Depression drains your energy, hope, and drive, making it difficult to do what you need to feel better. But while overcoming depression isn’t quick or easy, it’s far from impossible. You can’t beat it through sheer willpower, but you do have some control—even if your depression is severe and stubbornly persistent. The key is to start small and build from there. Feeling better takes time, but you can get there if you make positive choices for yourself each day.

The road to depression recovery

Recovering from depression requires action, but taking action when you’re depressed is hard. In fact, just thinking about the things you should do to feel better, like going for a walk or spending time with friends, can be exhausting.

It’s the Catch-22 of depression recovery: The things that help the most are the things that are the most difficult to do. There’s a difference, however, between something that’s difficult and something that’s impossible.

Start small and stay focused

The key to depression recovery is to start with a few small goals and slowly build from there. Draw upon whatever resources you have. You may not have much energy, but you probably have enough to take a short walk around the block or pick up the phone to call a loved one.

Take things one day at a time and reward yourself for each accomplishment. The steps may seem small, but they’ll quickly add up. And for all the energy you put into your depression recovery, you’ll get back much more in return.

Depression self-help tip 1: Cultivate supportive relationships

Getting the support you need plays a big role in lifting the fog of depression and keeping it away. On your own, it can be difficult to maintain perspective and sustain the effort required to beat depression, but the very nature of depression makes it difficult to reach out for help. However, isolation and loneliness make depression even worse, so maintaining your close relationships and social activities are important.

The thought of reaching out to even close family members and friends can seem overwhelming. You may feel ashamed, too exhausted to talk, or guilty for neglecting the relationship. Remind yourself that this is the depression talking. You loved ones care about you and want to help.

• Turn to trusted friends and family members. Share what you’re going through with the people you love and trust. Ask for the help and support you need. You may have retreated from your most treasured relationships, but they can get you through this tough time.
• Try to keep up with social activities even if you don’t feel like it. Often when you’re depressed, it feels more comfortable to retreat into your shell, but being around other people will make you feel less depressed.
• Join a support group for depression. Being with others dealing with depression can go a long way in reducing your sense of isolation. You can also encourage each other, give and receive advice on how to cope, and share your experiences.

Depression self-help tip 2: Challenge negative thinking

Depression puts a negative spin on everything, including the way you see yourself, the situations you encounter, and your expectations for the future.

But you can’t break out of this pessimistic mind frame by “just thinking positive.” Happy thoughts or wishful thinking won’t cut it. Rather, the trick is to replace negative thoughts with more balanced thoughts.

Ways to challenge negative thinking:

• Think outside yourself. Ask yourself if you’d say what you’re thinking about yourself to someone else. If not, stop being so hard on yourself. Think about less harsh statements that offer more realistic descriptions.
• Allow yourself to be less than perfect. Many depressed people are perfectionists, holding themselves to impossibly high standards and then beating themselves up when they fail to meet them. Battle this source of self-imposed stress by challenging your negative ways of thinking
• Socialize with positive people. Notice how people who always look on the bright side deal with challenges, even minor ones, like not being able to find a parking space. Then consider how you would react in the same situation. Even if you have to pretend, try to adopt their optimism and persistence in the face of difficulty.
• Keep a “negative thought log.” Whenever you experience a negative thought, jot down the thought and what triggered it in a notebook. Review your log when you’re in a good mood. Consider if the negativity was truly warranted. Ask yourself if there’s another way to view the situation. For example, let’s say your boyfriend was short with you and you automatically assumed that the relationship was in trouble. It’s possible, though, he’s just having a bad day.

Depression self-help tip 3: Take care of yourself

In order to overcome depression, you have to take care of yourself. This includes following a healthy lifestyle, learning to manage stress, setting limits on what you’re able to do, adopting healthy habits, and scheduling fun activities into your day.

• Aim for eight hours of sleep. Depression typically involves sleep problems. Whether you’re sleeping too little or too much, your mood suffers. Get on a better sleep schedule by learning healthy sleep habits.
• Expose yourself to a little sunlight every day. Lack of sunlight can make depression worse. Make sure you’re getting enough. Take a short walk outdoors, have your coffee outside, enjoy an al frescomeal, people-watch on a park bench, or sit out in the garden. Aim for at least 15 minutes of sunlight a day to boost your mood. If you live somewhere with little winter sunshine, try using a light therapy box.
• Keep stress in check. Not only does stress prolong and worsen depression, but it can also trigger it.  Figure out all the things in your life that stress you out. Examples include: work overload, unsupportive relationships, taking on too much, or health problems. Once you’ve identified your stressors, you can make a plan to avoid them or minimize their impact.
• Practice relaxation techniques. A daily relaxation practice can help relieve symptoms of depression, reduce stress, and boost feelings of joy and well-being. Try yoga, deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, or meditation.
• Care for a pet. While nothing can replace the human connection, pets can bring joy and companionship into your life and help you feel less isolated. Caring for a pet can also get you outside of yourself and give you a sense of being needed—both powerful antidotes to depression.

