When you areWhen you are feeling overwhelmed. Your thoughts have taken over. You just don’t know where to start or where to go. You are in an anxiety spiral. A good way to cope and find your way back to calm is using the acronym RAIN.  It’s the idea of slowing down your emotions and thoughts by taking them through the RAIN process. By processing them instead of running from them. Here is my take on RAIN:

R- Recognize that you are starting to get anxious. Recognize that you are going down that path and pausing to process.

A- Allow yourself to feel any emotions that come up. Ride the wave, do not resist or avoid it. This can make it worse in the long run.

I – Identify and Investigate why these feelings and emotions are coming up? What is triggering you? What exact emotions are you feeling?

N – Nurture. Nurture yourself. Self soothe, figure out what do you need at this moment? Maybe it’s just love, and tapping into that feeling for as long as possible in order to make yourself feel safe. Secure. You are okay. You are alive.

For more reading on RAIN, I highly recommend Tara Brach’s Radical Compassion.