Using the RAIN technique to help overwhelm

April 24, 2020

If, like me, you can get swept up and overwhelmed by strong emotions at times- there’s a technique that I often use that really helps me calm down and refocus.It’s called the RAIN technique and I discovered it via Tara Brach.

When you experience those moments of heightened emotions, you close your eyes, take some deep breaths and go through the following steps in your mind.

1. RECOGNISE the emotion you are feeling and label it without judgement i.e. anger, sadness, disappointment.
2. ACCEPT your thoughts and ACKNOWLEDGE them- they exist and it’s best that you allow them without burying them away or being swept up in them.
3. INVESTIGATE why you feel this way. What has triggered this? Does the situation remind you of something in the past which is why you are experiencing high emotion? Are there any actions you can take to help yourself or whoever the emotion is connected to?
4. NON-IDENTIFICATION- your thoughts are not you. Think of them as separate, step back and observe them rather than be swept away in the storm of them. This can make them easier to accept and deal with.

If you prefer, you can do this as a guided mediation with Tara Brach (click here for link on the Mindful website). If closing your eyes and doing this in a meditative way doesn’t feel natural to you then you could try following the same steps but writing them down instead. Sometimes reading your thoughts on paper can automatically help you to take a step back from them and help you with the final step of observing your emotions as an outsider.

Would love to hear from you if you try it! Good luck! X

Image courtesy of @shopsundae.

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