Deep Listening, Trees, & the RAIN practice
Deep Listening
Mindfulness can be understood as a deep and reverent form of listening, listening to the present moment and listening to what is happening within your heart, mind, body, and spirit.
Spending time in nature, simply sitting under a tree or walking mindfully outdoors, is a wonderful way to ground oneself and practice mindful listening. Connect with the breeze, the light of the sun, the birds singing, and rustle of the leaves. Seek out calming spaces to connect with your inner self and to simply listen with all of one’s senses.
The Chinese character for listening, “ting,” beautifully illustrates the idea of full body listening:
The different components of the character can be understood together as “Listening with our ears, eyes, and heart, with undivided attention, respect, and humility, as if in the presence of divine royalty.” It is the concept of listening with our entire being.
| “Deep listening is miraculous for both listener and speaker. When someone receives us with open-hearted, non-judging, intensely interested listening, our spirits expand.” – Sue Thoele |
RAIN practice (Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture)
The RAIN practice, taught by Tara Brach, is a simple way to practice deep listening.
Here are the steps:
- Recognize: Consciously acknowledge the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors affecting you. Recognizing is like awakening from a dream, realizing you are stuck in a loop of judgment, fear, anxiety, or anger. It can be just a simple mental whisper noting what has come up for you in the present moment.
- Allow: Allow the experience to be without trying to fix or avoid it. This doesn’t mean you are agreeing with or liking what is happening, but rather you are simply acknowledging and allowing its presence to be.
- Investigate: With curiosity, explore the felt sense of your experience. Where do you feel the thoughts or emotions in your body and what might be the labels, beliefs, or stories connected with it? underlying it?
- Nurture: See if you can hold the sensations with understanding, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness. Soften around any judgment or tension. Consider what this part of you needs most. See if you can offer yourself what the heart is asking for. Is it possible to replace the negative narratives with more positive or nurturing ones?
After practicing RAIN, take time to rest and reflect. You may consider journaling what you are noticing.
Learn more about the RAIN practice with Tara Brach:
Guided Meditation (Grounding Tree Meditation, 12 min)
Creative Exercise “Plant a Seed”
- Compost: Identify the barriers or difficulties that are blocking your mindful awareness and creative flow. Write or draw these out in a stream of consciousness flow, without judgement or analysis.
- Plant a Seed: Out of everything you’ve written down, choose something that feels almost ready to be let go. It shouldn’t be something that feels impossible or deeply traumatizing, yet it should still carry a negative charge. Circle this on your page. Take a moment to consider how you could shift the narrative to nurture a new story that supports your creative growth. Take a few minutes to write down the new story of this seed, how it might grow and transform in a positive way to feed your creativity. (2-5 min)
- Nurture the Seed: Set down your pen and take a moment to nurture this new story in your consciousness. How does it feel to hold this positive intention in your mind and body? Can you visualize it growing and manifesting in your creative life?
If embracing it feels difficult, simply plant the seed of intention for the future, trusting that it will blossom. As the Buddha said, karma is intention, and life flows from our intentions. Set the intention of awakening your seed.
A guided “Light RAIN” meditation for challenging times, with Tara Brach:
The Universe in a Dewdrop 