Depression self-help tip 4: Get regular exercise

When you’re depressed, exercising may be the last thing you feel like doing. But exercise is a powerful tool for dealing with depression. In fact, studies show that regular exercise can be as effective as antidepressant medication at increasing energy levels and decreasing feelings of fatigue.

Scientists haven’t figured out exactly why exercise is such a potent antidepressant, but evidence suggests that physical activity triggers new cell growth in the brain, increases mood-enhancing neurotransmitters and endorphins, reduces stress, and relieves muscle tension—all things that can have a positive effect on depression.

To gain the most benefits, aim for 30 minutes of exercise per day. You can start small, though, as short 10-minute bursts of activity can have a positive effect on your mood. Here are a few easy ways to get moving:

• Take the stairs rather than the elevator
• Park your car in the farthest spot in the lot
• Take your dog for a walk
• Pair up with an exercise partner
• Walk while you’re talking on the phone

As a next step, try incorporating walks or some other enjoyable, easy form of exercise into your daily routine. The key is to pick an activity you enjoy, so you’re more likely to keep up with it.

Depression self-help tip 5: Eat a healthy, mood-boosting diet

What you eat has a direct impact on the way you feel. Aim for a balanced diet of protein, complex carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables.

• Don’t skip meals. Going too long between meals can make you feel irritable and tired, so aim to eat something at least every three to four hours.
• Minimize sugar and refined carbs. You may crave sugary snacks, baked goods, or comfort foods such as pasta or french fries, but these “feel-good” foods quickly lead to a crash in mood and energy.
• Focus on complex carbohydrates. Foods such as baked potatoes, whole-wheat pasta, brown rice, oatmeal, whole grain breads, and bananas can boost serotonin levels without a crash.
• Boost your B vitamins. Deficiencies in B vitamins such as folic acid and B-12 can trigger depression. To get more, take a B-complex vitamin supplement or eat more citrus fruit, leafy greens, beans, chicken, and eggs.
• Consider taking a chromium supplement. Some depression studies show that chromium picolinate reduces carbohydrate cravings, eases mood swings, and boosts energy. Supplementing with chromium picolinate is especially effective for people who tend to overeat and oversleep when depressed.

Depression self-help tip 6: Know when to get additional help

If you find your depression getting worse and worse, seek professional help. Needing additional help doesn’t mean you’re weak. Sometimes the negative thinking in depression can make you feel like you’re a lost cause, but depression can be treated and you can feel better!

Don’t forget about these self-help tips, though. Even if you’re receiving professional help, these tips can be part of your treatment plan, speeding your recovery and preventing depression from returning.

Happiness is only real when shared written by Christoper McCandless are thought to be the last words he wrote before he died.

I’ve thought about this insight for a long time, and read many differing views on it.  But I’m still not satisfied with the interpretations I’ve read. Too much emphasis placed on deriding the whole experience Christopher McCandless had, or just jumping on top of the idea and accepting it at face value. Some feel we can disregard the meaning because he was dying, and alone, and his thoughts had turned (understandably) inwards. I don’t agree. It makes no sense to just disregard the implications that come from that idea that happiness is only real when shared.

Can happiness even be shared?

I believe it must be to reach certain levels. To qualify that statement, I should explain how I interpret experience of “happiness” and “shared”.

Some believe the experience of happiness is subjective and personal; that while two people together might be happy, their happiness is derived from 2 separate places and experienced in 2 separate forms.

How dull.

Sure, I understand the principal of subjectivity in experience, and subscribe to it, but I have no doubt happiness, and other emotions may be experienced in tandem – they feed off one another to create an elevated emotional experience that otherwise wouldn’t be achieved.

So yes, the experience of happiness is subjective and can be shared with other people. Perhaps not like chocolate cake; but a happy event may be shared so that the participants will have a more intense experience than otherwise possible.

What does it mean to share in happiness?

There is an assumption made from this quote that “shared” meant “with other human beings”.

Consider an alternative:

In contrast to the outsiders’ perception that Christopher McCandless was feeling alone and destitute, and probably regretful of his self-induced solitude, he was espousing the idea that even in a solitary human death, he was not alone, but happy and at peace.

At the time of his death, instead, he felt liberated after achieving a separation from so-called modern “society”. He was deeply connected with nature and life and wasn’t alone by a long way.

Another quote from him is: You don’t need human relationships to be happy, god has placed it all around us.

Putting the definition of “god” aside for now, he was happy and capable of experiencing happiness in human solitude. Happy because he was living life fully, and sharing in the beauty of the world that surrounded him.

I feel the greatest lesson we can draw from his whole experience is that we are truly living, with the greatest propensity for happiness and love, when we are connected deeply to life that surrounds us. That is, connected with nature and/or human relationships.

