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RAIN Meditation

RAIN Meditation

RAIN is a mindfulness meditation technique for being with difficult emotions. It’s deeply empowering.
This is a powerful meditation / reflection practice for being with difficult emotions, building self-compassion, and ultimately shifting your identity.

What is
What is RAIN meditation?
about ?

What is
RAIN Meditation
about ?
What is this Method about ?

RAIN meditation is a powerful tool to support participants in becoming aware of their strong and challenging emotions and finding a way to unfold the insights these emotions offer. This practice is easy to learn and holds enormous potential for soothing the heart, gaining insights into our own psyches, and healing emotional wounds.

RAIN is an acronym:
R - Recognize (naming or acknowledging what is going on)
A - Allow (pausing to give space for life to be as it is)
I - Investigation (looking more closely at what is happening)
N - Nurture (offering ourselves compassion and potential healing)

When and why is this Method used ?

RAIN is used when we want to offer a tool for knowing ourselves more deeply, for inner awareness, and for relieving the suffering that comes with strong challenging emotions. It is excellent for developing self-compassion.

Who is RAIN meditation for?

Audience

Is participant experience relevant for RAIN Meditation ?

It's okay if participants haven't seen the inside of a classroom in years

What requirements are there for RAIN meditation?

Experience level of the facilitator
Routine as participant OR professional facilitator
Number of Facilitators :  
1111
How Stationary
Stationary necessary, at least in parts
Location requirements

comfortable seating for all participants, a combination of meditation cushions and chairs is ideal.

Run Through for RAIN meditation

How to host RAIN meditation
Run Through
Prep Work (excluding materials)

Clear a space where participants can sit or lie down comfortably.
It should be a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed.
Arrange chairs or cushions & blankets in a circle.
According to Michele McDonald “All we need is already inside us. We just have to access it.” :)

Pre Exercise
Steps

Give an overview

RAIN Meditation is a method for looking at and being with some of the more tangled or difficult emotions. How can we bring mindful awareness — a loving gentle compassionate awareness — when we’re stuck and when we’re caught in difficult emotions? THE SECOND ARROW Often when strong emotions arise — fear, anger, judgement — with them comes another layer: feeling bad about ourselves for having that emotion. In the Buddhist tradition, this is called the Second Arrow. We can’t stop the first emotion from happening. That’s the first arrow. But our response to that emotion, that we actually have some control over. That’s the second arrow. It increases our suffering and there is something we can do to lessen that suffering. RAIN meditation helps us with that. SELF-COMPASSION It’s important to bring two aspects to RAIN practice: mindfulness (or awareness) and compassion. It has been said that the heart of Buddhism is compassion… and the heart of compassion is self-compassion. MARA & THE BUDDHA There is a Buddhist story that may help get a sense of where we are going with RAIN meditation. The Buddha would teach large gatherings of people out in fields. Sometimes Mara would show up. Mara is the god of delusion and suffering, basically the shadow side. When Mara showed up to one of the Buddha’s teaching, Ananda (Buddha’s attendant) freaked out. He ran to the Buddha and said, “What are we going to do? Mara is here!” Buddha said, “Not to worry, Ananda.” The Buddha then walked over to Mara and said, “I see you Mara. I see that you are here. Come on, let’s have tea.” This is what RAIN teaches us how to do—to walk up to our fear, our anger, our shame and say, “I see you fear. Come, let’s have tea. Let me be with you in the way I can.” In those moments, there is freedom. There is empowerment. THE ACRONYM RAIN is an acronym. R - Recognize (naming or acknowledging what is going on) A - Allow (pausing to give space for life to be as it is) I - Investigation (looking more closely at what is happening) N - Nurture (offering ourselves compassion and potential healing) R: Recognize: What’s going on? Recognizing means consciously acknowledging, in any given moment, the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that are affecting us. Like waking up from a dream, the first step out of what Tara Brach calls "the trance of unworthiness" is simply to recognize that we are stuck and subject to painfully constricting beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations. Common signs of being in the trance of unworthiness include: a critical inner voice, feelings of shame or fear, the tension of anxiety or the heaviness of depression in the body. Recognizing can be a simple mental whisper, noting what has come up. What is here? What is this? You can internally whisper to yourself whatever it is: "shame, shame, this is what shame feels like." Or "anger, this is anger." A: Allow: Can I be with this? Allowing means letting the thoughts, emotions, feelings, or sensations we have recognized to just be there, without trying to fix or avoid anything. So we don't turn away from it, and we don't get totally identified with it or involved in it or wrapped up in the story of it either. When we’re caught in self-judgement, letting it be there doesn’t mean we agree with our conviction that we’re unworthy. Rather, we honestly acknowledge the arising of our judgement, as well as the painful feelings underneath. This is not always easy. Sometimes it's helpful to silently offer an encouraging word or phrase to yourself. For instance, you might feel the grip of fear and mentally whisper, "Yes", or, "It’s OK", in order to acknowledge and accept the reality of your experience in this moment. Allowing is, on some level, saying YES to what it so. Not "yes, I love this." Not "yes, I want this to go on forever." Not "yes, I condone this." But "Yes, this is what is happening. This is what is here." I: Investigate: What am I unwilling to feel? Once we have recognized and allowed what is arising, we can deepen our attention through investigation. To investigate, or inquire, call on your natural curiosity—the desire to know the truth—and direct a more focused attention to your present experience. You might ask yourself: What most wants attention? How am I experiencing this in my body? What am I believing? What am I unwilling to feel right now? Whatever the inquiry, your investigation will be most transformational if you keep you awareness in the felt sense in the body, rather than getting conceptual. Keep bringing your awareness back to what it feels like in the body. When investigating, it is essential to approach your experience in a nonjudgmental and kind way. This attitude of care helps create a sufficient sense of safety, making it possible to honestly connect with our hurts, fears, and shame. N: Nurture: What does this vulnerable place most need? Self-compassion begins to naturally arise in the moments that we recognize we are suffering. It comes into fullness as we intentionally nourish our inner life with self-care. To do this, try to sense what the wounded, frightened, or hurting place inside you most needs, and then offer some gesture of care that might address this need. Experiment and see which intentional gesture of kindness most helps to comfort, soften, or open your heart. Kind words Does it need a message of reassurance? Of forgiveness? Of companionship? Of love? "I’m here with you. I'm not leaving." "I’m sorry and I love you." "I love you and I’m listening." "It’s not your fault." "Trust in your goodness." In addition to a whispered message of care, many people find healing by gentle self touch: place your hand on your heart place one or two hands on your cheeks wrapping your arms around yourself in a hug Sometimes what's most helpful is a visualization: being bathed in or embraced by warm, radiant light. a loving being—spiritual figure, family member, friend, or pet—and imagine that being’s love and wisdom flowing into you. When the intention to awaken self-compassion is sincere, the smallest gesture of turning towards love, of offering love—even if initially it feels awkward—will nourish your heart. When you’ve completed the active steps of RAIN, it’s important to just notice your own presence and rest in that wakeful, tender space of awareness. The fruit of RAIN is realizing that you are no longer imprisoned in the trance of unworthiness, or in any limiting sense of self. In other versions of RAIN, this is the N—not-identified. Give yourself the gift of becoming familiar with the truth and natural freedom of your being. It is mysterious and precious!

