Coaching practices for Compassionate Figure Exercise
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Compassionate Figure Exercise, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When everything’s falling apart I have nobody in my head to turn to
- When I’m upset I have no idea how to actually comfort myself
- Someone I love is suffering and there is nothing I can actually do to fix it, and that helplessness is unbearable
- Every time I try to be gentle with myself my body’s still wound tight and braced, and the calming part just won’t take
- If a friend told me what I’m beating myself up over, I’d know exactly what kind thing to say to them
Practices that may help
- Compassionate Imagery: The Compassionate Image and Safe Place
Develop a vivid compassionate figure in imagination whose care you can access during distress.
Compassion-Focused Therapy: Calming the Inner Critic - Supportive touch
Use a gentle physical gesture — a hand on the heart — to trigger the body’s soothing response.
Self-Compassion, Made Practical - Direct tonglen toward a specific suffering person
Bring a person who is suffering to mind and breathe in their pain; breathe out whatever would give them relief.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Soothing Rhythm Breathing
Use slow, rhythmic breathing to deliberately activate the physiological soothing system before other compassion practices.
Compassion-Focused Therapy: Calming the Inner Critic - Compassionate Letter Writing
Write a letter to yourself from the perspective of a wise, compassionate friend — about something you’ve been judging yourself for.
Compassion-Focused Therapy: Calming the Inner Critic - Write letters for others to build compassion fluency
Practice the compassionate letter format for a struggling friend first to warm up the voice.
The Self-Compassion Letter, Made Practical - Call on your inner fierce ally
Develop an internalized image of a powerful, compassionate protector you can invoke in moments of threat.
Fierce Self-Compassion, Made Practical - Compassion meditation for widening the circle
Extend deliberate well-wishing to people you find difficult, building non-aversion before you encounter them.
Ahimsa: Non-Violence as a Daily Practice - The self-compassion break (Neff’s three-step pause)
In a hard moment: acknowledge, connect, and offer kindness — three breaths, three phrases.
Working With Your Inner Critic - N — Nurture with self-compassion
Offer the part that is suffering what it most needs — care, acknowledgment, reassurance — as you would a dear friend.
RAIN Meditation: Tara Brach’s Four-Step Practice
Related concerns
- Compassion Focused Therapy Imagery
Develop a vivid compassionate figure in imagination whose care you can access during distress.
Compassionate Imagery: The Compassionate Image and Safe Place
- Compassionate Mind Training
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), developed by Paul Gilbert, targets shame and self-criticism by training a compassionate inner voice to replace the punitive self-critic. It draws on evolutionary psychology and affective neuroscience — specifically, the finding that different emotional systems (threat, drive, soothing) have distinct neurobiological profiles. A growing body of RCT evidence supports CFT for shame-based difficulties, self-criticism, and depression, though the evidence base is smaller than for CBT.
- Compassion Fatigue Antidote
When self-compassion initially hurts more, that is backdraft — a sign it is working, not failing.
Recognize backdraft — the pain that arises when kindness first lands
- Compassion Focused Therapy
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), developed by Paul Gilbert, targets shame and self-criticism by training a compassionate inner voice to replace the punitive self-critic. It draws on evolutionary psychology and affective neuroscience — specifically, the finding that different emotional systems (threat, drive, soothing) have distinct neurobiological profiles. A growing body of RCT evidence supports CFT for shame-based difficulties, self-criticism, and depression, though the evidence base is smaller than for CBT.
- Compassion Focused Therapy Calming The Inner Critic After A Setback
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), developed by Paul Gilbert, targets shame and self-criticism by training a compassionate inner voice to replace the punitive self-critic. It draws on evolutionary psychology and affective neuroscience — specifically, the finding that different emotional systems (threat, drive, soothing) have distinct neurobiological profiles. A growing body of RCT evidence supports CFT for shame-based difficulties, self-criticism, and depression, though the evidence base is smaller than for CBT.
- Compassion Focused Therapy Calming The Inner Critic During A Big Change
Develop a vivid compassionate figure in imagination whose care you can access during distress.
Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.