RAIN for Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Here is a practice excerpted from A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook to help you gain control of situations and reduce stress.  

The RAIN Practice
You can use the acronym RAIN as an informal practice for working with mindful self-inquiry:
R = Recognize when a strong emotion is present.
A = Allow or acknowledge that it’s there.
I = Investigate the body, emotions, and thoughts.
N = Non-identify with whatever is there.

RAIN is an insightful self-inquiry practice that you can bring into your daily life to help you dis cover deeper threads of what triggers strong emotional reactions. Throughout the next week, bring rec ognition to any strong emotion and allow it to be present. Investigate what you feel physically, mentally, and emotionally and see where it takes you. The last element, non-identification, is very useful because it helps to deflate the mind’s stories and cultivates the understanding that strong emotions are just another passing mind state and not a definition of who you are. It’s like going to a movie, where you sit back and watch the actors play out the drama. By seeing your story as impermanent and not identifying with it, you’ll begin to loosen the grip of your own mind traps. This will help create the space for you to be with things as they are and deepen your understanding of what drives, underlies, or fuels your fears, anger, and sadness. It also grants you the freedom to look at the situation differently and choose a response other than what may be dictated by your story. (more)