The first time I heard one of my Kripalu teachers say “BRFWA,” I thought it sounded kinda like a sneeze. Not the tidy acronym RAIN, which rolls off the tongue when you want to remember “Recognize, Allow, Investigate, Nurture.” Most of my teachers pronounced it “BRIFF-whah.”
Yet, awkward names don’t make a practice less useful.
BRFWA is one of the signature techniques of Kripalu Yoga, developed by Kripalu teachers Sandra Scherer and Grace MacLeod. It is taught in many different contexts and classes at Kripalu.
It’s not an ancient technique, like those taught by Patañjali or the Buddha. If BRFWA had been conceived using Sanskrit words, it might have been PSVDV (good luck pronouncing that): prāṇāyāma (breathing), śaithilya (relaxation), vedanā (feeling), draṣṭu (seer), vairāgya (non-attachment). Either way, this practice points toward the same goal: direct contact with what’s happening in the body, right now.
I’ve met a lot of folks who find BRFWA useful. I incorporate BRFWA into my yoga classes all the time without mentioning the acronym. It’s mentioned repeatedly (again, without the acronym) in one of the foundational books in the Kripalu lineage, Kripalu Yoga: A Guide to Practice On and Off the Mat by Richard Faulds. Stephen Cope has used it almost every day for decades.
The five letters aren’t a rigid sequence. You can move through them in order, rest in one for a while, or let the breath alone open the door to relaxing, feeling, watching, and allowing. Each one guides us away from the endless stream of thoughts toward direct contact with the body and our actual lived experience:
Breathe. Take some deep breaths. Full, diaphragmatic, deep yogic breaths. Let the energy flow in your body.
Relax. Notice where you’re gripping, and invite the tension to soften. You might release your shoulder blades or breathe deep into your belly.
Feel. Scan your whole body. Turn toward whatever is actually there, be it sensation, emotion, or an unexplained restlessness. Feel the body without needing to label or describe the sensations. You might notice patterns, or certain areas where the energy feels more intense. See if you can breathe into every little nook and cranny of your body. Remember, this aspect of the practice is not about thinking. It’s feeling.
Watch. After you feel into the experience, watch what happens. Whether you like or dislike how you feel, see if you can be the witness to your own experience. Perhaps you choose not to be for or against anything. When you witness the textures of your experience, there is no need to explain anything or ask “Why?” You simply observe.
Allow. At some point, you might be ready to let your experience just be what it is, without needing to fix or change anything. You no longer need to make it stay or make it go. Rather than resist, you just notice the energy (prāna) flowing in your body. Some people think to themselves, “allow, allow, allow.” For others, doing gives way to surrender. As I often ask in my yoga classes: can this moment be perfect, whole, and complete?
Some practices invite you to step back and observe, while others ask you to go all the way into the sensation. BRFWA creates space for both, which is why it includes Feel and Watch. It works well for the difficult moments in life and also when you just want to become more present.
A Practice Without a Right or a Wrong
In the Yoga Teacher Training at Kripalu that I assisted in January, I got to participate in a session with Aruni Nan Futuronsky, a highly regarded “legacy” faculty member at Kripalu. She told us about how BRFWA had shaped her life. She came to Kripalu in 1989 after almost twenty years teaching at an inner-city high school in New York. She called BRFWA “a practice without a right or a wrong,” and told us to find what works for us.
That welcoming invitation aligns well with the Buddha’s teaching on paṭibhāna, usually translated as ingenuity or resourcefulness. Patañjali says something similar: when steadiness of mind is what you’re after, meditate on whatever supports it (YS 1.39). Yoga texts often name the goal rather than the technique for getting there.
BRFWA is flexible. You might pause for five slow breaths on the mat or a few breaths at a red light when you realize you’re judging other drivers. You can use it when a stranger in the grocery store says something that rubs you the wrong way, or in the midst of a sticky conversation with someone you love. You decide when the situation calls for BRFWA.
When I include BRFWA in my meditation practice, I’ve expanded certain aspects of the technique based on what Thanissaro Bhikkhu recommends in his meditation guide With Each & Every Breath. For instance, during “Relax,” I have been systematically relaxing my whole body starting at my belly, moving up the front of the torso to my neck and head, then down my arms, back, and eventually my legs down to my toes. Then during “Feel,” I scan my body and feel the breath energy (prāna) coursing through my whole body with every in-and-out breath. This is far more detailed than any instructions for BRFWA that I’ve received, but it has been working well for me, so I’ve stuck with it.
Riding the Wave
Aruni also talked about BRFWA as a way to “ride the waves” of life. Feelings come and go, and are a natural part of being a human being. But feelings are not the problem — it’s how we react to them. Lashing out is one way to go “off the wave.” Or you might reach for your phone or food to make the feeling go away. “Checking out,” as she called it.
BRFWA can help keep you on the wave, present to yourself and your loved ones. Breathe so you don’t leave. Relax rather than fight. Feel and Watch what’s actually happening. Allow the wave to be a wave.
So those five letters that sound like a sneeze can offer a lot. If you’d like company working through them, I recorded a guided BRFWA meditation. The next time you feel yourself about to check out, try it and see what happens. Then let me know how it goes.
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