An Anchor Amid Uncertainty: Using Self-Compassion During Times of Transition
- Jul 13
- 3 min read
“True resilience, the kind that weathers uncertainty, scarcity, and change, cannot exist without compassion, both for ourselves and for others.”
— Yuxi Pan
This conversation is part of the YCompassion Leadership Programme Reflective Series, featuring reflections from programme participants and peers on practicing compassionate, human-centred leadership in the social impact sector.
What drew you to explore compassion practices?
For me, compassion was what was most needed in 2025 — a challenging year for the social impact sector, where the ripple effects of reduced funding and widespread redundancies became increasingly apparent.
As an independent consultant working across different organisations, from philanthropic funds to grassroots startups, I recognised how easy it was to turn inwards and become our own harshest critics.
I grew curious about the practices I could adopt to better support myself and those around me in building resilience during times of transition. It required self-compassion as an anchor.
What compassionate tool do you wish more people knew about and used?
Many of us working in social impact are drawn to it for a simple reason: we care. Over time, caring quickly becomes our default mode - we act, strive, and push forward in pursuit of meaningful impact.
However, periods of significant change, whether individual, collective, or organisational, can feel overwhelming, and our reserves can quickly be depleted as we try to hold and support the systems around us.
This is precisely when compassion matters most.
What I wish more people understood is how achievable it is to shift our relationship to change when we are equipped with the right tools, and I am a firm believer that practising compassion towards ourselves first can create a ripple effect throughout the wider system.
With a particular interest in behaviour change, I found the ‘Four Principles of Compassionate Feedback’, and the Compassion Triangle especially powerful for navigating conflict - something that emerges frequently during periods of uncertainty.
What resources would you recommend to a friend or colleague who is interested in compassionate approaches?
Without hesitation, I would recommend the YCompassionate Leadership Programme. Before taking part, I had read widely about the importance of compassion in both the workplace and life more broadly.
What this programme provides is a comprehensive and practical synthesis of compassion-focused research, tools, and frameworks that feel truly accessible.
For those working in the social impact sector, it also offers an opportunity to connect with others walking a similar path. While compassion is ultimately an individual practice, being part of a community that understands and values compassionate approaches can deepen and sustain our personal practice in meaningful ways.
About Yuxi
Yuxi Pan is a Community and Operations professional with a decade of experience building the infrastructure that turns distributed groups into engaged communities - across volunteer networks, membership ecosystems, and global programmes.
A Fellow of the On Purpose Programme for Social Impact Leadership, her career spans financial services, impact investing, and social enterprise - each chapter sharpening how she understands organisations from the inside out. She brings a behavioural science lens to her work, which means she doesn't just design systems. She understands why people engage, disengage, and what it takes to bring them back.
Now based in Madrid, Yuxi is actively building her presence in the Spanish impact ecosystem. She is particularly drawn to entrepreneur communities and tech for good organisations, and is seeking community and operations roles where she can bring both her systems thinking and her human-centred approach in a new context.
Yuxi was in the second cohort of the YCompassion Leadership Programme.
This conversation reflects Yuxi's personal views and not those of any organisation she has worked for or currently works for.
