Tara Brach - Meditating with RAIN - Working with Difficult Emotions

Episode Date: October 31, 2019

Meditating with RAIN - Working with Difficult Emotions - This guided practice applies mindfulness and self-compassion to challenging emotions. It is based on the acronym RAIN, and provides a four step practice that is accessible and effective, even at those times when mindfulness is most difficult to remember. The acronym RAIN is one of the most powerful tools I know for working with difficult emotions and discovering the freedom of an awake, compassionate presence.

The following reflection is led by Tara Brock. To access more of my meditations or reflections or to join my email list, please visit Tarabrock.com. Find yourself a way of sitting so you're comfortable, let your eyes close. You may take a few full breaths, inhaling deeply, filling the chest and lungs, and then a slow out breath, relaxing, releasing and letting go with the out breath. You might scan your life right now and sense a situation where there's a recurrent kind of reactivity that comes up, maybe with another person, where you feel that you go unconscious

some, where you no longer have access to your inner resources. It might be that you go into blaming or defensiveness, hurt. where you pull back or lash out. I wouldn't pick a situation that feels that it's got a current of trauma in it that won't serve you. But something where you feel your emotions get triggered, you get some sense of strong emotion, maybe anxiety, fear, guilt. And you might imagine if you're watching it in a movie, just letting the film roll to you get to the frame that most epitomizes when you're getting stuck.

You don't feel like you have many choices, freezing, pausing right there and sensing we begin with recognize the R of rain just to notice what's predominant. What is it you're most aware of in the moments of being stuck? Is it anger or hurt, judgment, embarrassment? We begin rain by just recognizing you might mentally whisper whatever you're most aware of. And the A of Rain, the A of Rain, allow it. Just let it be there. The A of Rain is a kind of pause where you give space to what's here without trying to change

it in any way. some it might be helpful to mentally whisper yes. You're agreeing to fully experience this with friendliness, with interest. That allows you to move into the eye of rain which is investigate. You begin to really sense so when I'm feeling this, where do I feel it in my body? See if you can maybe even let your posture change to represent the posture that most expresses the feelings and it may be that your hands go into fists or just sense how your facial expression changes if you're really in touch with and contacting the inner experience.

It's very useful to let your body posture express it. the place in your body where you most feel the sense of the fear, the anger, the hurt. You might ask yourself the question, when this is going on, what am I believing about myself? Is it that others don't care or that I'm going to fail or that something terrible is going to go wrong? I'm not respected. I'm invisible. What am I believing?

if you have a sense of the belief, notice the feelings that go with it in the body and how they might change or intensify when you're really believing the belief. So you can feel right into the place in you that's most vulnerable and ask that part of you, what do you really need? How do you want me to be with you? What do you most need to experience? Is it love or forgiveness, understanding, safety? Just might ask that place, what is the message you most wish you could hear from a trusted

other? What would be most reassuring, healing? And just listen. Sense what this part of you most needs and as you're listening you might shift your posture little so you feel like you're really inhabiting a more full sense of your your being right now. So you're listening really from your true self, from your wise heart. And you might put your hands on your human heart here and experiment with this right now.

Let the touch express a kind of tenderness because we're entering into nurture, the end of rain. Listening to what's needed, you've investigated, listening to what's needed and now sensing how you want to respond, how this part wants you to be with it, what message you might offer yourself, letting your attention go inward and through the touch and with a message offering the love, care that this part of you most needs, however most resonates. your own sense of presence and care as you hold and communicate with this part of you. Let yourself really rest in and inhabit that heart space, that clarity that can be with

this part of you. And sense as you rest in this natural presence, what your life would be like if you didn't believe that there was something wrong with you, if you didn't believe the limiting thoughts, what would your life be like? Who would you be? And just let go and rest in that awake and heart space. This is how a human being can change. There's a worm addicted to eating grape leaves.

Suddenly he wakes up, call it grace, whatever. wakes him and he's no longer a worm. He's the entire vineyard and the orchard too, the fruit, the trunks, a growing wisdom and joy that doesn't need to devour.