In this way we share our lives and our happiness.

Consider the extreme opposite… life spent in solitude, in a dark lifeless hole. All you have to look forward to misery leading to insanity.

Why are children so happy?

Children are naive, and largely innocent.  They typically find fun and joy in the simplest of things in a manner forgotten by most adults.

To test this idea, place a bubble-blowing machine in a children’s playground and one in an office and observe the different responses.

As children become increasingly self-aware, they don’t need to be explicitly taught that sharing is the fastest route to a good life. They can try and eke it out alone, but they’ll soon realise it doesn’t pay.

As children we learn through observation, modelling ourselves on our peers and role-models.  Thus we grow.  We watch grown-ups all around us fight and squabble, living disconnected and unhappy lives and assume this is normal and “the way things are”.

I feel that by default we, as children, feel connected rather than separated from the world around us. We are taught to fear the unknown (people, places and things), to stop exploring because it’s “wrong” and “unsafe”.

How often do you hear parents staying to their children:

• Stop…!
• Don’t…!

It’s basic 21st century parenting vernacular.

A happy or successful person is not someone who is living in a certain set of circumstances, but rather someone who is living with a certain set of attitudes. The happiness of the next moment in life is determined by the decisions and thoughts of this moment in life. . . happiness is a state of mind depending on what you include and exclude in your thoughts in any moment.

Recipe for Happiness:
Get a container and rinse thoroughly
Add 7 things to be thankful for
Add 3 things to be hopeful for
Take a deep breath and focus on the 10 ingredients while stirring. . .
Now smile!

A reporter was sent to find out what creates true happiness.

Her first visit was to a wealthy man. “Why are you happy?” the reporter asked. “Why, I’ve got all this,” he said showing her his vast pristine estate.

Her second visit was to a middle-aged couple living in the suburbs. “Why are you happy?” she asked the couple.  “Because we have all this,” both responded, explaining that they felt lucky to have each other, and were blessed with a daughter to care for.

Her last visit was to a financially poor woman in a run-down deteriorating neighborhood.  “Why are you happy?” the reporter asked.  The woman smiled and said, “because I have many things to be thankful for.  I am alive, I have a roof over my head, and I am blessed by being able to bring up four children and watch them grow up.” She pointed to a small dirt park across the street with children playing and laughing and added, “and I have all this to enjoy.”

Happiness is everywhere.  Sometimes you just have to look around to see it.

Happy = Having A Positive Perspective (about) Yourself

Happiness is where we look to find it.  Happiness is finding it where we look.

Happiness is in the perspective of the beholder. Finding peace and happiness doesn’t depend on getting rid of all conflicts and problems in life rather, finding peace and happiness depends on learning how to deal with those problems and conflicts and knowing how to rise above them to enjoy the good things.

What if:
. . . you worked as if you didn’t need the money?
. . . you loved as if you had never been hurt?
. . . you gave as if you had never been taken from?

The feeling of helping someone is a very joyful experience.

But probably the best feeling of all is not when you give something concrete, like an object or money (that’s not exactly the point with this article) but when you make the other person feel good about herself with what she already has, or with what she already is.

People are generally very insecure. About their work, their relationships, about themselves.  People are also very needy. We need attention, we need to feel secure and we need reassurance that we are doing things right. We also need to feel that we have a meaning, a purpose in life. We need to feel useful. So, in everything we do we like to have acceptance, to be recognized by our peers, to be reassured that we are correct. Ultimately we need to feel that we are important. If you think it for a while these feelings of being important and of being useful are really what everybody wants from life.

So, there’s nothing that will make people happier then to help them solve a problem, dissipate a doubt they have or simply tell them they’re right! Of course that this cannot work if you’re acting falsely or being phony. We are excellent at detecting when someone is just pretending to be friendly. It must be unconditional help, genuine praise. It must come from the heart. It’s kind of what love is actually.

What comes out from this share, between someone who helps and someone who needs helping is a kind of magic. When we help someone and make that person feel good about herself, and by doing that we make a bond with that. The person that receives our help gets the approval, the confirmation that she is important, that she is doing things right. The person that gives, that helps, receives the gratification from that person and gets a feeling of being useful.

So, next time someone asks for your opinion on something, or for your help solving some problem that’s because that person trusts you and needs you. So, dedicate some of your time to help that person, give her your feedback, put your skills at her disposal, make an effort to genuinely help her solve her problem, and then … experience the joy of feeling useful.

This is the power and the joy of helping others.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.  ~Benjamin Disraeli

Spreading laughter is the next best thing to laughing yourself. When you set out to spread laughter, you’re also spreading joy, happiness, and love for other people. Long considered “the best medicine”, laughter has power; it can lighten up the atmosphere, bring a group of people together, help people to feel good about themselves, and make a challenging day so much easier to face. Even tears are changed by a good laugh, turning into tears of joy and hilarity.

