Envisioning Our Happy Future: Solution-Focused Meditation for Those Who Save the World by Irina Kosterina, Lithuania
In this workshop, I will share a solution-focused meditation technique designed for activists, human rights defenders, journalists, and helpers working in high-stress, crisis-affected environments. Many of these individuals face burnout, hopelessness, and emotional exhaustion due to the overwhelming challenges of their work—war, political repression, environmental collapse, and societal breakdowns.
Traditional coping mechanisms often fall short when the world itself feels unstable. The method I propose is a guided contemplative practice built around four key questions that help participants: 1. Reconnect with their deepest values (Why do they keep going?), 2. Visualize the roadmap 3. Imagine a future where their efforts have contributed to change (How would their ‘happy future’ feel?). This technique blends SFBT principles with meditative focus to activate what is called ‘connative intelligence’ - the innate human capacity to strive, dream, and persist. Unlike talk therapy, this approach works somatically and imaginally, helping participants rewire neural pathways tied to motivation and agency.
Participants will leave with:
A simple, replicable tool to combat burnout,
A renewed sense of personal and collective possibility,
Practical ways to integrate SFBT into self-care and group support.
No prior meditation experience is needed—just a willingness to pause, envision, and reconnect with why their work matters.
About Irina Kosterina
She’s a solution-focused therapist, mindfulness instructor, and trainer with over 15 years of experience supporting activists, human rights defenders, and helpers in crisis-affected regions.
Combining SFBT, logotherapy, and mindfulness practices, she designs interventions that address burnout, resilience, and connative intelligence—the capacity to envision and strive for meaningful futures.
As founder of Sustainable Activism, she has led 80+ retreats and strategy sessions across Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Caucasus, empowering 2,000+ change-makers to sustain their work amid war, repression, and ecological collapse.
A former program coordinator for the Heinrich Böll Foundation and consultant for UNDP, and many others INGOs, Irina is PhD in Gender Studies, holds certifications in SFBT, logotherapy, and mindfulness instruction. She is the author of Practices of a Good Life (a guide for activists on self-care and resilience) and 40+ publications on gender, civil society, and psychosocial support.