RAIN Meditation: A Compassionate Remedy for Anxiety

Whether you are new to meditation or have been practicing for a long time, RAIN is a compelling technique that can enhance your mindful awareness and reduce anxious thoughts.

The acronym RAIN stands for recognize, allow, investigate, and nurture. It is an increasingly popular framework attributed to Michele McDonald, who founded Vipassana Hawaii, and was popularized by Tara Brach's teachings. This technique has been proven effective in helping us understand how to pause, catch ourselves in the moment, and respond with mindfulness using a simple, four-part methodology that is easy to remember.  

In this article, we'll explore:

• How RAIN meditation can support emotional intelligence
• Effects of rain meditation on reducing anxious thoughts
• Scientific backing of the RAIN meditation practice
• How to practice RAIN meditation in your everyday life

RAIN: An Acronym in Mindfulness

To best understand this technique, let's look at how each element of the RAIN acronym - recognize, allow, investigate, and nurture - works. Imagine you are in a situation that is stressful or is pulling you away from the present moment. Remembering "RAIN" in this moment can help you in the following ways:

Recognize

The first step of the RAIN technique is a simple reminder to recognize what is happening fully. Recognize where you are. If you are feeling great, this can be quite pleasant, but if you have a lot on your mind, the technique can be transformational. Imagine, for instance, you are trying to meditate after being stuck in traffic or having a bad day. This scenario still has you feeling anxious or angry. The first step of RAIN can help you to pause. Recognizing simply means taking a moment to reflect on what is happening. For instance, "I was in a car. I was stuck in traffic. I was late for an important meeting, and that made me stressed." Reflecting on the thoughts you are thinking by simply naming them and recognizing the emotions arising in the moment will lead naturally to the next step.

Allow

In this step, you bring attention to what you have recognized with a compassionate allowance. In this second step, you are letting things be as they are. Tara Brach suggests that you can repeat affirmations in this stage to acknowledge difficult emotions and allow them fully by saying things like, "Yes" or "I can hold this."

Investigate

In this step, we are allowing our cognition to deploy. We can ask why this event is triggering us, or why something continues to arise in our minds. The investigation is a continuation of the pause. It is an opportunity to scan the body and mind with compassion and ask why. What life experiences are feeding your response? Where in your body can you send more self-compassion?

Nurture

The nurturing practice is about putting that self-compassion to work. This is where we ask what part of us most needs our own love and support? Nuruting is about taking the time to send ourselves love, forgiveness, and compassion. You can do this by imagining a white light in a part of the body that feels triggered, or to the part of you that is upset.   

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The Impact of Rain Meditation on Anxiety

The benefits of RAIN meditation in easing anxious thoughts can be linked to its ability to help the practitioner cultivate more emotional intelligence. According to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America, the technique can support those with anxiety as well as depressive thoughts by providing a framework that is adaptable and can benefit in many ways. Specifically, it teaches us how to incorporate the self-compassion that mindfulness brings into our lives.

Practicing RAIN Meditation

Incorporating RAIN meditation into a daily routine can be incredibly beneficial for reducing anxiety because it helps to establish increased mindfulness and a more compassionate thought process when processing emotions. While you can use RAIN with pretty much any topic or emotional state, below is a simple format to practice for anxious thoughts. You can set a timer for 10 minutes or work through the steps within the time you have.

• Step 1: Find a comfortable position and take a few grounding breaths. As you settle into the meditation, begin to tune into the sensation of recognition. What thoughts are arising for you that are causing your anxiety? What does the anxiety feel like? Take 2 minutes to pause and recognize.
• Step 2: Allow what surfaces in your mind and body to be exactly as it is. In this stage, you may benefit from repeating the word "allow" as the anxious emotions surface. Likewise, continue to observe your anxiety or another extreme emotion with a sense of fully allowing what is. Stay in this radical acceptance for 2 minutes.
• Step 3: Investigating can often feel like analysis. Consider this step an opportunity for your busy mind to do its thing. Allow yourself to investigate the reason for this emotional response. What is provoking the anxiety? What stories are feeding anxious thoughts and negative emotions? Give yourself 2 minutes to compassionately examine the anxiety as you might if it belonged to a loved one. Still without judgment or a desire to change, simply investigate.
• Step 4: Nurture. This step can also be referred to as non-identification in some forms of the practice, but there's no reason why these two interpretations cannot work together. Let's begin with nurturing. Nurturing your emotional state means practicing what Dr. Tara Brach refers to as radical acceptance. Look to the anxious parts that are calling to you and accept them. Love them. Send them light. Stay in this final stage as long as you'd like, but I recommend at least 4 minutes. To allow self-nurturing means to allow healing to occur. 

RAIN can be an effective way to address sleep issues and relational issues that are often correlated with anxiety by putting mindfulness to work in your life. Managing anxiety can be difficult, but this practice may ease the process and support you on your journey toward well-being. 

There are many resources for practicing RAIN meditation including Tara Brach's website, online meditations at Aura, and through a variety of psychological resource sites. This popular method can have a marked impact and by using the acronym RAIN, it can be easy to remember in the moment during stressful or anxiety-inducing times. It is a beautiful way to remember to pause and find inner mental strength through self-compassion when emotions arise. 

Practice RAIN with me at Aura.