OPTIONAL: Guided Reflection on Allowing (or saying Yes)

This is optional, but if you have time it can be a powerful way to introduce participants to the practice without doing the full practice. Here is a guided reflection with subsequent questions from Tara Brach: "Closing your eyes... and letting some situation come to mind from the recent past that might have brought up some emotional reactivity. Pick something that's on the moderate level. Nothing traumatic. Just something that might have brought up a sense of annoyance, hurt, anxiety, sadness. Could be something in a relationship with somebody, or at work, or something to do with your own behaviour. And as well as you can, let yourself go inside that situation enough to get a feeling for: what was it that was really getting to you? What's so bad about this? What's upsetting? Sensing the reaction and noticing how the reaction in some way is saying no to the moment. It may be: this shouldn't be happening. I shouldn't be feeling this. This is bad. Notice how the no presumes that something's wrong, with somebody, with yourself, with life. You might examine and sense how your body says no, whether there's some sort of tensing in the body around the situation, contracting. And if you want to amplify a little you might even let the word no be there. No to this experience, or no to the other person if there's another person. No to yourself. What happens in your mind when there's no? Mostly sense: is it familiar, the sense that this shouldn't be? There's something off with me, or you, or life. Taking a few full breaths. Re-enter the situation. Have the image of it, a sense of what's upsetting. Deepening your attention to this stuck place, but this time with the intention of yes. And if the word yes doesn't work for you, that's fine. You can just have the intention of allowing. It's the attitude of "this too". And you might even let the stream of yes, or this too, or allowing create space around what's there. This is part of life. So whether it's fear, or anger, hurt: yes. Yes to the sadness. Yes to the judgement. Not agreeing with the content. But this is just what's happening right now. Yes isn't saying yes to somebody else's behaviour. Yes isn't saying yes to your own behaviour. It's saying yes to the felt sense in your body. Yes to what your body and heart is experiencing, letting the life of the moment be just as it is. Just notice what happens when you say yes in your body, your mind, your heart." [ring a bell to queue the end of the reflection] Follow up with questions (participants can raise their hands in response): How many of you were aware of contraction with no? How many of you were aware of more spaciousness with yes? How many of you found actually that no felt better in a certain way? With that last question it's important to acknowledge that it can be easy to fall into a black&white thinking that YES is always better than NO. It is not always best to say YES. Yes isn’t necessarily the better choice 100% of the time. There are times that it's absolutely wise, and compassionate, and appropriate to say NO, especially if there's something traumatic. And it's really much more wise to set boundaries, either with another person or with actually what we contact in ourselves. No, and especially Not right now, can be very good. So this is something to keep in mind if you are practicing RAIN with something that takes you into a really activated or traumatic place. It is possible to re-traumatize yourself. So please do experiment with allowing, with saying Yes, and please also stay tuned in to what is wise for you in each moment.

