Online: Overcoming Deep Grief – The Gift of a Broken Heart
with Bryan Welch
Thursday, April 23rd, 2026 | 6:30pm – 8:30pm ET
Grief can be profoundly disorienting and traumatic. Yet it can also open our hearts, strengthening our empathy, affection and compassion for other people. It may even open us up to new forms of joy.
Bryan Welch embarked on his own journey through deep grief at the loss of his 25-year-old son to addiction. He shares how the loss temporarily destroyed his self-esteem, deepened his meditation practice and opened his heart.
In deep grief Bryan became aware that his new vulnerability gave him unexpected feelings of warmth, kinship and compassion toward his fellow human beings. This, as much as debilitating grief, is part of his son’s legacy.
Grief is a part of every human life. We desperately try to avoid it. But Bryan explores how it can provide profound instruction about how we can experience life, and love, more deeply.
Bryan explores how the simple acknowledgement of our shared vulnerability can help heal the traumas that separate us from one another, and might lead us, through spiritual practice, toward a more loving, less divisive human world.
Note: This program will be recorded. The recording will be sent to all registrants after the program, so please feel free to sign up even if you cannot join in real time.
Online Registration:
Please register below. If you are able, registering at the “Supporter” level enables others to attend at the “Subsidized” level. Thank you for your generosity! (Please note that the registration price includes a base level of teacher support, and you will have the opportunity to donate more after the program.)
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Bring a Buddy: If you are a member of our Circle of Friends, you’re invited to bring a Dharma buddy to this program for no additional cost. Simply select “1” from the drop-down next to the Bring a Buddy level, and enter your special discount code (provided in your Circle of Friends welcome email) to reduce the price to that of a single, standard registration. This registration will grant attendance for you and your buddy.
Volunteering
All of our programs rely on volunteers to support our teachers and staff with various tasks and responsibilities. Volunteering allows you to participate in our programs at no cost. To inquire about volunteering opportunities, please fill out our inquiry form, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Teacher(s)
Bryan Welch
Bryan Welch studies in the sangha of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, connected with the Kagyu and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism. His new book, The Gift of a Broken Heart, is just out this month from New Harbinger Publications.
He is the former CEO of Mindful Communications, a media and corporate meditation-training company; and was founder and CEO of B The Change Media, a multi-platform media company focused on business as a force for good in the world.
For 19 years, from its founding, he ran Ogden Publications, the founding B Corp that published Mother Earth News, Mother Earth Living, Utne Reader and several other category-leading media brands focused on sustainability and natural health. More recently, he served as Co-CEO of Silk Grass Holdings, a B Corp developing 32,000 acres of regenerative organic farms, food-processing facilities and wildlife preserves in Belize.
Bryan’s award-winning book, Beautiful & Abundant: Building the World We Want, appeared in 2011.
He and his wife, Carolyn, raise organic, grass-fed cattle and sheep on their farm near Lawrence, Kansas, with the help of their grandsons.