Oneliness: A 2026 End-of-Year Gathering
Part retreat, part living room, part community experiment: An invitation to look back on this year through the lens of Oneliness: your relationship to yourself, to others, and to the world.
During the day, we reflect, reconnect, and retreat without escaping the world (though we’ll keep our phones off 📵). A space to listen, share, and be in dialogue, and to embrace friction and inconvenience by sharing our sorrows, joys, and inner worlds. And a tender remembering of how it feels, in our bones and souls, to gather as a community, and how much warmth we can spark simply by being present for one another.
In the evening, we celebrate this moment in all its light and darkness, wherever we find ourselves. Over shared foods, drinks, and other gifts!
☀️ Oneliness Day · 12:00–17:30
An intimate group of about 12 people
We’ll look back on this year through three relationships: to ourselves, to each other, and to the world. We’ll look at what we lived, what we learned, and what stayed unspoken. We’ll move from the moments we’re celebrating into the more tender layers: doubts, fears, longings we keep to ourselves. And from there, we’ll turn toward what we long for and what might carry us ahead.
Part retreat. 🧘♀️ Time to slow down and turn inward. Through creative self-reflection, stillness, mindfulness, and somatic practice, you’ll have space to meet your year honestly, with curiosity rather than judgment.
Part living room. 🟡 Time to be with each other. In pairs, in small groups, and in circle, we practice deep listening and honest sharing. We aren’t here to fix or advise. We’re here to witness one another and discover how much of our inner world we have in common.
Part community experiment. 🌎 Time to explore together. In a culture built on convenience and self-optimization, what happens when we choose friction instead, when we let others come closer, stay with discomfort, and imagine new ways of supporting each other? We’ll explore fear and faith in our relationships, and find out together what becomes possible when we stop doing it all alone.
✨ What you’ll take home
A creative map of your 2026, including the moments that often stay unspoken
More clarity on what holds you back currently on realizing the relationships you long for—with yourself, others and the world
The experience of deep listening, of being heard and of hearing others without fixing or advising
A wider lens on your own experience: insights from social science and research on how technology, politics, and our culture of individualism shape the way we relate, and why so many of us are navigating the same tensions right now
Mindfulness and somatic practices to attune to yourself and regulate your nervous system
A deeper sense of your body as a place to return to: through breath, movement, and the five senses
The joy of play, and a reminder that connection can be light
A small keepsake to remember the day by
New connections, and the felt sense of Oneliness
What to know 🌸
Everybody is welcome
No prior experience or skills needed, just openness
Coffee, tea, water, and a yummy lunch are included
You’re encouraged to stay offline and phone-free during the experience
The day flows straight into the evening celebration; you’re invited to stay and linger a little longer
🌙 Oneliness Eve · 18:00–21:30
Open to everyone, whether you joined the day or not
A warm evening to celebrate the end of the year together, with hot soup, mulled wine and punch, a toast, playful prompts, wishes for 2027 on the wall, and music by Lily Jiang. We’re celebrating each other, community, and three years of The Oneliness Project!
Potluck (optional): bring something to share, like cookies, a dish, oracle cards, or simply your warmth. We welcome anything from the heart! ❤️
How to take part 🎟
Keeping this space open and accessible to as many people as possible is my highest priority. For transparency: the costs for space, food, and materials are about 800 €. Please choose the ticket that fits your situation.
Full Experience (day + evening, including lunch, drinks, and materials):
Solidarity · 45 €: for those in a financially tight season, such as students, people between jobs, or artists
Standard · 65 €: covers your share of the space, food, materials, and facilitation
Supporter · 80 €: if you’re in a comfortable place, this helps make the solidarity spots possible
Evening Experience
Suggested 10 €: pay what you can
Tickets can be refunded up to 7 days before the event (until November 22). After that, refunds aren’t possible, but you’re welcome to pass your ticket on to a friend.
If you can’t afford a ticket but would love to come, email me at hello@monikajiang.org.
The Lovers and Leaders Space 🌸
We’ll gather at The Lovers and Leaders Space on Torstraße 101, a small oasis in Berlin Mitte. Almost everything inside is upcycled, handmade, or passed on with care: tables made from 70-year-old pine, curtains sewn from donated fabric, walls painted with natural clay, and plants everywhere.
It’s also where I hosted my very first Oneliness gathering at the end of 2023, so coming back here to close this year feels like coming full circle. I’m grateful to its founder, Yasmine Orth, for holding this place with so much love, and for welcoming us once again.
Your host 🟡
Hi! I’m Monika Jiang, a writer, facilitator, and community builder with Chinese-German roots. Through The Oneliness Project, I’ve been exploring loneliness in its personal, social, political, and spiritual dimensions, through essays on Substack, Shared Table Dinners, and gatherings like this one.
I want to create a space of pause and resonance, where we allow ourselves to gently peel open to ourselves and to each other. I’ll draw on dialogue and dyadic work, somatic play, emergence, collective imagination, deep listening, and mindfulness practices from Zen and Tibetan Buddhism. The way I hold space has always been shaped by my own learning, an ever-unfinished process. I don’t see myself as an expert or teacher, but as a fellow student of life.
Any questions? Email me at hello@monikajiang.org.