Calming the Rush of Panic by Bob Stahl

any weather.
Now gently returning to the breath and being mindful of breathing in and out…riding the waves of the breath.
As you come to the end of this meditation, take a moment to congratulate yourself, and take a moment to appreciate the safety and ease you may be feeling right now that you can bring into your day. By acknowledging your fears, you may open the possibility for deeper understanding, compassion, and peace. Before you get up, gently wiggle your fingers and toes and gradually open your eyes, being fully here and now.
May all beings dwell in peace.
    How to Practice Mindful Inquiry
    If you have connected with this meditation and find it useful, practice it whenever it feels right for you. This meditation is different from mindful breathing, the body scan, sitting meditation (chapter 3), and loving-kindness meditation (chapter 4), which you can work with daily. Those meditations are for building and maintaining balance and ease in your everyday life. Mindful inquiry meditation is specifically for when you want to investigate further your emotions and feelings that may be driving your panic. See what works best for you.
    R.A.I.N.
    Another informal mindful practice is called R.A.I.N. (origin unknown). This acronym stands for:
     
Recognize when a strong emotion or feeling such as panic is present.
Acknowledge or Allow that it’s there.
Investigate the body, thoughts, and emotions in order to see what you are directly experiencing.
Non-identify with it, or in other words, don’t take it personally.
    R.A.I.N. is an insightful and useful self-inquiry practice that you can bring into your daily life to help you discover deeper storylines of what triggers your panicky reactions. You are welcome to bring this simple practice into your life and discover what happens when you make use of it.
    Over the next few days or week, bring recognition to any panicky emotions and feelings and allow them to be present in your nonjudgmental awareness. Investigate how they feel in your body and mind. Then make an effort to not identify with them, to not take them so personally. Notice how it feels to not identify with the panicky emotions and feelings. This can be extremely skillful since it helps reduce the storyline dramatically and cultivates the understanding that panicky emotions and feelings are just changing states of mind and are not a complete definition of who you are. In addition, R.A.I.N. may offer you the possibility to look at panic from a perspective that enables you to choose a more constructive response as compared to your old, habitual ways of looking at things.
Karen’s Story
Things were closing down fast for Karen while she waited in line at the supermarket one day. Panic began to surge through her body, and she felt as though she was going to faint. Her palms got sweaty, she had a funny taste in her mouth, and she began to breathe very irregularly and rapidly. She realized she was in trouble and needed to do something quickly, before she made a big scene. Fortunately she remembered R.A.I.N. from her mindfulness class and decided to try to put it into practice in this acute panic-stricken situation. She first recognized what was happening and allowed herself to acknowledge that she was panicked. She then investigated the facts with detachment and clarity: just how were her feelings of panic affecting her body, thoughts, and emotions at that moment? After reflecting on this for a few moments, she felt a bit better and began trying to remember what the N in R.A.I.N. stood for. She almost laughed out loud when she remembered. Duh! Non-identify—don’t take it personally. Afterward, Karen thought, Wow, that R.A.I.N. practice just saved me from a major panic attack.
    As you deepen your practice of mindfulness with mindful inquiry and R.A.I.N., you will come to know that the very resistance to unacknowledged emotions and feelings associated with panic often causes more panic, more tightness, more pain, more