Just the opposite is true, actually. Any and all problems you might have are—relatively speaking–quite shallow. They are right there on the surface, created by (and existing completely within) the current moment in which you experience them.
When the thought that brought those problems to the surface fades—as all thoughts do—the problem is gone.
I know it feels like problems are deep-seated, with roots firmly lodged in place. But that’s only the way it feels to us because of the way we’ve been thinking about it.
Most of us are misinformed—and we keep chatting with everyone around us, which doesn’t help the situation. We’ve picked up the inaccurate idea that our past somehow leaves a mark. That we are somehow shaped by our circumstances.
Again, it’s the opposite that’s more true. We shape our circumstances far more than we are shaped by them.
And the past wants to stay in the past. We drag the past (whether it’s 5 minutes or 50 years ago) around like a ball and chain and let it dent our blank slate. If your past is part of your life today, you are continually bringing it back to life in the current moment.
Not necessarily intentionally, but through the combination of your habitual thinking + the belief that the past leaves a mark.
Peace is what is deep-seated within all of us. Peace is our nature. It’s what we are underneath thought and discomfort and problems.
Peace and well-being are as deep as it gets. Everything else is superficial in comparison.
Just like the deepest part of the ocean is still, the deepest part of you is still. And just like the surface of the ocean is always in changing; fluctuating between a small degree of disturbance to a Category 5 hurricane, so is the surface of your mind.
Only the surface of your mind though. When the waves die down, you’re always brought back to relative calm.
So remember, your problems don’t have roots in the past. They can’t possibly. New thinking about the mind is revealing that traditional psychology was misinformed on that point.
The only roots you’ll find underneath the surface are those that peacefully connect us to all of life. Those run as deep as can be.
This article was originally published in June, 2014.