Working with Chronic Overwhelm and Grief in 2025, A Four-Week Series
with Sheila Kappeler-Finn

Many of us have heavy hearts in 2025 that leave us feeling chronically overwhelmed, agitated or sorrowful. Some of us have accrued anger in the face of injustices or deep grief in response to accumulated losses. We all witness the daily turbulence of deepening political animosities and feelings of disconnection and precariousness; this constant exposure can leave us feeling as if we walk through our lives on shaky ground. 

Historically, humans have gathered together in community to metabolize and assimilate our deep emotional experiences. Our modern culture gifts us with conveniences and velocities, but deprives us of the slowness and togetherness we need to unburden our hearts and create more spaciousness for imagination and joy.

I invite you to spend four weeks learning and honing practices to ground and center you in your body, giving you a chance to recover a sense of calm and well-being while living fully in the world.

We will

• establish foundational group agreements to form a stable base of kindness and group safety
• identify restorative agreements to facilitate group repair
• gradually and gently build a community container that invites everyone to drop more deeply into their hearts, which can help to metabolize distress and give the intellect a break

Practices you will be invited to take part in

• guided meditations that will help you to gather your energy and attention in present time, to bear witness your inner states, and to gain discernment about your own information
• NVC-based self-connection practice, working with the language of universal feelings and needs 
• writing, inquiry and small group work to share our stories
• community council where we practice deep listening and receive witness

What to bring

• A journal and pens or markers
• Comfortable clothing

On grief

If you have suffered an event in the past six months that has triggered acute grief for you, please reach out to see if this workshop is a good fit,[email protected] . People in early stages of acute grief may need a different pacing than this workshop offers.

Sheila brings a synthesis of experiences to community space holding: a 25-year meditation practice, 20 years of Non-Violent Communication (NVC) study and practice, NVC complex facilitation, NVC multi-year mediation intensive study, a decade-long apprenticeship (with a focus on ethical and respectful cultural practice) in medicine work, and grief tending and apprenticeship in the lineage of Francis Weller, author of The Wild Edge of Sorrow.

From decades of depth work in group contexts, she has witnessed and experienced the power of healing in safe, well-designed community containers where people feel free to drop into their hearts. Sheila has the capacity to meet people in their depths, welcoming heartfelt and authentic participation.

“The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.”

-Khalil Gibran