensation and triggers that are present for you with the emotion and bringing curiosity with that,
Investigating the physical sensations of emotional experience,
And then care,
Holding it in awareness,
Kindness,
And gentleness,
Contact,
Curiosity,
And care.
So let's finish with a deep in-breath and as you exhale,
Nice long exhale,
Thank yourself for taking this time to be with yourself and nourish yourself.
Be well.
