Practice of Compassion: 10 Evidence-Based Coaching Practices
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Practice of Compassion, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Practices that may help
- Self-Compassion, Made Practical
Kristin Neff defines self-compassion as treating yourself with the same kindness you would offer a struggling friend, built from three parts: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Unlike self-esteem, it does not depend on success or comparison — and it has a genuinely strong research base, with controlled trials linking it to lower anxiety, depression, and self-criticism. - 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 - The self-compassion break
A three-step phrase you say in a hard moment: this is suffering, suffering is human, may I be kind to myself.
Self-Compassion, Made Practical - Always abide by the three principles
Maintain your vow, don’t show off, and practise impartially with everyone — not just the people you like.
Lojong: Tibetan Mind Training - 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 - Use flash tonglen in the moment of encountering suffering
A single in-breath of someone’s pain and an out-breath of goodwill is a complete act of tonglen.
Tonglen: The Tibetan Practice of Taking and Sending - Cultivate Self through directed inner compassion
Practice sending compassion inward — toward the parts that are suffering — to build the Self-energy those parts need.
IFS Self Energy, Made Practical - Integrate metta with equanimity to avoid compassion fatigue
Metta extended without equanimity can become distress; grounding goodwill in steady non-attachment makes it sustainable.
Metta Bhavana: The Practice of Loving-Kindness - 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 - Integrating mudita into a full brahma-vihara sequence
Practise metta, karuna, and mudita in sequence so each quality strengthens the next.
Mudita: How to Cultivate Sympathetic Joy
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- Someone I love is suffering and there is nothing I can actually do to fix it, and that helplessness is unbearable
- A hard moment just hit and I can feel the spiral starting
- I’m kind and openhearted with the people I already love and quietly closed off to the ones who get under my skin, and I’m realizing that warmth that only flows toward easy people isn’t really the practice
- There’s one particular person I can’t even think about without my whole body tightening with resentment
- I pass real suffering all day
Related concerns
- How To Practise Compassion
Kristin Neff defines self-compassion as treating yourself with the same kindness you would offer a struggling friend, built from three parts: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Unlike self-esteem, it does not depend on success or comparison — and it has a genuinely strong research base, with controlled trials linking it to lower anxiety, depression, and self-criticism.
- Inner Compassion Practice
Practice sending compassion inward — toward the parts that are suffering — to build the Self-energy those parts need.
Cultivate Self through directed inner compassion
- How To Develop Compassion
When you feel a spontaneous impulse toward compassion or fairness, act on it rather than suppressing it.
Noticing and extending compassionate impulses
- How To Cultivate Compassion
When you feel a spontaneous impulse toward compassion or fairness, act on it rather than suppressing it.
- Practice Compassion
Kristin Neff defines self-compassion as treating yourself with the same kindness you would offer a struggling friend, built from three parts: self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Unlike self-esteem, it does not depend on success or comparison — and it has a genuinely strong research base, with controlled trials linking it to lower anxiety, depression, and self-criticism.
- Buddhist Compassion Practice
Metta bhavana (loving-kindness cultivation) is a meditation practice from the Theravada Buddhist tradition in which the practitioner systematically generates warm goodwill — beginning with themselves and expanding outward to others. Randomised controlled trials and meta-analyses find meaningful effects on positive affect, self-compassion, and reduction of negative emotions; effect sizes are moderate and most robust when practice is sustained.
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