Leaning Into Grief

An 8 week circle exploring the terrain of loss and sorrow

Leaning Into Grief

This 8 week circle explores the vast and universal terrain of grief and loss. A core faculty of being human, yet an experience that leaves so many of us bewildered, isolated and alone.

During our eight weeks together we will delve into the skills of learning to trust grief and develop “An Apprenticeship with Sorrow.” We will explore this teaching of Francis Weller individually and in community

Learn to trust grief

“I’m not sure how or when I began my apprenticeship with sorrow. I do know that it was my gateway back into the breathing and animate world. It was through the dark waters of grief that I came to touch my unlived life. . . .

There is some strange intimacy between grief and aliveness, some sacred exchange between what seems unbearable and what is most exquisitely alive.

Through this, I have come to have a lasting faith in grief.”

-Francis Weller from The Wild Edge of Sorrow

The Circle Includes:

  • Each week we will explore a teaching around An Apprenticeship with Sorrow. I will send a follow up email with additional resources and readings that you may choose to explore.

    Themes include:

    • Finding right relationship to grief

    • Developing a practice as ballast

    • Staying present in our adult selves

    • Self-compassion

    • Silence and Solitude

    • Maintaining connection to the wider world and webs of kinship

    • Rituals of grief and gratitude

  • Grief is felt in the body. I will invite you into accessible, trauma informed practices to learn to befriend experience of grief in your body

  • There will be the option to deepen your understanding of yourself as you navigate grief and loss through writing, drawing and contemplation

  • There will be opportunities to be witnessed in your grief. Time to speak what is true and to be heard and held. This is always optional.

  • You will be invited into micro rituals to explore within our circle and on your own. The rituals are a way to create a space and container to hold and honor all types of loss.

Logistics 

Dates: Mondays: March 10th to April 28th

Times: 10:00 AM-11:30 AM

Location: Perennial Yoga Studio in Fitchburg

Cost: $300; there are a limited number of reduced fee spots available

The group will be small and intimate, max of 10 participants

Meet your Facilitator:

Shandra Bauer: Grief tender, group facilitator, yoga teacher

This circle is for you if…

  • You are looking for community as you navigate grief and loss

  • You want to learn to be with your grief without feeling flooded by the intensity or numbed out to avoid pain

  • You are experiencing a transition in life and are looking for skills to navigate the uncertainty of change

  • You feel grief, loss or holy outrage over what is happening politically and collectively. You want more skills to navigate the time we find ourselves in

  • You are curious about exploring grief, ritual, embodiment/somatic practices, and desire to know yourself more deeply

Reach out with any questions!