Mindfulness practice invites us to feel our emotions fully and consciously, to make space for them, even the difficult ones, instead of avoiding them, pushing them down or being completely dominated by them. We learn to bring awareness to the felt sense of what is happening to us when we are triggered, to feel our own vulnerability. When we experience strong emotional reactivity, one practice that is particularly helpful is self-compassion with RAIN (described by the meditation teacher and psychologist Tara Brach in her book Radical Compassion). RAIN stands for the four steps of Recognize, Allow, Investigate and Nurture. These steps are easy to learn and can be used whenever we feel stressed, fearful, reactive and confused. Over time, they build inner resilience and trust in our own wise heart, so we can respond to life in a way that expresses our truth.
Bringing self-compassion to difficult emotions with RAIN (25 min)