Laughter lightens tension and provides a bridge to moving on during confrontational situations. If you can inject laughter into other people’s lives, you will be giving a gift that is priceless, one that allows people to focus back on the joy of living instead of always seeing the hardships and challenges of life.

Being able to spread laughter begins with laughing on the inside and seeing the worth of being happy amid the gloom. As laughter is contagious, provided you’re willing to spark it, it’ll soon spread to others.

Prepare yourself. In order to help spread laughter, you should limber up your own sense of the funnies and help release the laughter. While it might sound easy enough, it isn’t always if you’re feeling particularly pressured, stressed, or down. So give yourself some time out to relax, unwind, and think lovely, happy thoughts. And while you’re at it, the following prescriptions also apply:

• Smile. When you smile, it makes other people feel happy. And in turn, that makes you feel happy. While smiling and laughing are different activities, they are both able to lead to the end of engaging others to feel better and happier. A smiling face evokes happiness and opens the door for a laugh. Most people find it hard not to return a smile, so this is a really great start.
• Think of funny things. Laughter needs to bubble up from somewhere and funny things are your best option. And it’s really important to avoid over-analyzing humor – if you spend too much time asking yourself whether something is funny or not, the moment will be lost and you’ll forget to laugh. After all, Mark Twain once said that“explaining humor is a lot like dissecting a frog; you learn a lot in the process, but in the end, you kill it.” Instead, stay in the moment, react to funny thoughts and situations and let yourself laugh.
• Think optimistically about your current situation. Even in the toughest of times, it’s possible to find something to laugh about. And what’s really important when you’re aiming to spread laughter is that your optimism can be as infectious as negativity seems to be at times, provided you’re persistent and seek to draw others in to find out what’s worth laughing about too.
• Lighten up. When the others around you see the chips falling down, see yourself finding ways to scoop them all back up again and build something new.

Enjoy the things happening around you and pass comment on how you perceive things either via jokes or humorous statements. Even the mundane has its humorous side; share your humorous thoughts with others. Think about how people have managed to raise a chuckle from topics as wide-ranging as cubicle life to living on the prairie and how much more enjoyable it is to laugh about the ironies of what we humans do to ourselves to get into the situations we do than to whine and bemoan our fate.

• Remember the funniest jokes and stories you’ve ever been told and share them with others. If you can’t think of any, look online or check out one of the many, many joke books around. You might even be clever enough to brush up some very old jokes from an antique joke book and give them a modern polish that lets you claim them as your own funnies!
• Instead of forwarding the email jokes, why not retell them with gusto next tea break? Have everyone in stitches at your performance and the funniness of the joke.
• Draw silly mustaches on people in the newspaper, magazines, or even in the staff bulletin and leave it for others to find and have a giggle at.
• Be an example of joy.

Encourage others to see the funny side of their life. There are a lot of serious people out there, an awful lot. There is a convention in our society that “taking things seriously” marks us out for being the smart, intellectual, focused and dedicated person, while the person who jokes about tends to be put down for not taking things seriously enough, and by implication, not putting the effort into the daily grind of life. And yet, the irony is that psychology study after psychology study keeps on revealing what we all know deep down anyway, and it’s that people who see the funny side of life often live longer, they don’t get their knickers in a knot over trivial things, and they’re actually more likely to be taking the right things seriously while every overly serious person is taking their own self rather too seriously instead! Very wisely, Robert Frost once noted that “if we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane.” Help the overly serious see that being funny won’t dent their image and might just provide them with the flexible edge needed to really get ahead in this world.

• Life is filled with contradictions and absurdities. Assume that it is better to laugh about this reality than to weep about it and encourage others to feel the same way. It makes some of the confusion a little easier to bear, and humorous attitudes can often head off hardline responses to situations where people feel threatened. Laughter eases the tensions, reduces the threats, and creates space for seeing that while things might not be how people wish them to be, the situation is manageable after all and that there is no need to emotionally inflate things.

Help your friends and family to have a good laugh. Audrey Hepburn once said: “I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.”Prove your importance to your loved and cherished ones by helping them laugh a little more. Shout them to a cinematic or theatrical comedy, read funny stories to them, or tell them jokes. Remind them of funny memories you share together, including those times when things weren’t quite going as hoped but turned out all right – and funny – in the end. Help the people you care about in life to have a good laugh and feel the joy of sharing good moments with one another.

