As part of Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme of stress, we share our most popular meditation for dealing with difficult emotions.
For most of us, by the time we’ve noticed that we’ve become stressed, it is already too late. We’ve been triggered, reactivity has taken over and we are being run by our patterns of tension and frazzled-ness rather than the poise and balance that we’d much rather be in charge. So in this Stress Awareness Month, it is worth noting of how much of mindfulness and meditation is actually nothing more than stress awareness! One of the core principles of mindfulness is that the more aware we are of our negative patterns, the less power they have over us. And given that stress is one of the most common negative patterns in our culture, through mindfulness and meditation, by starting to understand our stress, we can then start to not only deal with it, but even transform it.
Of all the buddhify meditations which target reducing stress, the most popular is called RAIN. And the reason it is so popular is that it works. Based on a technique pioneered by US-based mindfulness teacher Tara Brach, it is a four-stage process with the first letter of each stage making up its name: Recognise, Allow, Investigate and Non-Identification.
Rain is ten minutes long and is designed to be listened to in the moment while you are actually feeling stressed.
Stress and difficult emotions are just part of what it is to be alive. And while meditation practice will help reduce their likelihood of arising, its main benefit is helping us live with the inevitable difficult rather than having to always struggle with it. For as challenging as stress can be, we can also have the tendency to add on an extra layer of tension by stressing out about the stress. So the more we can soften that second layer, the smoother our days will be.
RAIN is a just one of two hundred meditations available in buddhify and can be found in the category of Stress & Difficult Emotions. Buddhify is the only meditation app designed to fit into a busy modern lifestyle. Known for its beauty and incredible value for money, it is loved and used around the world.
