įirst, just recognize, “Okay, I’m feeling fear.” Mentally whisper it, and that helps right away. It stands for recognize, allow, investigate, nurture. Yes, I use the acronym because It’s an easy-to-remember handle if you’re getting caught in fear. Can you spell out what the acronym means? Tara Brach In your new book Radical Compassion, you also offer a short meditation practice called RAIN, which I’ve found helpful. Coming back to the senses in our body helps us come back to the present moment. But we can also come back to the sounds we’re hearing in the moment, or the sensation of our hands or feet tingling, or the sight of a tree or table. Our breath is often the most helpful home base for coming out of our circling worry thoughts and back into our senses. That begins to calm down the nervous system. And with the exhale, intentionally release tension. Take at least three full breaths, counting to five with the inhale, and counting to five with the exhale. A simple way to do this is with long, deep breaths. The first step when we get really gripped in fear is to calm our sympathetic nervous system. Sigal Samuelįor people who don’t have experience meditating but who are looking for a way to avoid sinking into the panic vortex, can you suggest one or two simple meditation practices that would be useful for our current situation? Tara Brach It gives me a pathway back to steadiness that’s just immeasurably helpful. What I’ve been doing is a mix: walking in nature and taking in beauty talking to people and feeling our shared vulnerability and connectedness and doing a lot of meditating. Yes, like everyone else, I feel the hugeness of this and I feel fear for my dear ones and for the most vulnerable people in our world. What have you personally been doing to stay calm and centered? Tara Brach I’m guessing that you, like the rest of us, have been feeling stressed about coronavirus. A transcript of our conversation, edited for length and clarity, follows. I talked to Brach about how we can use mindfulness and other meditative techniques to find balance during the coronavirus crisis, and about why this is not a selfish escape from reality: Many neuroscience studies have shown that meditating can help us regulate our own emotions so we can better pay attention to other people and act more altruistically. ![]() But you can also practice mindfulness while you read the news on your smartphone, say, or shop for groceries. It can involve a formal practice - like when you sit down, close your eyes, and focus on feeling your breath go in and out. In the West, the most well-known set of practices is “mindfulness meditation.” That means paying attention, purposefully and non-judgmentally, to your experience in the present moment. The first thing to know is that the word “meditation” actually refers to many different practices. It prompted me to call her up and ask for some guidance about using meditation to navigate this pandemic. Tara Brach, an American psychologist and a widely respected teacher of Buddhist meditation, sent out this quote in a recent email newsletter. It showed the way for everyone to survive.” But if even one person on the boat remained calm and centered, it was enough. It’s by the Vietnamese Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh: “When the crowded Vietnamese refugee boats met with storms or pirates, if everyone panicked all would be lost. It also has many of us asking: How do we keep from spiraling into full-blown panic?Īs we try to navigate our anxiety about the coronavirus, there’s one quote I’ve been trying to keep at the forefront of my mind. This pandemic has us all facing more stress and uncertainty than usual. ![]() If you’re feeling extra anxiety these days due to the Covid-19 coronavirus, you’re not alone.
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