Be a funny boss, leader, teacher, or business owner. If you are in charge of people, ease their day with laughter. Introduce things into the workplace or place of learning that will lighten up the daily grind in fun ways. This doesn’t have to take a huge chunk out of the day or week but when you do implement something funny, make sure it’s good. Things to think about doing include:

• Invite a clown squad in to roam the halls one day and spread mirth through the offices, work spaces, and cubicles.
• Invite everyone to come to work dressed as a favorite TV character. Make it even funnier by specifying a precise cartoon character, so that there are a whole lot of Homer Simpsons coming to work for the day.
• Have a paper plane contest, to see who can throw theirs further than anyone else.
• Ask everyone to bring in their baby photos for “guess who” day.
• Book your staff or students into an improvisation show at the local theater, or have the improvisers visit you. In no time at all, your staff or students will be rolling on the floor laughing their hearts out. Now, that’s the spirit that’s definitely worth bringing back to work or school – the buzz will last for days and it won’t ever be fully forgotten!

Feeling depressed is a common feeling, and it’s usually a sign that something is wrong in your life. It could be something as little as not exercising enough and working too hard or as large as not being happy in a job or a relationship. Depression is a tool for discovering the truth, if you are brave enough to face it rather than try to wish it away. So here are the easiest 11 tips for beating depression naturally that are both life-learned and based on medical evidence:

1. First, see a counselor. Don’t be afraid or ashamed! A counselor will be able to tell you if you need more serious medical help. It’s amazing how quickly talking about your depression with someone else (a professional counselor, not just a friend) can uncover things that afterwards might seem obvious but in the moment of darkness are impossible to see. That is why depression feels so dark … it’s hard to see things!

2. Go for a long walk outside. In Europe, doctors prescribe exercise for their depression patients. The best is a combination of exercise and getting out in nature along with giving your body and mind enough time of mindless walking to let the true feelings and thoughts rise to the surface. You will also see that nature has cycles, too — there are times of joy and times of hibernation. Allow your body and soul to sync with nature and you’ll automatically feel a bit better.

3. Let the sun warm your skin. A few years ago, vitamin D supplements were being touted as super-pills that could protect you from depression and other ailments. Well, it turns out to be not really true. The truth is that people who spend time outside and eat plenty of fatty fish, such as wild salmon, have higher vitamin D levels and less depression. Is it the vitamin D or the lifestyle? A suggestion: Skip the pills, go outside and get your sun on!

4. Read a book. A recommendation “The Mind-Body Mood Solution,” by Dr. Jeffrey Rossman. Reading books can help you many times with your depressive bouts.  Reading good books can really teach on how to get to the real issue quickly and change our perspective of our problems. It really works!

5. Eat right. Eating crap, or overeating anything, literally feeds the depression cycle. Every time you eat crap, you feel bad, and then it just gets that much harder to pull yourself out of the dive. A few foods that are renowned for improving your mood are wild-caught salmon, walnuts and dark chocolate.

6. Stop drinking and drugging yourself. Already Proved: While drinking might make you feel better momentarily, all you are doing is swallowing your problems, where they eat away at you in even deeper darkness inside your soul. If you are using alcohol or drugs to anesthetize yourself against your problems, please stop. Get help if you need it!

7. Fall in love. With yourself, first! Treat yourself as if  you are a precious lover whom you adore, flaws and all. Pamper yourself with baths, naps, flowers, massages. Write love letters to yourself. Tell the voice in your head that says you are not good enough or pretty enough or smart enough to shut up and hit the road, Jack.

8. Laugh. Studies have shown that laughter does really make you feel better. Watch some silly comedies! Or old “I Love Lucy” episodes. Go ahead, watch “America’s Funniest Home Videos” — at the very least, you’ll be thankful that you are not the one getting whacked in the groin, bonking your head on something stupid or falling ridiculously from doing something no person in their right mind should really do.

9. Create. Write down your thoughts and secrets. Paint or draw pictures about how you feel. Build something. Garden! Actually, studies have shown that there is stuff in garden soil that works better than antidepressants. So get out there, and don’t wear gloves. Get dirty, get creative and don’t worry about whether it’s good enough — if you made it, it’s awesome. And while you are doing all this, listen to music, because that helps, too.

10. Connect with your dreams. Do you remember what, as a child, you dreamed your life would be like? Often, We find, We get depressed when we have strayed too far from our original dreams. Yes, sometimes we need to change our dreams, but it’s the amazing power of those deep original dreams that helps us to drive our life in safe and focussed manner.

11. Have the courage to change. Truly, the only way to get out of depression is to listen to what the darkness is trying to tell you and change your life accordingly. You may have been shocked sometimes by what you have learned and heard in those darkest moments, but as long as you trust your heart and soul and what they’re trying to tell you, you will find the brightness again. The light is right there waiting for you to turn the corner and see it. It will get better, and then you will be so grateful and happy that you had the courage to get through the darkness awake and alive.

How Moodlytics as an App helps for beating depression?  Moodlytics as an app tries to be our companion for happiness. It’s crafted with a purpose to keep a track of moods, factors and people influencing our life and most importantly negative factors. It provides visual tools to analyze mood history and find out the real root cause of negative factors having influence in our life. With Moodlytics keep a track of day to day to life and log your moods periodically. Once done Moodlytics will analyze your moods and will let you know some clear and amazing facts that keep you depressed and also those which helps you in avoiding it.

