Abstract: Given a flow on a manifold, how to perturb it in order to create a periodic orbit passing through a given region? While this question was initially studied in the 60s, various facets of it remain largely open. Recently, several advances were made in the context of Hamiltonian and contact flows. I will discuss an approach to this problem that relies on area measurements of pseudoholomorphic curves, inspired by the works of McDuff-Siegel and Hutchings. This is based on a joint work in progress with Julian Chaidez.