Most of us suffer from the blues, discouragement and hopelessness at one time or another. Sometimes someone comes along and makes us feel better, but other times we seem to stay down until we pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But there are ways to make ourselves feel better.

The following 10 items should help to get you on the road back to happiness.

1. Make a list of all the good, positive things in your life. Just brainstorm; no order, just write whatever comes to mind, like: I have a bed to sleep in, I have legs to walk on, air to breathe, food and water, a friend, I have a job/car/shirt/wife etc.

2. Decide that you are going to try and be happy. Just making the decision helps a bit. Try and laugh as much as you can. Everything has a funny side, if you look hard enough.

3. Look at something beautiful. It may be an autumn leaf, a bird, a kind act, or a mountain. Concentrate and meditate on it's beauty.

4. Try and exercise. Exercise clears the mind and helps you to think clearly.

5. Get more sleep.

6. Hang around with happy people.

7. Do something nice for somebody else. This has the curious effect of making us happy too!

8. Break your routine. Do something completely different. Sometimes we get bogged down in our problems and lose perspective. Taking a step back and shifting our attention to something else can give us a new insight into our situation that helps to stimulate our lateral thinking, refreshing us mentally.

9. Try and be satisfied with what we have. Greed in various degrees is a breeding ground for unhappiness and dissatisfaction.

10. Remember all the people that love you. There's always someone, somewhere, that does.

We all go through cycles of happy and sad times, which is natural and not at all a bad thing, but no one should stay unhappy for too long.

Duncan Kelly

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