15 Unusual Ways To Feel Happy When You’re Depressed

For most people, eliminating depression, or reducing it to tolerable levels, is not a quick fix – it can take months or even years to achieve.

So, while you can think of your long-term treatment plan as a journey, that doesn’t mean you cannot find a few rest stops along the way, where you can create moments of happiness.

This guide lists a few surprising tips to help you smile occasionally.

Cook Your Favourite Meal

While I know that you may not always feel like you can be bothered to cook at all when you’re depressed, that’s because for many people, whether they’re suffering from mental health problems or not, cooking is seen as a chore.

But can you visualize how different it feels when you’re cooking because you invited friends around for dinner?

Isn’t that an entirely different experience?

So, the idea here is that you imagine you’re having a dinner party for one – you. And you cook your favourite food, just for you. (Not necessarily an entire three course meal – just one dish is plenty.)

Not only does the act of actually getting active in the kitchen help – think of it as a form of light exercise – but you have something you really like to look forward to at the end of it.

Create Emotion Playlists On YouTube

If you are feeling a particular emotion, such as depression, anxiety, or anger, then what can help is listening to, or watching, other people talk about their experiences with those same emotions.

One way this can help is it makes you realize you are not alone in how you feel – there are plenty of others in the same boat as you. The details of their experiences may, of course, differ, but at the top level, they too feel depressed or anxious or angry.

So, what you should do is visit YouTube and look for videos where people are talking about their personal experiences with specific emotions.

When you find ones that resonate with you, add them to emotion-specific playlists, so, for example, you might create one playlist for depression, one for anxiety, one for anger, and so on.

Then, the next time you feel overwhelmed by a particular emotion, just go and start watching videos from the appropriate playlist.

Dance

For many people, the act of dancing makes them happy. (This wouldn’t work for me, because I have never “got” dancing, but I accept I’m probably unusual in this respect.)

You can either put your favourite music on, or not – it’s your choice.

While most people typically dance to music, it’s not a requirement – if you have some favourite music (and who doesn’t?), then it’s enough to hear it playing in your head (or mental jukebox as I like to call it).

Maybe there are certain dance steps you prefer, maybe you should experiment, or maybe you can just let your body move of its own accord.

Don’t Skip Meals

Studies show that maintaining as stable a blood sugar level as possible can reduce mood swings.

And since people with depression often fail to take care of themselves properly, this will also ensure you’re getting enough energy to sustain your body and mind throughout the day.

Get Your Hormones Balanced

If certain crucial hormone levels are not where they should be, especially your adrenal, sex, and thyroid hormones, then your mood can be adversely affected.

What you should do is to find a good integrative medicine doctor and ask them to order (and interpret for you) the following tests:

• Adrenal gland tests – cortisol, DHEA-S, and pregnenolone
• Sex hormone tests – estradiol, progesterone, and both free and total testosterone
• Thyroid gland tests – TSH, free T4, free T3, total T3, and thyroid antibodies

Once you know the results, you will be able to discuss the appropriate treatments with them so that you can re-balance these hormones.

Grounding

There are two types of grounding.

The first is, in a way, a type of mindfulness, where you focus on what’s happening to and around you right now, rather than on your thoughts and emotions

The second, sometimes called earthing, refers to the practice of walking (or standing) barefoot on the earth, as a way of reconnecting with nature and the innate energy of our planet. Just be careful with this one – it’s not exactly a proven science yet, but the principles behind it are intriguing.

Listen To Somebody Else’s Story For A Change

It’s easy to get lost in your own world of pain and dark thoughts when you’re depressed, and one way to redirect your attention is to listen to other people’s problems for a change.

This could involve watching YouTube videos (as mentioned above), or volunteering at a senior citizen’s home or hospital, where you can talk to other people face-to-face.

Not only can this help the people you talk to, because they may be lonely and need company, but it will take your mind off your own problems for a while.

Note that the other person’s problems don’t need to be “worse” than yours for this to work – it’s enough that you just listen to somebody else talk about what they are going through.

