RAIN Practice

This practice is called RAIN. The next time you’re feeling anxious, find yourself a quiet space and walk through these four steps…

RAIN stands for:

Recognize: The sensation. Give it a label. This is “anger.” This is “sadness.” Naming your experience is the first step of mindfulness.

Allow: Can you let the difficult sensation be there? See if you can soften around it without resisting. Give it some space.

Investigate: As you pay attention to the sensation what do you notice? Does it move? Change? Get bigger or smaller?

Nurture: Offer kindness to the part of yourself that is experiencing difficulty. I like the phrase “May I be kind to myself.” You can even speak to yourself as you would a small child who is having a hard time. “I’m sorry. I know this hurts. I’m sending you love.”