The future shall be open source!

In nearly every futures design workshop or project I lead, participants ask recurring questions that spark new insights and perspectives. To share these learnings, I’m starting a weekly dive into different topics. Let me know what you want to know more about in the comments!

?? First up: Mindfulness and nervous system regulation.

Late futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard said “The future exists first in imagination, then in will, then in reality.” Why do some people seem to access creativity and imagination more easily, seeing transformative futures that could exist on the other side of our current reality?

We have many tools and frameworks for envisioning positive futures, but we often overlook a crucial factor: the state of our nervous systems. As Mary Martin PhD wrote in this fantastic article, "Your capacity to imagine positive alternative futures is contingent on a regulated nervous system."

?? Here's a quick refresher on our autonomic nervous system's three primary states:

Ventral vagal Safety & connection

Sympathetic Fight-or-flight

Dorsal vagal Freeze & disconnect

When the mind-body detects danger, we shift into self-protective fight-or-flight or freeze & disconnect states. We tend to feel hopeless, that nothing we do will make a difference or matter, so why should we even try? (If you’ve read a news headline lately, maybe this feels familiar!?)

?? Only in the ventral vagal state, feeling safe, grounded, and socially connected, can we explore and envision positive futures.

In other words, feelings of safety open us to new possibilities, while perceived threats constrain our horizons to self-preservation.

What does this mean?

If you have a hard time imagining positive futures, it’s not your fault! We are constantly bombarded with perceived or real threats, live with constant low (or high) level anxiety, and regularly see images that trigger a nervous system response. For those who are living under oppressive regimes, living with the impacts of systemic racism, 100-phobias, and trauma, it should be no surprise that it’s hard to envision a more beautiful world.?

?? Shaping the future isn't just an intellectual exercise - it's also a somatic practice.

So what can we do? Sometimes a simple grounding and breathing exercise before starting on a futures exploration can help us regulate (or co-regulate) our nervous systems together. Play, movement, meditation, and music also help.

I’m not suggesting that deep breathing or meditation will help us dismantle late-stage capitalism and all its ills. But in order for all of us to have more space to dream into the futures that we want to see, we need to find ways to attend to our vagus nerve and regulate our nervous systems.

This first topic was inspired by Mary Martin PhD , this interview between Sohail Inayatullah and Dr. Debra Em Wilson , and also by conversations with Renee Lertzman, PhD .

Next up: Positive and negative futures, and everything in between: why it’s important to explore the spectrum.