Paint Your Nails

As I mentioned above, self-care can slip when you’re depressed, but something as simple as painting your nails (finger and/or toe) can actually be very therapeutic.

Firstly, it’s an activity, and doing something is often better than doing nothing (where you can more easily wallow in your thoughts).

And secondly, if you choose to, you’ll have pretty nails when you’re done – and for many people, looking good helps them feel good too.

Lastly, if you don’t want fancy coloured nails, you can use a clear nail varnish if you like. This way, you can still benefit from the activity without having to commit to a particular colour.

And, of course, if your goal is solely to look good, you can always go you local salon if you want – but that’s won’t achieve the same benefits as painting your nails yourself.

Plan Your Future

This may seem like a strange idea, given that people with depression often can’t think as far as tomorrow.

But thinking about and writing down a longer-term plan (e.g. what you want to achieve, places you want to go, hobbies you might like to try) is helpful because it forces you to imagine a life where you’re not stuck in depression. And that creates a hopeful vision of the future.

Rearrange Your Room

Not only do people with depression often fail to take care of themselves, they often fall behind with household chores, such as washing the dishes, cleaning up, and tidying up.

Regardless of whether any of your rooms are a mess or not though, this idea is more to do with rearranging your room.

This will stimulate your creativity (which is usually a good thing) as you will have to try to visualize alternative arrangements for the furniture and ornaments, and, once you come up with an idea you think you will work, it will get your body active as you put your plan into action.

Record Your Fears

Whenever you’ve just got through a bout of anxiety, stress, rage, anger, or depression, what you should do is write down everything you can remember about it, such as how it made you feel mentally and emotionally, what physical symptoms you experienced, anything specific about the situation (e.g. was there a lot of noise, or too many people around).

Then, the next time you feel a similar emotion, you can look at your log and see whether what you are experiencing now is similar to something you’ve felt before.

If you find one or much such entries, and the longer you maintain this practice, the more likely it is you will, it will help you to realize that you have dealt with this situation before, so there’s no reason why you can’t deal with it again this time.

Tear Paper Into Small Pieces

This can be a highly therapeutic activity, and, what’s even better, you won’t break things like you would if you throw stuff around the room.

The idea is simple – find one or more pieces of paper, and then rip them into tiny pieces.

This helps you to vent your emotions while keeping your hands busy, and without causing any knock-on problems.

Just remember to throw the bits of papers in the trash can afterwards. 🙂

Visit Your Local Library

Assuming that you are well enough to venture out, although you can always ask a trusted friend to accompany you if necessary, a library is a great place to go to get out of your own head.

As you browse the innumerable shelves of books (and maybe magazines), you will forget about your problems as you become more focused on the many wonders that exist within all those thousands of pages.

Who knows – you may even find a new favourite author or learn something you never knew before.

Write A Letter To Someone Who Has Angered Or Annoyed You – And Then Destroy It

This is a great way to vent your feelings and emotions in a safe and non-confrontational way.

The idea is simple – just write down exactly what this person did or said, how it made you feel, and why you felt that way. Use whatever words you want, however vicious or rude – because you are never going to send this letter or note.

That’s right – once you have finished writing it, you are going to destroy it.

This is why it’s better to write this letter on paper (the old-fashioned way). If you type it on a computer or phone, there is always the chance you will send it by mistake – and that could make your situation even worse.

Write A Letter To Your Younger Self

This is similar to the previous tip, but this one isn’t necessarily about venting your feelings.

It could be any or all of the following, for example:

A warning to look out for particular (types of) people or situations that have caused you problems

• Advice you wish you have received as a child
• Reassurances that everything will turn out OK
• Words of wisdom you’ve learned over the years

And, of course, with this idea, you don’t need to destroy the letter once you’ve written it.

In fact, you may want to return to it later and make changes.

Conclusion

As I said at the beginning, none of these are going to magically cure your depression, but they are all worth trying as a means to rekindle a moment of happiness from time to time. Well, maybe not the nail painting one if you’re a man – although I’m not judging, of course.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Earthing
2. Grounding Exercises
3. Qi Gong Grounding Videos