Try out Moodlytics App and we bet you won’t regret the time you spent on it.

Moodlytics Available on: iTunes Store & Google Play

Moodlytics Pro Available on: iTunes Store

Valentine’s Day is the official “love” day. It is not a day exclusively for lovers, but rather a special time to spread a little love and happiness, whatever your relationship status.

Everyone wants to feel special and loved. What better time to spread happiness by sending messages of love than on the specific day designated as “love” day. If you don’t currently have a significant other to focus your attention upon on Valentine’s Day, you can still make the day a special occasion filled with loving feelings.

5 Magical Tips on, How to spread happiness on Valentine’s Day:

1. Surprise someone

Maybe you have a young coworker who is unattached. She is bound to feel somewhat slighted listening to others brag about their Valentine surprises. Send her flowers, or leave a heart shaped box of candy on her desk with a note attached, “from your secret admirer.” Perhaps you have an elderly neighbor who lives alone. Mail him a lovely Valentine card and sign it “Anonymous.” There are myriad opportunities to lighten someone else’s heart on Valentine’s Day.

2. Spread some cheer

If you know someone who has recently experienced a relationship break up and is potentially going to be alone on Valentine’s Day, invite her to dinner or to take in a movie with you. Buy mini boxes of chocolates and pass them out to those who serve you throughout the day. The boy who carries your groceries to the car, the mailman, your hairdresser etc. Spreading happiness in this manner will make your own heart happy.

3. Send a note of appreciation

If someone has inspired you in life, such as a teacher, mentor or spiritual leader, write a note of appreciation on a Valentine card and put it in the mail, or deliver it personally, if time permits.

4. Be crafty and childlike

Create old-fashioned, homemade lacy valentines for everyone close to you. Invite a child to help you with this craft activity and when you are finished take him out for a treat; maybe a Dairy Queen or a McDonald’s happy meal.

5. Treat those who love you best

Put together a Valentine basket, filled with candies, cookies, special coffees or teas, and add a romantic DVD. Present it to your parents with a note attached expressing your love and appreciation to them for always being there for you.

Maybe you don’t have a “special someone,” but don’t let that keep you from making someone feel special on Valentine’s Day. When you spread happiness around, you cannot help but get some on yourself.

“Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a great deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

Let’s spread love & happiness to each and every corner of the world. Let’s keep our loved one’s happy. Let’s Love and Let’s be Happy. Let’s do it with Moodlytics.

Try out Moodlytics App and we bet you won’t regret the time you spent on it.

Moodlytics Available on: iTunes Store & Google Play

Moodlytics Pro Available on: iTunes Store

Depression is pretty horrible indicating some of the following pretty common symptoms like: Getting out of bed becomes hard. Going to work seems next to impossible. Smiling goes rare. But, with the help of some care and simple steps, depression can be beaten. Life can be sorted to normal routine  and everything  can seems a whole lot better.

However, depressed thoughts still can come and go at times. Sometimes during the course of my day you may just start to feel crap for no particular reason. In order to deal with such situations adopt quite a few strategies to beat depression This post is designed to give you a some easiest ways to beat depression at any time.

Realize that depression is transient

One of the best things we could ever do is to firmly resolve in our mind that depression, like everything else, is a transient phenomena. Like a rainbow, a puddle, a bubble or a cloud in the sky – depression does not last. It never does and it never will.

Even the unfortunate souls with the most severe cases of depression are happy sometimes. There are a few moments in the day when their depression fades and another emotion sweeps over them. They might be watching a comedy show and a joke snaps through their depression and gives way to laughter. They might be out for a walk and see some animals playing and experience joy. Or they might see the new political candidates speeches on Youtube and experience patriotism. However bad your depression is it’s a guarantee that you are not depressed 100% of the time.Reminding yourself that depression doesn’t last actually makes your stages of depression seem a lot less potent.

Be careful with the label “I have depression”

You have to be really careful here as a lot of people will kick up a fuss about this comment. Let’s be very clear, depression is an illness. In the words of Will Ferral, “…it has real doctors and everything!” But we sometimes wonder whether telling ourself “We have depression” really makes things better? No, It actually makes you feel a whole heap worse.

Why?

Because the diagnosis “We have depression” is very solid. It is very fixed. It seems unchangeable. But like we noted in the first point, depression is actually very transient. It is impermanent. It doesn’t last. But when we are told that we have depression we run the risk of labeling ourself as a depressed person. And that is very solid.

Of course, diagnosing people with depression and depression related disorders is very important. It is vital to the health and recovery of that person. Without that diagnosis the person might not get the drugs or the counseling that they need. It is not the diagnosis, as such, that we have an issue with. Our issue is with labeling ourself as a depressed person.

