3. Rain of Self Compassion

Imagine that you are sitting by the bank of a river. The water is flowing downstream. You can hear the sound of the river, you can smell the fresh moss of the riverbank. You can see and hear the water moving steadily to its goal.

There are leaves that occasionally fall off the nearby trees and fall into the river. You watch as a leaf falls into the river and gets swept downstream and out of view. You see another leaf fall into the river and you also watch that leaf. You are watching the leaves without judgement, they are simply falling and travelling.

When the next leaf falls, imaging placing your crisis situation on the leaf. It can be a person, a feeling, or an event. Just make it small and place it on the leaf. Watch it travel downstream and out of view. List three things that you put on a leaf for radical acceptance (make sure they are factual and non-judgmental).

Place other distressing feelings, people or events on leaves and continue watching them move downstream.

You are simply watching them as they are, without judgment. They are not good or bad, they just are sitting on a leaf.

Let the feelings and people go downstream. Release them from your thoughts. They are simply gone now, like the past. The past cannot be changed. It must be released as well. We cannot predict the future, we only have the present moment with us. When we release our need to control, we find relief since it is no longer our responsibility to change the world.

Recognizing & Allowing...

Emotions

Worry

Blame, Entitlement, Outrage

Discouragement, Unmotivated

Anger

Apathy

Hatred, Rage, Vindictive

Jealousy, Possessive

Insecurity, Guilt, Unworthiness, Shame

Anxiety, Fear, Nervous, Paranoid

Depression, Despair, Powerlessness, Helpless, Hopeless, Worthless