SAMPLE
Let It Rain! Aside from audio-guided mindful meditation, here’s another excellent way to use mindful meditation as a means to relax and reboot. This one’s for non-ADHD adults and ADHD adults alike. RAIN is an extremely effective technique you can try every day. Our daily lives are a fair mix of emotions: happiness, sadness, disappointment, anger, and excitement, to name just a few. Being able to roll with the punches and to switch from emotion to emotion can be exhausting. Practicing this mindfulness technique is particularly helpful for those who find emotions taxing (among a host of other benefits). This method has been accredited to meditation teacher Tara Brach, who has been practicing mindful meditation for over 40 years. Here’s a brief roundup.
R: Recognize what’s happening. Simply notice the emotion is there.
A: Allow it to be just as is. That means you don’t have to fix the emotion immediately.
I: Investigate. And I don’t mean the probing “Where did this emotion come from? Why am I feeling this way?” Instead, look at the sensation. Pay attention to it in a curious way. How is my body feeling with this emotion? What associations are coming up? What images and what thoughts surround it? Any memories being triggered?
N: Non-identification, or rest in natural awareness. This means not taking the emotion personally. Neutralize the emotion by thinking of it as “the anger, the sadness, the fear” instead of “my anger, my sadness, my fear.” By not identifying with these emotions so personally, we can be present and investigate them better. 48
WELLSPRING / JUNE 2023
