With the coronavirus triggering a DORSCON Orange risk assessment, it’s a worrying time for many people. Organisations everywhere are tightening their health and surveillance regulations as many countries, including Singapore, face perhaps its biggest test of a disease outbreak response. 

Opportunity to come together and support one another

Beyond the pressure on our governments and health infrastructures, as citizens of the world, we face an greater test – in times of crisis, can we respond with open hearts, and can we offer compassion to ourselves and to one another?  Or will we succumb to our fears and close the circle around us, to the exclusion of others?

In several countries, we have seen waves of panic-buying and hoarding.  We have even heard xenophobic comments and seen some finger-pointing directed at groups of people who are “foreign” or “not like us”.  These appear to indicate that there is fear and anguish; and these are genuine and difficult emotions. Acting impulsively sometimes feels good “in the moment” but it can also be a way of “avoiding our difficult emotions”. Can we hold these emotions for just a little while longer than usual, and ask ourselves if we can respond with more compassion and more human kindness? Compassion is a human capacity that can be developed with intention and practice; perhaps we can rise to the challenge and practice human kindness and compassion during this challenging time.

Here are some ideas on how you can do that.

Practice self-compassion by facing your fears - turning towards your fears, rather than avoiding them

Exercising self-compassion will help you pay attention to and recognize what you feel, and give you an opportunity to better explore what your physical, mental and emotional needs are. Self-care is important, and it’s interesting to see many people taking extra care during this period by washing their hands regularly and avoiding crowded areas. However, we want to make sure that we are also aware of the needs of others. As we watch out for ourselves, may we remember to be mindful of the implications our attitudes and actions have on others.  

It is sometimes easy to forget that we are all interconnected and hence, we act in ways which are not as considerate to others as we would prefer. Perhaps, instead of rushing to try to soothe only our own fears, we can consider our common humanity with others.

Recognise that your pain is part of our shared and common humanity - we all suffer

From China to Singapore to Europe, from Africa to ANZ to the Americas, we are all facing this virus as a global community. The stress and fear that we feel for ourselves and our loved ones are the same stress and fear felt by many others  around the world. Can we take time to look out for one another, to care for one another and to be supportive of those around us? In times like these, can we remain open and inclusive and avoid reacting too strongly to our difficult emotions?

Practice compassion for others

To build an inclusive society, we can practise compassion for others!  Indeed, compassion can be practised and developed, like any other human skill. Our company, Now.Here., offers consultations and classes that help people develop and practice compassion for themselves, others and the Earth.

Before pointing fingers at others, may we remind ourselves that they, too, are human and have feelings and needs, just like we do. Perhaps they too fear for their health and their family at least as much as we may fear for ours! When we see someone loading their shopping trolley with large quantities of Maggi noodles  and packs of toilet rolls, we can imagine how much fear they may feel. Choosing empathy and reminding ourselves of our common humanity may help us treat one another with more kindness and compassion.

Taking the time to tune into our own feelings and needs often helps us understand and tune into the feelings and needs of others.

When we recognize that we fear for our own health and well-being, it is easy to empathize with the fear of others. If you notice your instinctive feeling upon hearing someone cough near you, you may be able to understand the feeling of the one who is coughing, as well as others in the vicinity.

Every one of us has become ill from time to time. None of us wish to become ill. None of us wish our loved ones to become ill. Perhaps we can allow such kindness to extend to “strangers”. Perhaps we can recognize that people who sneeze and cough around us only wish to be well again, and they only wish to be treated with respect and dignity, just like we do.

In trying times, compassion is often the greatest gift we can offer, not only to ourselves, but to those around us.