How Roadmap to Hope Was Born
The idea for the workshop “Roadmap to Hope”, started in a wellness studio.
I’ve been going to my friend Kazimir’s barre classes for a while now. Barre is this beautiful hybrid of ballet and pilates. A grounded, precise and strengthening practice without the pressure or appearance-focus that so many movement practices create.
One day, during a co-event at the studio, I had the chance to talk about futures thinking and foresight. Kazimir listened and asked a lot of questions, and afterward he came to me with a spark in his eyes and said:
“Would it be a crazy idea to combine futures thinking with movement practices?”
I almost laughed, because that question is exactly the core of embodied futures.
I told him yes, absolutely. Embodied futures as a philosophy already exists, but there’s no single defined way to do it. It’s more like a wide-open field of possibilities.
And Kazimir, who has years of experience with movement, somatics, releasing tension, and guiding people into their bodies, immediately started imagining what that combination could look like.
So we began talking.
And dreaming.
And sketching out ideas.
What would a practice look like that blends his deep understanding of the body with my work in foresight?
How could we help people release anxiety about the future, and not just talk about it intellectually, but feel it transform inside them?
Could movement make futures thinking more accessible?
Could embodiment make hope feel real?
Piece by piece, our conversations became a framework.
We call it Roadmap to Hope because our shared intention was simple:
to help people feel lighter, calmer, clearer, and more empowered when they think about the future.
We also wanted it to be approachable.
Many embodied practices I’ve taken part in have been quite advanced, meant for people already familiar with meditation or somatics. We wanted something that anyone could join, even if they’d never meditated, stretched, journaled, or imagined far into the future.
That’s why our workshop is two hours long, not because the work is heavy, but because we want people to have time to land, breathe, get comfortable, and let their bodies guide them gently into the practice.
In short, Road Map to Hope is a collaboration of movement and foresight, the physical and the possible.
Roadmap to Hope: How Our Bodies Guide Us Toward Better Futures
Our bodies carry more wisdom, fear, memory, and potential than we ever give them credit for. And if we learn to listen, they can guide us toward the futures we actually want.
In a world where technology fills every corner of our lives, and often amplifies our anxiety about what’s coming, we need ways to come back to ourselves. To our inner compass. To the quiet knowledge that has always lived in our bones.
This practice is our attempt to help people access that.
1. First, we create space by releasing fear
Most of us walk around carrying invisible restrictions:
tension, fear of the unknown, maybe even a sense that imagining something better is “a waste of time and energy”.
In the Roadmap to Hope, we begin by clearing space.
Using gentle movement and guided meditation, we release the tightness that keeps our imagination small.
We let feelings surface.
We allow everything to be felt.
This part is not about forcing positivity.
It’s about giving ourselves permission to breathe again.
2. Then, we stretch the edges of our imagination
Once fear loosens its grip, creativity flows differently.
We use specific movement practices designed to:
- shift sensations in the body
- introduce new emotional textures
- spark curiosity
- expand the range of what feels possible
As we move, we ask you to pay attention:
Where does this imagined future live in my body?
How does it feel?
What sensations appear?
We journal or sketch those feelings, not as analysis, but as a map of inner signals.
This is where many people experience the first “oh” moment, the surprising realization that their desired future isn’t just an idea.
It already has a place inside them.
3. We walk the Road to Hope, literally
After gathering feelings, imagery, and body sensations, we step into a guided walking meditation.
This is the heart of the practice.
We walk as if we are walking toward our desired future.
Step by step, breath by breath, at the pace that feels true.
Sometimes the path surprises us.
We may slow down.
We may take turns we didn’t expect.
The road may feel longer or gentler, than we anticipated.
This is important.
Your body reveals the real terrain of your future, not the idealized one.
4. We visualize the journey
After the walk, we translate the experience into a form we can hold:
- drawing
- painting
- writing
- symbols
- a simple map
This isn’t “art class.”
It’s integration.
By putting the path on paper, the future stops being abstract.
It becomes something you can see, touch, share if you want to, or keep private as a sacred guide.
What this practice is really about
The Roadmap to Hope is not just movement and meditation.
It is a reclamation.
A reclamation of the body as a source of wisdom, instinct, memory, energy and hope.
In times when the world feels fast, uncertain, or overwhelming, our bodies hold ancient knowledge about how to navigate change.
They know when to slow down.
They know what feels right.
They know where fear ends and possibility begins.
And this practice helps people access that internal guidance system again.
Ultimately, Embodied Futures is about digging our inner wisdom and hope to the surface, and letting it guide us toward better futures.