The title of this strategy is be careful with the label “I have depression” and that is all I want you to do. Be careful. Do not continually remind yourself of your diagnosis. You do not want to repeatedly tell yourself that you are depressed. In the same way that repeatedly telling yourself that you are fat leads to more problems, repeatedly telling yourself that you are depressed will make you even worse.

This is about avoiding extremes and using your mind to reinforce positive tendencies, not negative ones. It is not about pretending you don’t have an illness.

Eat and drink healthy

Something that seems small but actually had a massive impact on our levels of depression is how we ate. By learning what foods make you depressed and avoiding them you can seriously change the way you feel.

Bad foods make you feel bad. Good foods make you feel good. Just like the saying goes, “you are what you eat“. If you want to feel better mentally start eating cleaner foods.

So what are we talking about here? What foods make us feel bad? A Cup of Coffee can make a mind run at a million miles and hour and we may have trouble settling down. This is bad for people who are really anxious. And fatty foods that are really heavy cause your mind to be sluggish and sad.

Try to eat all natural foods like fruit and vegetables. Get lots of chili and ginger and other natural medicines. Eating a natural diet full of really fresh and tasty foods will absolutely change your life.

Get out in the sun and run

Scientists and doctors are now spouting the benefits of two things for depression: sunlight and exercise. Mix the two together and you have got a recipe for a better mental state.

Forget the gym with its stale air, televisions and plastic people – get outside in the sunlight and start running. Take your dog or your buddy and hit the dirt while the sun is shining on your skin and face. Go somewhere where the air is fresh and the view is inspiring. If you have a local park or forest then head out there. Spend as little as 15 minutes a day doing this and your depression will seem like a thing of the past.

Some of the happiest moments in our life may have been when we are out alone in the woods running in the sun. Just we and the trees and the birds chirping away. Particularly fond of jogging where there is running water – the sound is so soothing and magical.

If you aren’t a big runner it doesn’t matter. Walk. Or, join a football or soccer team. Play tennis on the weekends. There are so many amazing things to be doing out in the sunshine and all of them will have a positive and immediate effect on your depression.

Learn the value of human contact

1. Knowing people love you makes a difference
2. Being around other people helps

The two lessons here are about helping people with depression and helping yourself when you have depression. If you are depressed you need to get out and be around people. It doesn’t matter how you do it, science has shown that having human contact helps depression.

The second thing is that if you know someone who is feeling down you should go and help them. Get them out of the house, take them out for a walk and get them out with people. This will not only help their situation, it will also help your depression.

Conclusion

Depression is not a fixed state. There are things you can be doing all the time to beat it. Don’t sit by passively and be a victim, start doing things that will really get you happy. Nine times out of ten your mild depression can be alleviated with some change in your behavior or lifestyle.

How Moodlytics – The Smart Mood Tracker helps in finding Real Happiness?

Moodlytics as an app tries to be our companion for happiness. It’s crafted with a purpose to keep a track of moods, factors and people influencing our life and most importantly negative factors. It provides visual tools to analyze mood history and find out the real root cause of negative factors having influence in our life. With Moodlytics keep a track of day to day to life and log your moods periodically. Once done Moodlytics will analyze your moods and will let you know some clear and amazing facts that keep you depressed and also those which helps you in avoiding it.

Try out Moodlytics App and we bet you won’t regret the time you spent on it.

Moodlytics Available on: iTunes Store & Google Play

Moodlytics Pro Available on: iTunes Store

What is Real Happiness?

Many of our definitions of happiness are misshaped. It defines only the outer shell, or the mask that we show to the world. It describes how we look to others, not how we feel about ourselves.

If we accept these definitions, we probably believe that a happy person is physically attractive, rich, influential, liked and respected by others, and powerful in the world. Those are the people we see on television and in the magazines. But if we look a little more deeply at the lives of these models of happiness, we see that they are not really any happier than the rest of us. They have the same struggles and frustrations that we do, and their lives also fall apart, just as ours do. Just because we have a good “happiness mask” does not mean that we are really happy. We are just good at pretending to be happy when we really aren’t.  It takes courage to pull off our mask and show up as a real person, especially if we have a public image to protect.  Yet even if we aren’t famous, we are still trying to save face. We still don’t want others to see the pain that lies behind our mask.

We have a very superficial definition of happiness. It’s a veneer, not the heartwood. It is easily tarnished. Real Happiness is not based on how we appear to others or what others think about us.  It really has very little to do with that. Real Happiness is not about the outer shell, image or mask, but about the inner core.  It is not about how good we look to others, or about our ability to please them and get their approval.  It is about how we feel about ourselves in our hearts. 
In other words happiness is an internal state not an external condition. It is not about surface things like money, lifestyle, possessions, role or image. It is not about what we do or what we have, but about who we are and how we feel about ourselves.

