New Consciousness Review Spring 2016 | Page 7

HEALTH ARTICLE The Purpose of DEPRESSION and DISEASE By Blake Bauer Everything happens for a reason, including health challenges of the mind and body. Although this may be difficult to accept, my view is that we make ourselves sick and miserable looking for love and attention outside ourselves. We learn from a young age to seek mom and dad’s conditional love in order to survive but it is often at the expense of being true to ourselves and causes us harm. I f we never wake up to this unhealthy internal dynamic, it eventually leads to depression and disease. The suffering in our body and mind are cries from our soul, from God  and the Universe, calling us back home to ourselves and to the source of peace and strength within.  As adults we’ve become accustomed to living with fears of losing love, attention, approval, and security. We learned to feel guilty early in life about expressing what we need to be healthy and happy, because this is somehow too selfish or criticized as wrong, when in reality everyone is actually selfish whether they’re aware of it or not. Now, after years of pleasing others and not taking care of ourselves, we often find ourselves unhappy, unwell, and full of resentment, anger and regret. Confused, we ask ourselves how did I get here? No one is a bad person for wanting to live a deeply fulfilling and authentic life. Yet we feel shame for 7 | NEW CONSCIOUSNESS REVIEW