Lead the meditation

Here is a transcript that you can use as a starting point. Ideally, you would do this practice yourself enough that you could lead it without reading or with minimal notes. But this can get you started: Sitting in a comfortable way, so you're alert and upright and also at ease. Begin by bringing to mind a difficulty that you've encountered—some situation that brings up some emotional reactivity, whether it be fear or anger or hurt; some experience you'd like to bring this practice of mindfulness and compassion—the RAIN practice—to. It could be a situation in a relationship, some conflict, place of misunderstanding. It could be something that goes on in your own behaviour, some addictive kind of tendency. It could be something that comes up around work that brings up a feeling of failure or jealousy or anxiety. Could be difficulty that brings up in some way some self-aversion where you're down on yourself. Take some moments to sense that difficulty in a recent situation where you might have been triggered. Pick a situation that has some reactivity for you but isn't super intense or traumatic. Let yourself enter enough into that situation so you can feel what's going on and what's bothering you. We start with the "R" of RAIN — recognizing what's happening. So notice and mentally whisper to yourself whatever is predominant in your experience, whatever emotions or feelings you're most aware of. Maybe that's anger or shame or a sense of stuckness. We're recognizing. And hand in hand with that recognition is the "A" of rain, or the allowing-- to just let the experience be as it is. So the allowing is a quality of pausing and just making space for things instead of trying to fix it or get away from it. Simply acknowledging and giving some space for what's here. Notice what that's like-- just agreeing to experience something for these moments. On some level, we're saying yes to what we are experiencing. Not yes I want it to keep going. Not yes I approve of this or agree with what brought up this feeling. But yes, this is what I'm experiencing. This is what is here right now. You might ask yourself: can I be with this? If the answer is no, then you can feel the ground. Feel your weight. Hear sounds around you. If the answer is yes, then we move on to the "I" of RAIN, which is Investigate. You might sense: is there any difference in how you're in relationship with this situation? Sense where you are right now. And if there's anything that feels like it's calling you about the experience inside you, if you feel any call to deepen your attention or to offer some kindness right in this moment, you might sense what that's like. What happens if you just make some gesture of kindness, of understanding, of compassion inwardly? Just to notice the presence that's here-- the difference between being totally stuck inside an experience and that openness and presence and care that really expresses the truth of who you are. From the poet Wu Men: "Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn, a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter. If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, this is the best season of your life." Thank you.
Post Exercise

AFTER THE RAIN

It’s important to rest and pay attention to the quality of presence that’s there. That there is presence, tenderness, loving awareness. This is a shift in identity. It is a blessing of this practice. So do invite participants to notice how they are feeling and allow some time in silence. Also remind everyone that RAIN practice is not a one shot deal. It’s not that you do it once and then experience luminosity and that’s who I am and I’ll never get triggered again. No. It is a practice that works on us gradually and sometimes in fits and starts, but repeatedly is the strongest way to practice. Like dying a piece of white cloth. Dip it in the dye again and again. The colour becomes more and more brilliant. It can also be nice to share a poem afterward. Such as Rumi's The Wax: I must have been incredibly simple or drunk or insane to sneak into my own house and steal money, to climb over the fence and take my own vegetables. But no more. I've gotten free of that ignorant fist that was pinching and twisting my secret self. The universe and the light of the stars come through me. I am the crescent moon put up over the gate to the festival.

Harvesting RAIN meditation

It's wonderful to follow this practice with 5-15 minutes of journaling. An opportunity to reflect privately and integrate what may have come up.
You could follow that with a full group debrief, inviting reflections and sharing with everyone.

IF SOMEONE SHARES SOMETHING INTENSE like a recent cancer diagnosis or “my daughter was in a car accident”, you can say to the rest of the group “Has anyone else here or someone dear to you ever received a diagnosis like that” and the hands go up and then you can hold it as a group. Not feel alone in it. Or you can have the person come up to the front (or the centre of the circle) and everyone can gaze at them lovingly and invite the person to keep their eyes open and really take in the compassion and the support. This activity is healing for everyone.

Does RAIN Meditation work online?

Online

RAIN meditation absolutely works online! As long as the participants can hear you well, it can be presented, guided, and practiced online.

Impact

Impact
Individual EmpowermmentAstrophysicist and writer Carlo Ravelli said “the more we shine the light of awareness on our beliefs, the more we can transform them and be free.” The face is that this practice brings a lot of awareness to our beliefs about ourselves, gently and with compassion. The result is naturally a sense of empowerment, as well as healing. This is, however, not a one-shot deal. We need to engage this practice again and again.
Group EmpowermentRAIN can be practiced in pairs, where two people ask each other the questions from the guided meditation and talk their way through, rather than do it alone. This can be very tender and very powerful. The end result have the potential to be deeply empowering. For more information and a audio guidance for partner-practice of RAIN meditation, please visit Tara Brach's website: https://www.tarabrach.com/meditation-rain-partners-audio/?cn-reloaded=1
RAIN Meditation
project

project

IN WHICH THIS method WAS DEVELOPED
 
 
 
Hosting Empowerment
Hosting Empowerment
ERASMUS +

ERASMUS +

Co-funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. Find more information about the program and its goals here: https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/.

Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.

Creative Commons license:

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