This is a radical definition.  While many people continue to define happiness by how good they are at what we do or by how much money or material possessions they have, the truth is that they can have name, fame and riches and still be unhappy. Real Happiness does not come from the outside. It comes from within. It must be measured from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Real Happiness is a Journey

The most important characteristic of Real Happiness is that it is not a static state. It is not just a goal that we aspire to.  It is a dynamic process. Most of us are in the process of becoming happy or, to be more precise, “happier” than we have been in the past. No matter how happy we are, we must never forget that a bit more happiness is always possible.  That is because, at any given time, we are actualizing only a small percentage of our full potential.

So how do we maximize our potential to be happy?  How do we take the next steps on our journey to self-actualization? The most common prescription for happiness is “make the best mask you can and put a big smiley face over your pain”. In other words, “deny your pain and pretend to be happy.”  That prescription doesn’t work for most people. Or else they need other more serious prescriptions to reinforce it. It’s not long before the mask begins to degrade and they return to the doctor for a back-up prescription of Prozac, tranquilizers or sleeping pills, or they might reach instead for a joint, a hit of cocaine or their second bottle of wine.

Numbing ourselves out does not lead to Real Happiness.  It just helps us try to cope with the fact that we are not really happy.  It helps us feel better for an hour or two when it becomes clear that our mask is not working and the pain behind it is leaking through. To be really happy, we need to stop doing two things. Stop denying our pain and stop medicating it. And we need to begin to do two very different things: Feel our pain and heal and move through it.

Real Happiness Requires that We Heal Our Pain

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like:

1. If you believed in yourself and knew you had a gift to share.
2. If you could move forward with your dreams instead of questioning them.
3. If you could face life problems without fear.
4. If you loved yourself no matter what happened.

You would be well on your way to manifesting your full power and potential as a human being, would you not? So what stands in your way? There could be several things that stand in your way.  For example: you could have childhood wounds and could be carrying a great deal of fear, guilt, anger or hurt inside.  While you might have a handle on all that, there may be times when you lose control and what comes out it isn’t very pretty. Your wound-driven behavior may undermine your relationship with your children and loved ones.  It might challenge you at work.  Because of your shame around your wounds, you may show up with a mask or a False Self, either apologizing for yourself and seeking approval, or taking charge and dominating others.

You might be under-confident or over-confident. You might be hard on yourself or hard on others. You may be a victim or a victimizer. Either way the bottom line: is that you might not like yourself very much.  You could judge yourself mercilessly. Or you could judge others harshly, which is the flip side of the same coin. We don’t like to talk about our reactive behavior or the wounds and beliefs behind them, but they are the roots of our deepest pain. If we don’t find that root and heal it, we cannot be happy.  We will simply continue to recycle our pain and pass our wounds onto our children.

How Moodlytics – The Smart Mood Tracker helps in finding Real Happiness?

Moodlytics as an app tries to be our companion for happiness. It’s crafted with a purpose to keep a track of moods, factors and people influencing our life and most importantly negative factors. It provides visual tools to analyze mood history and find out the real root cause of negative factors having influence in our life.

Try out Moodlytics App and we bet you won’t regret the time you spent on it.

Moodlytics Available on: iTunes Store & Google Play

Moodlytics Pro Available on: iTunes Store

You choose

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.
Abraham Lincoln

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

The world of those who are happy is different from the world of those who are not.
Ludwig Wittgenstein

Focus on the present, not yesterday or tomorrow

When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.
Helen Keller

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.
James Oppenheim

Don’t forget to be grateful

Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.
Fyodor Dostoevsky

We tend to forget that happiness doesn’t come as a result of getting something we don’t have, but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
Frederick Keonig

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

Help someone else find happiness

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.
Eleanor Roosevelt

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.
Buddha

If you want happiness for an hour — take a nap.
If you want happiness for a day — go fishing.
If you want happiness for a year — inherit a fortune.
If you want happiness for a lifetime — help someone else.
Chinese Proverb

Happiness is like a kiss. You must share it to enjoy it.
Bernard Meltzer

Get rid of a couple of your less valuable desires

If thou wilt make a man happy, add not unto his riches but take away from his desires.
Epicurus

You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.
Eric Hoffer

That man is richest whose pleasures are cheapest.
Henry David Thoreau

Do what you like to do

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Albert Schweitzer

Happiness is not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

Or at least do something

Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Benjamin Disraeli

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.
So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Mark Twain

Moodlytics as an app tries to shower the highly flaming problem of achieving a happy and peaceful life as a true companion. All you need to do is just log your moods,feelings and appropriate reasons. Sounds amazing at first glance? Yes, now it’s possible too.

Try out Moodlytics App and we bet you won’t regret the time you spent on it.

Moodlytics Available on: iPhone -  iTunes Store Android -  Google Play
Moodlytics Pro Avaliable on: iPhone -  iTunes Store