Roots
_I: “The root of the problem.”
_AM: Aha…
_I: When we have a conflict, a problem, a trauma, in therapies, both psychologically and holistically, it is often said that we have to go to the root of the problem. Because?
_AM: When you take a tree as a living whole, you understand the roots as part of the being, however, the beings that live on the surface can contemplate from the base of the trunk to the top of the tree, where the branches are located. , flowers, leaves and fruits that are normally useful to humans in this case. In this way, you find that the roots are hidden from a person's eyes, thus being the unknown part. If you take into account that everything that is at the top is what you see and look for in life, when you have problems with the fruits, or the branches dry out, in a plant you usually have to see where this conflict comes from, and It usually comes from the roots.
_I: Because the nutrients come from there…
_AM: That's right. The root is the first thing that every plant generates when it germinates from a seed. The root is the first organ of a plant that extends seeking to fulfill two main functions: anchoring in the soil, which functions as an axis for the plant and support to hold it firmly on the ground, and on the other hand for the absorption of nutrients from the soil. , minerals, salts and water, necessary to carry out photosynthesis. In the first case, the root axis begins to seek the greatest possible depth to counteract the weight of the plant or tree growing upwards, and from it, secondary branches begin to emerge that are directed to the sides like branches, and Adventitious roots emerge from them, clinging to each rock, hugging the ground. In this way it is impossible to move the plant, which remains firmly in place. In the second case, each root, especially the adventitious ones, has absorbent hairs that serve as a sponge, consuming the water from the soil, dragging with it the salts and minerals from the soil, such as iron, nitrogen, zinc, potassium, among others. These inorganic elements are dragged upward through the raw sap, which distributes them through the branches to the leaves, where through photosynthesis they can be converted into organic elements that will serve as food and energy for the plant. The roots usually extend deeper in order to find constant reserves of water, such as water tables, internal lagoons, underground rivers, and thus, despite periods of drought, be able to continue living.
_I: And I think I heard that they drink a lot of water…
_AM: An average to large sized tree can consume around 350 liters per day, which is reduced depending on its size. The more water, the bigger the tree.
_I: But, if they drink so much water, why are they dry inside and not like a cactus?
_AM: Because everything they absorb is released into the atmosphere in the form of vapor. Trees transpire, generating liters and liters of water vapor per day, which are released into the atmosphere, which when condensed in the cold air, begin to become clouds, and these become rain.
_I: How? So... Are there clouds and rain because of the trees?
_AM: A large amount of rain and storms are generated by evaporation from oceans and lakes, however, another enormous amount is produced by trees. For this reason, in jungles and wooded areas it usually rains more and is more humid.
_I: Oh…
_AM: The more trees planted, the cooler the climate will be.
_I: That's why logging is so negative... That's why cutting down trees increases global warming.
_AM: Basically because the cooling and humidification of the planet is regulated by plants. Because of the large trees that absorb tons of water in a year and release it into the environment. In turn, this helps with flooding, since the amount of water that many trees together absorb per day prevents large floods that cannot be filtered by hard, dry terrain. The roots dig deep holes that allow water to go to the internal caverns of the earth, while they absorb liters and liters. But, beyond these qualities, the roots also have another function.
_I: Which one?
_AM: Communication. They expand throughout the territory touching the roots of other trees, especially of the same species. In this way, they exchange minerals, like holding hands, in addition to holding each other. This way, they can emit pulses that allow each tree to know if something is wrong. If one of the trees or plants becomes sick, or is attacked, this information is broadcast to all the others, which begin to generate reserves in case the same thing happens to them.
_I: Plants talk…
_AM: And for the most part they do it because of the roots. A forest is like a huge neural network in which each tree interconnects with the others, being like a large thinking brain that regulates itself.
_I: Wow… It reminds me of the movie Avatar, where the planet speaks through the trees.
_AM: That's how this world works, only it seems much more wonderful how they show it on a screen, highlighting certain qualities of this planet to make it more cinematic.
_I: Sure… Obviously… Still, a key to the roots is communication…
_AM: Keeps each tree in communication, and the sky with the earth.
_I: So, if it does so many good things... Why is the problem always at the root?
