Compassion Without Overwhelm: Feeling Without Collapsing
With Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle
Thursday June 4 2026
7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
Pay-From-The-Heart
Session 2 of 6 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for other session in the series: Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times
You care deeply. And it’s exhausting. Grief about the state of the world. The people around you that you see suffering. The troubles on the news.
If you’re someone who feels things deeply, you’ve probably learned to manage by numbing, distancing, or staying busy.
Compassion is and essential part of life and being human, a quality that is central to our spiritual growth. But without a resilience and perspective to go with it, it can tip into overwhelm, collapse, or burnout. This session offers practices for staying open without being swept away.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:
- The difference between empathy (feeling with) and compassion (feeling for)—and why it matters
- Why highly sensitive and caring people are especially vulnerable to overwhelm
- Practices for containment: allowing grief and care without drowning in them
- How to stay connected to the world’s suffering without abandoning yourself
You’ll leave with tools you can use when the weight of the world feels like too much—and a clearer sense of how to care sustainably.
This is session 2 of our 2026 online drop-in series – see here for future sessions Staying Whole: Meditation Tools For Fragmented Times series.
Session Details
- Date: Thursday June 4, 2026
- Time: 7-8 pm Mountain Time (6 pm PST, 8 pm Central, 9 pm EST)
- Format: Live online via Zoom (recording available)
- Cost: By donation (Dāna)—everyone welcome regardless of financial circumstances
What We’ll Explore
This foundational session explores the nervous system as the ground of all practice. When we’re chronically activated—always slightly on edge, never fully settling—it’s hard to access our deeper resources. We stay reactive rather than responsive. We lose touch with our own steadiness.
In this hour together, we’ll explore:
- Why so many of us are carrying chronic low-grade activation
- Simple practices to help the nervous system settle and regulate
- How to trust the body as a place of arrival and support
- Building a foundation for the deeper work of boundaries, communication, and resilience
You’ll leave with practices you can use immediately, and return to whenever you need to find your ground.
What to Expect
Each session in the series weaves together:
- Teaching grounded in Buddhist wisdom and 35+ years of practice, adapted for real-world application
- Guided practice you can use immediately and return to between sessions
- Reflection & dialogue with others navigating similar terrain
- Integration tools designed for daily life, not just the cushion
Part of the 2026 Staying Whole Series
This session is the opening of Staying Whole: Meditation Tools for Fragmented Times, a six-session online drop-in series running through 2026, offering practical tools for inner steadiness, relational resilience, and community belonging. Each session stands alone, so you’re welcome to join just this one. And if this resonates, the series continues on June 4 with Compassion Without Overwhelm: Feeling Without Collapsing
Learn more about the full series here
Your Guides For The Series
Duncan Cryle has practiced meditation and Buddhist Dharma for over 35 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Sensei. He was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and a resident since 2018. Duncan has been teaching for over 20 years—with Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and through Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness program. Through the intense work of living in intentional community—navigating conflict, collaboration, and collective decision-making—he’s learned firsthand what it takes to stay whole in fragmented times. He also spent many years in senior business roles pioneering workplace mindfulness, and now consults with nonprofits and mission-driven organizations on building mindfulness, resilience, and trust.
Karen McAllister has practiced meditation since the 1990s and studied Buddhist Dharma for over 25 years in the Namgyal lineage with Qapel and Catherine Pawasarat Sensei. She was a founding member of Clear Sky in 2004 and has been a resident since 2018. Karen has been teaching meditation and mindfulness for over 13 years through Awaken in Toronto, Despertando no Brasil (“Awakening in Brazil”), and Clear Sky’s Integrating Mindfulness and Money & Spirituality programs. Through the ongoing practice of living in intentional community, navigating relationship, conflict, and shared responsibility, she has learned firsthand what it takes to stay grounded and whole in uncertain and changing times. Alongside her teaching, Karen serves as Co-Executive Director of Clear Sky and leads the funding of the Temple project, supporting a long-term vision of refuge and deep practice for generations to come. She is also the founder of Mindful Money Coaching, where she supports people in the helping professions and mission-driven fields to transform their relationship with money, bringing awareness to how they give, receive, and steward resources in alignment with their values and purpose.
... And special guest teachers from the Clear Sky onsite Sangha
Clear Sky’s onsite team have a rich diversity of experience and many years of deep spiritual practice. During this series we’ll benefit from bringing in other voices to add depth and range to the exploration.
