Discussion Facilitator: Jocelyn Furbush. Saturday, May 2, 2020.
Topic for this Saturday: the R.A.I.N practice for sitting with difficult emotions (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture).
I've tried the Recognize/Allow/Investigate/Nurture practice occasionally since learning about it from Tara Brach's Radical Acceptance book, but I've never done her guided meditation and this seems like a nice 20-minute version to try on Saturday morning. It will be interesting to reflect on with folks, whether others have a chance to try the meditation practice ahead of time or not. I'll note that I will probably practice with a not too difficult emotion! I have from time to time used it for more challenging stuff with the support of a professional or close friend.
https://www.tarabrach.com/meditation-practice-rain/
Tara Brach from “Loving, Knowing, and Growing” four-day mini-course from Sounds True
https://www.rickhanson.net/lkg-day-one/
“So the R of rain is Recognize. And that means that if you're afraid of something, you find you're tensing up with fear, the R means you just recognize it. The A is Allow. And allow means just let it be here. It's like this wave that has arisen in the sea of being is here for the moment. Let it be. Don't try to ignore it, or fix it, or judge it. Just let be. I often with Allow teach people to say, well, this belongs right in this moment. Doesn't mean you like it. If you can allow the life that has emerged to be here in the moment, then it's possible to deepen your attention in a healing way with the I, which is Investigate. And investigate, it sounds like it could be cognitive, but it isn't. Investigate is actually a somatic investigation where you're learning to come into your body and feel where the experience lives in your body. They say that your issues are in your tissues and we really can't wake up our heart, our compassion and our full presence unless we contact what's there. So with the I, you begin to ask the kind of questions that bring you into the body and to feel more fully what's going on. After contacting what's there and really being in touch with what I would call the most vulnerable place that has been triggered, we move to N, which is Nurturing. I often put my hand on my heart when I teach and also when I'm working with myself. The kind of physical expression of nurturing could be on the heart or the cheek. It's not a requirement, but I found it can deepen the experience. Nurturing is offering any message of care. Any touch, any image to your inner life that helps to soften and open the heart. So that's the nurturing. RAIN isn't done then. There's actually an experience I've described as "after the RAIN." And that's where you just rest in the presence that has unfolded. And just notice the difference between when you started, like a sense of being identified and caught and trapped, the fearful self and the space of compassionate presence that's opened up. And just to become familiar with that, to rest in, that is a key part of the healing.”
Discussion:
From a few people who did the guided R.A.I.N. meditation:
"A more powerful experience than I expected"
"Intense and tough, not easy, but good. I really needed this."
"I got a lot out of this, and would like some more in-depth follow-up conversation to have more time to explore what came up for each of us with it."
Photo by Aleksandar Pasaric from Pexels