Here is a list of additional actions that were generated and agreed upon by all of us here in CompassionLab.

Awaken the capacity for compassion to thrive by trying these practices:

• Convert your gratitude into compassion. When you feel grateful to others, express it and your appreciation will help awaken compassion in your colleagues, friends, family, and community.
• Remember that we are hard-wired for human connection. At times of physical distancing, when we endure challenges we have not foreseen, many of us feel incredibly lonely. When you find yourself feeling alone, reach out to text a friend, call a loved one, or otherwise reach out in some simple way.
• No act is too small to matter. Volunteer to help someone. Order their groceries online. Take a dog for a walk.
• Inquire. Our research shows that comforting compassion is rooted in inquiry. Don’t assume that someone who seems okay is okay. Ask how they’re doing and give them the room to tell you.
• Go toward what hurts. Suffering and pain are scary. We often want to run away from them, especially if we feel that we don’t know how to handle them or what to do. Lean toward others, even when you don’t know what to do or say. It’s okay to stay quiet.
• Find a simple question, such as “how are you coping today?” And make time to really listen to the answer, with no need to try to fix or solve anything.
• Notice the bright spots. When we are scared or worried, we often overlook compassion that is coming our way. Take note of the compassion in your life, when others express it to you or when you witness it in the world around you. Comment on it. Share it. Describe it to other people – because stories share compassion, too! Compassion is contagious!
• Practice perspective. The strict physical distancing that keeps us apart from physical presence only becomes “social distancing” it makes it really hard to see and experience others’ pain. Without seeing what it is like in the hospitals now, and without being in the household of a patient, it is very difficult to understand what others with COVID-19 are going through. Open up your imagination, because we tend to think that others’ experience is similar to our own, but often it is not.
• Notice the small signals. Somebody else’s life might have been collapsed in a way that you could have never imagined. Probably you wouldn’t be able to be at the scene, but you can notice a change in someone’s face or body language, even on a video chat. When you pick up a small signal that someone isn’t okay, inquire gently and be ready to listen with care.
• Suspend judgement. One key is to simply see and appreciate suffering without judging it. Pain often masquerades as fear, anxiety, withdrawal, anger, or hostility. Rather than focus too much on specific things to do or not do, be present with suspended judgment to whatever is happening. Your caring presence will undoubtedly play an important role in awakening compassion.

Among the many ideas suggested by the CompassionLab, the importance of inquiry jumps out. Ask someone how they are doing with all that is going on, and make room to listen. Compassion is often more about being present than it is about solving or fixing, and none of us can fix what’s happening all over the world right now. Does this approach to compassion spark thoughts for you? What do you notice about this kind of presence that might be scary or difficult? Have you found anything to make it easier?