_AM: Well, as I said, you only see the superficial part of a tree, but all the elements it needs to make its products come from what the roots absorb and send to the leaves. Water, salts, minerals, and fundamental nutrients come from the roots, and what they take from the soil will be the raw material for the flowers and fruits. From this vision, in a family tree the roots are the first individuals that will support all the others, the first beings to take a direction, to carry out an action that will determine the stability or imbalance of an entire tree. When the fruits are not good, when some branches and leaves become sick, it is usually that something is not reaching the roots well, generating a chain effect, or perhaps the water is contaminated with some heavy metal.
_I: And if the roots absorb it, then it will make the whole tree sick...
_AM: Sometimes it may be a problem of one's own roots, of not having known how to hold on well or identify well, but in most cases, it is related to the environment, the environment from which they receive said information.
I for example?
_AM: If in your life you tend to seek to accumulate things, wealth, or food, for fear of losing it, it may come from the roots of your tree from a generation that did not have to eat and was forced to accumulate food so as not to die of hunger, but this comes from a context of war that traumatized said individual, where scarcity conditioned his life.
_I: So many of the traumas we have, or conflicts, we inherit from the roots, through the Unconscious, which tells us what to do for fear that the same context will happen again.
_AM: Exactly. All the meaningless attitudes in our lives, the decisions that we usually make without thinking, the routines without control, the illogical needs, the incomprehensible customs, the harmful habits, or even those harmless things but that we cannot transcend in our lives, are reactions. unconscious of attitudes driven by generational roots that drive us to carry out these actions through a natural mechanism that is the “response”. Remember that our brain is designed to store data that tells us what is happening outside to create ideas that are useful when acting in that environment. The response of the nervous system is something natural to be able to adapt to the environment, and if a result is obtained, they will be registered in the cells as possible solutions to certain circumstances. For this reason, many attitudes that we have in life are nothing more than response mechanisms that have served in other moments, and that now we highlight again because an environment is similar. For example, eating a lot when in conflict with someone. Just as in a war, a warlike context between two parties can lead us to die of hunger, which makes us seek to accumulate food: “eat what you can today because you don't know if you will be able to eat tomorrow.” Thus, in the unconscious, in the face of each conflict, whether it is a family fight or a love fight, the need to eat to fill the stomach is usually activated, or the stomach emptiness in which one cannot eat, because the body reacts to hunger as an impossibility.
_I: Oh, I understand... So, in a certain way, almost every attitude that we perform without full awareness of why we have decided to do it, is a reaction of the unconscious...
_AM: That's right. Therefore, if you want to resolve the conflict, you must go to the root. And with root, it means: “where did it originate?” Through this question, we can investigate the past, into what lies in the shadows, under the pressure of minerals in the ground, which takes us to the deepest and most invisible, to places that we did not even know we could reach. There, perhaps, we find an environment with corrosive minerals, or sulfur, some negative source for the entire tree, some historical context of pain, anguish, oppression, shadows, that help us understand our attitudes. Going to the roots can help us in several aspects.
_I: Like which ones?
_AM: First of all, communicate better with our history, with what we are, with the idea that we are much more than an individual, improving self-knowledge and communication with information from the past, which builds the future, as the roots drive the fruits. On the other hand, knowing the history, the roots of the family, where they come from, why they migrated, their languages, their contexts, the historical events they have experienced, can give us a much more complete understanding of who we are, giving us stability. , firmness, because a tree that does not know its history has nowhere to settle, as if you supported all your weight on just one or two roots. The more you expand the knowledge of your roots and the places through which they have expanded, the more strength you will have to grow tall and enormous, because you will know the sustenance that supports you. And, of course, by looking at these roots, you can know what they nourish you, by seeing the stories of your ancestors, you understand what feeds your energy inside. And by identifying it, you can know how to manage this information so that it is useful to you, turning the raw sap into a clean, wise one.
_I: But how do I know these stories? Because, sometimes we can't go that far in history... We can maybe know what happened to our great-great-grandparents, but, further back... Impossible if there are no records...
_AM: Nowadays you can use many ways to know this, because the information lies in your cells. You can research the family history. You can perform DNA tests to know the genetic path and the ethnicities of which you have been a part. You can also investigate which countries you come from, and study their history, learn about the realities experienced at a general level in that territory, which can give you a context in which your family may have lived. Beyond that, you can investigate the general history of humanity, knowing that, at some point, we have all been connected, since the human population about 80,000 years ago did not exceed 100,000 individuals, who left Africa, of which no more survived. of 5,000 after the great volcanic eruption that 70,000 years ago changed history.
