Practicing Joy in Times of Crisis: Honoring Our Resilience: Replenish and Renew (virtual)

Community Gatherings that Restore & Renew

If you work in nonprofits or community spaces and have been holding the heartbreak of wildfires, political violence, and ongoing collective crises, this space is for you. Practicing Joy in Times of Crisis is a series of 10 community gatherings, five virtual and five in-person, designed to help you reconnect with joy and hope as intentional practices.

This series is presented in partnership with A Thousand Joys.

These gatherings are not about bypassing pain. Joy includes our grief. It includes our exhaustion. It includes our rage. Together, through movement, music, restorative practices, reflection, and community dialogue, we will reset our nervous systems and replenish our spirits. When we care for ourselves, we strengthen our capacity to show up for the people and communities who rely on us. Sustainable service requires sustainable self-care.

Honoring Our Resilience: Replenish and Renew with Nikita Gupta (virtual)

In the midst of ongoing demands, uncertainty, and collective crisis, it can be easy to lose touch with what we already carry in ourselves- the wisdom, the strength, the deep capacity that brought us to this work in the first place.
This gathering is an invitation to pause and to reconnect with your inner resources before the next wave of need arrives. Resilience is not something we have to build from scratch, it is already within us, waiting to be recognized.

Led by Nikita Gupta, we’ll move through guided reflection, meaningful dialogue, and embodied practice settling the nervous system, releasing accumulated stress.  We’ll explore what keeps us grounded, what renews our sense of purpose, and how we can tend to ourselves in ways that make the work sustainable over time.

Through facilitated reflection, community dialogue, and embodied practice, we’ll explore what it actually means to thrive, not despite the difficulty, but within it. We’ll look at the mindsets and beliefs that can limit us, and open space for perspectives that restore a personal sense of agency, resilience, and hope. A gentle, inclusive yoga-based somatic practice will help us settle the nervous system, return to the body, and cultivate a felt sense of grounding and presence.

About Nikita: Nikita Gupta, MPH,  is an educator, author, facilitator, and leadership coach dedicated to transforming trauma through healing and resiliency in education and service-based settings. For more than 25 years, she has partnered with students, educators, administrators, and helping professionals to transform trauma and strengthen the systems that support their wellbeing. Nikita received her Master of Public Health from UCLA, where she served as Founding Director of the UCLA GRIT Coaching Program, a nationally recognized initiative providing thousands of students with peer coaching centered in embodied resilience and holistic success. She was instrumental in developing the UCLA RISE Center, one of the first healing-centered campus spaces in the country. As a Fellow of the National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement, she designed a trauma-informed leadership toolkit for college professionals and later shared this work in a TED Talk on preventing burnout among helpers. Since 2019, Nikita has consulted and trained with organizations nationwide, offering programs in trauma-informed care, inclusive leadership, and organizational resilience. Her interdisciplinary approach—rooted in neuroscience, mindfulness, and healing justice—reflects A Thousand Joys’ commitment to strengthening the capacity of those who serve others.

These events are free due to the generous community Foundation support.