A client of mine had a project for school that required her to create a utopian society. I quite like the idea of this project, but she didn’t, and she expressed having a difficult time. She said to me, “This involves creativity, and I am not good at that. I wish everything was just like a math problem. I am good at math.”  Creative aversion is a common experience. This is because creativity requires vulnerability and vulnerability requires a sense of safety. Unprocessed trauma takes that sense of safety away and locks it in a box as a protective mechanism. Complex trauma, or continued trauma over an extended period, programs the nervous system to continuously be on alert for danger. Thus, safety being put in that box is involuntary. What isn’t involuntary is reconnecting to the nervous system and relearning safety. How do we access our creativity? We start first by exploring safety. Re-teaching, or perhaps learning for the first time, the ability for the nervous system to discern the danger from safety. When we do this, not only do we learn to protect ourselves in times of genuine danger, we start to experience that space of nervous system ease, or a ventral state, which can unlock the curious, creative, vulnerable part of ourselves that seems so inaccessible. For some of us it has become so inaccessible that we have forgotten it is part of our inherent nature. People might say, “I am just not a creative person,” or like my client, “I wish everything was more like math.” Creativity has no equation, algorithm, or pragmatism to it. At some point in our lives we were naturally creative. Ever make concoctions as a kid, mixing various kinds of condiments? Ever dress up for Halloween, play fantasy games, was the floor not lava at some point? There is a chance that the answer to these questions is, “no,” or “I don’t remember.” Trauma has no age limitations; it can start as early as developing in the womb. Lack of childhood memories is one indicator of childhood trauma. Whether or not you remember, I promise that as a human, part of the inherent experience is curiosity, vulnerability, and creativity. Those are some of the key characteristics that distinguish us from other species. You might start by asking yourself, “Do I feel safe. . . how do I know I am safe. . . how does my body feel when I am safe?” So, in my utopian society (which we know will come with faults as all utopias do) there would be no trauma, there would be a prevalent sense of curiosity, everyone would feel safe being vulnerable and creative, no one would analyze or over think because joy and imagination would be easily accessible to all at any given time. Can you give yourself a glimmer of that gift? What would your utopia be?