_I: We all have common ancestors…
_AM: That's right... And in some way or another we all lived the same original story, the same root, in Africa and the Middle East, until the groups separated on the way to Australia, Asia and Europe, and even then, many continued to connect these territories.
_I: Like the people of the Caspian Sea, the Indo-Europeans that we talk so much about.
_AM: And, in addition to history, today we can resort to hypnosis, regressions, family constellation therapies, ayahuasca, and many other tools. Thousands of conflicts have devastated humanity since its beginning, and all of them are in human cells, hidden in the unconscious that drives you to act as you do today. The brain interprets it as a survival mechanism, something useful that has worked for the previous ones, but perhaps, in a new consciousness, they stop being useful and become impediments, which is why you try to eliminate them. But if you remove or deny the roots, the entire tree, with you in it, will die. Therefore, you cannot eliminate the roots, but you can nourish them with fertilizer, new minerals, salts, watering them with clean water. Enrich the soil. How? With new experiences, with fulfilling the truncated dreams of the ancestors through the pleasure of living your life fully.
_I: But wouldn't that be living for others? How can I live my life without it being for others?
_AM: Your life is that of others. Remember, you are part of the tree, you are not separate from it. And whatever you do for yourself, you do for them. Fulfilling the dreams of the past is managing to live fully in the present, demonstrating that everyone is still alive in you, and that they are free in the freedom of your decisions. Using the past as experience, advice from the ancients, but not as determinants.
_I: Going to the root of the problem, then, is not “nipping it in the bud.”
_AM: When this phrase is used, it applies in relation to weeds. There are plants that suffocate other plants, there are stories that harm the forest. Trees cannot grow free if you do not “nip the roots” of these weeds. If the problem is in your own tree, you will never be able to nip the problem in the bud, because you would also suffer the consequences. But if it's a weed... Then yes.
_I: And how do I identify what is a weed from what is my root?
_AM: When they are parallel stories that you can get away from. For example, from a partner, or from a country or culture that harms you. Cutting it in the bud is simply stopping feeding that force. Remember that if you spread your shit against a weed, the only thing you do is fertilize it, put rich nutrients in it so that it grows stronger. The best thing to eradicate a weed is not to give it love, which is water, not to give it attention, which is salts, not to give it an answer, which is minerals. It is changing the focus of attention, strengthening the bond with others, with oneself, and forcing the weeds to disappear.
_I: I was watching a documentary about how Hitler became a tyrant, and, when watching that story, one realizes that many times weeds grow because we do not give them the importance they require at the beginning.
_AM: Here it is important to clarify this. Indifference is one thing and not feeding it is another. Imagine that you have a garden, and there are beautiful plants, but you never cut the grass, you never maintain the furrows. The same grass that previously served as a mattress grows, hardening and swallowing the plants. Given your indifference, suddenly, the grass will have grown so high that it covers everything, choking and killing other vegetation. This is indifference. But not feeding it is very different, because the logic here is to strengthen the plants, to nourish only them, to water them every day, and to clean the furrows. It will not be necessary to uproot the grass, but you will have weakened him by strengthening the others, and you will have left him in his place.
_I: Today fascism is growing again in the world, there are new waves in several countries.
_AM: That is why it is essential to know the roots, because the more people know their origins, the fewer weeds there will be, since fascism comes from ignorance and lack of knowledge.
_I: Hatred between ethnicities, nations, and families…
_AM: It's all the same, at the end of the day. Lack of oxygenation, lack of attention to the past, lack of nutrients of love and recognition. Going to the roots makes us stronger. You have been guided to see the future as the escape from the crises of the world, but trees only grow tall thanks to the strength and depth of their roots.
_I: I search, I know them, and I honor my roots because...
_AM: This is how your past will build your future. And by knowing the path you have traveled, you will discover the attitudes that your unconscious carries, and from its knowledge, you will be able to understand its logic, and thus transform them into new conscious actions that nourish your tree, and all of humanity. And create a new story.
_I: I Am Vibration of Creation.
_AM: You are the root of a new Tree.