“A moment of self-compassion can change your entire day. A string of such moments can change the course of your life.” ~Christopher Germer
The RAIN of Self-Compassion is a simple but profound mindfulness practice can be used as a stand-alone mindful meditation, or as a tool to cope with painful thoughts, feelings, or body sensations.
RAIN is one of the essential mindfulness tools that I practice regularly and teach all of my clients to help manage stress, depression, and anxiety while increasing their own sense of self-compassion. I encourage everyone to learn the steps and practice regularly! This way, when the time comes that you need a healthy way to work through difficult emotions or challenging circumstances, you know exactly what to do to gently and gracefully work with whatever is happening.
This version of RAIN of self-compassion was developed by Tara Brach, a psychologist and founder of the Insight Meditation Community. If you haven’t checked her out, you will definitely want to!
RAIN is an acronym that stands for:
Recognize what is going on;
Allow the experience to be there, just as it is,
Investigate with interest and care,
Nourish with self-compassion
Below are two RAIN of Self-Compassion resources that you can download to help you begin or strengthen your personal self-compassion practices.
The first is an excerpt from from Brach’s book, True Refuge (2013) that provides a background for the need that each of us has for cultivating a greater sense of self-compassion, as well as clearly written and easy to understand steps for practicing RAIN.
The second resource is an 11 minute guided meditation, led by Tara Brach herself.
Copyright Kimberley Mapel