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bikablo Visioning Retreat: Using Our Pen to Help Us Look into the Future

Take three days to step away from the everyday to reflect on your life with pen and paper. From the comfort of your own home, allow yourself the space to pause and reflect on, “What is really important to me? How do I want to shape my future?” Our online retreat provides an inspiring space to explore your desires and ideas and encourages you to capture what emerges in images using the simple tools of visualization. In this blog, Michaela Ruhfus and Christian Rommert share what to expect from in this training.

by Susann Figueredo Hechavarria

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Creating a vivid sketch of the future”.

Dear Michaela, dear Christian, last year you facilitated the bikablo basic Vision 2021 and now you are offering a retreat. What led you to create this retreat?

Christian (laughs): The feedback we received on basic Vision was really good and we enjoyed it so much! That prompted us to deepen the topic of “future images”.

Michaela: Besides, we are really convinced that the pen is the perfect tool to help you connect with your intuition and deepest desires to imagine future possibilities.

Christian: That’s right! I totally feel that way: through drawing, creating and working with the pen, I discover things that I wouldn’t discover through pure reflection alone.

Is the retreat different from last year’s “basic vision” course? What is different?

Michaela: In the basic vision course, we teach more drawing techniques and then apply what we have learned to create a picture of the future at the end. The bikablo Vision Retreat is longer, it’s three days instead of two. This gives us more time to go deeper, to feel into the future and to solidify what we have explored with the pen. We show different ways of visualization for mindfulness and self-management. We also explore together how creativity works and how it gives you the ability to consciously shape your own life.

Christian: And for those who mostly want to learn drawing techniques, we are offering the “basic vision” course again this year!

How do you work with the participants and what are the cornerstones of the retreat?

Michaela: After the positive experiences with bikablo online training last year, we had the idea of ​​a “retreat at home”. Participants can create their own retreat space at home, as they need it, while being connected to an inspiring circle of people.

Christian: The course rotates through input, practice, reflections, drawing and sharing. There are always exercises away from the screen and long breaks to keep people moving. On the first day we look at resources from the past, on the second day we look at the challenges and potential of the present, and on the third day we lean into the future together.

And how do you manage to combine the 1×1 of visualizing and working on the vision themes of the participants?

Michaela: The goal of the retreat is not to create a pretty picture that would hang on your wall. The idea is to create a picture or an image that is meaningful to you and evokes a strong emotion of the future you desire to create. Everything you need to do this, we teach in the retreat. However, we assume previous knowledge in visualizing, e.g. participation in the “basic training”. If you have no previous knowledge, you can participate in a 2-hour introduction before the retreat, which we offer explicitly for this purpose.

Christian: Drawing skills are not a prerequisite, but Michaela is the artist and I learn an incredible amount from her. I’m convinced that others will feel the same way.

Michaela: Maybe you could put it this way: I am the artist who also accompanies and advises, and Christian is the facilitator who also draws. We both share a love of the pen and a desire to create spaces for people in which the future can be felt, imagined and experienced. This is our intention when we designed this training.

And last but not least: Who is the training for?

Michaela: Anyone who wants to change in their life or wants to consciously shape upcoming changes is welcome to attend.

Christian: It is for everyone, no matter if you are a beginner in visualization techniques or someone who has been at home in the bikablo universe for a long time.

Thank you very much for the interview, both of you!

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