RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY: FEELING OUR FEELS

Emotions are at an all time high right now and they can leave us feeling really muddled. So, how is it that we can feel the feels without it cramping our style and influencing our day in a non-productive way? How do we wrap our head (and our heart) around the fact that everything does feel really heavy right now?

I asked my followers on the ‘gram what emotions they were really grappling with at the moment. And the responses I received were as follows…

Purposeless

Shame

Unrest

Self criticism 

Overthinking

Concern 

Fear 

Anxiety

Overwhelm

Envy

Confusion

Suffocated

Trapped

These are all really heavy emotions and if you’re feeling any (or all) of them, you are not alone. 

There is beauty in all emotions, even the ones that don’t feel so great. Of course, sometimes we need that extra support to move through them—an aligned mentor, psychologist or therapist. Though, what I know for sure is that we are equipped with some of our own super skills in moving through emotions with more ease and grace than we realise. 

I am going to share a practice just for you, and it’s one I have used myself and many times over with clients. It’s very simple, yet profound. It may seem a little unsettling at first, but stick with it and you’ll start to feel a little lighter, a little brighter, and this means you’re letting go of what you no longer need.

It’s called RAIN and I stumbled across this during my yoga teacher training (timely, as a lot of emotions come up during this). I was introduced to it via Tara Brach, a meditation teacher and psychologist who has really touched my life. Let me go over the process for you.

RAIN positions us to become more mindful and compassionate toward our difficult emotions. It’s a lovely practice of self love—you show your self that you are here for it all, you’ve got your back. 

R - Recognise what’s happening
A - Allow the experience to just be
I - Investigate with curiosity and care
N - Nurture with self compassion

The process is about having a cuppa tea with your emotions—welcome them in, be grateful for their company, and take some time with them. Then, after a while, you’ll notice they naturally decide it’s time to go, and emotions leave. This experience can be a lot easier to do when guided, so here is a meditation from the lovely Tara Brach who guides you through the process of RAIN. Once you’ve done this a few times via the prompts, you might notice yourself naturally gliding toward the steps on your own.

Give it a go this week and let me know how you go. I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes for now. 

‘Be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue. Do not now strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given to you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live your way into the answer, one distant day in the future.’ —  Rainer Maria Rilke