MIND. Let It R.A.I.N.
I tuned into a mental health summit a few months back and was drawn to a talk by Tara Brach while cooking up dinner in the kitchen after a day of seeing patients. It was one of those talks where I had to stop what I was doing and jot some notes down. I thought, “I am totally going to use this with patients. I am totally going to use this for ME!”
Tara Brach, a psychologist and proponent of Buddhist meditation, first came to my attention through a mentor in medical school when I was doing additional training in Mind-Body medicine. This “branch” of medicine really deals with the inextricable nature of what is going on in the mind affects the body, and vice-versa. Many of the extra trainings and shifts I completed centered around mindfulness and different forms of meditation. It can all seem sorta “woo” until the monitors we used on these patients during these meditations showed increased peripheral temperature (yes, this means your cold hands could be a sign of chronic stress), decreased heart rate and increased heart coherence and heart rate variability. I saw patient’s blood pressures drop over the course of weeks without medications, panic attacks go from multiple per week to none and reports of improved relationships with others. The power of mind is truly miraculous, especially when we take the time to actually slow down and become curious about emotional experiences and how they may be impacting both the mind and the body.
This particular talk by Tara Brach was discussing a simplified mindfulness method with the use of an acronym: R.A.I.N. Easy to remember and to teach, I have been passing this tool on to a lot of my patients (in addition to using it myself). When experiencing an unwanted emotion, there is an opportunity to use this acronym as a tool for understanding, processing and moving forward.
R: Recognize - consciously acknowledge the thoughts, feelings, behaviors affecting you or eliciting emotional reactivity. And name it: anger, hurt, hopelessness, anxiety, depression, shame …
A: Allow - without trying to avoid or fix, allow the thoughts bringing distress to just be there. An invitation of a pause, and for making space for what is there.
I: Investigate - approach the experience with non-judgement and natural curiosity. Is there a belief that is going on? What wants most attention? What is the most difficult part? Where is it felt in the body?
N: Nurture - ask yourself, “what do I need most right now?” from a centered part of yourself. Self compassion is a key part of this component, for the opportunity to be “both the holder and the held.”
I invite you to give a listen to one of Tara’s R.A.I.N. meditations or talks below - they are truly lovely, and I do not know how one could not walk away feeling a shift in mental state. I find it to be a simple, elegant and yet powerful tool that is hard to forget with such a simple acronym.
This Spring season, I hope you let it R.A.I.N. as much as needed.
Resources by Tara Brach used to help write this article, and ones to check out:
