"It may just be a chemical imbalance."

better to have one that keeps you upbeat in the face of setbacks than one that keeps you sad no matter what!

Pets have always helped me maintain.
In addition to the documented therapeutic effect animals have on our blood pressure & moods, I think there are at least 2 elements involved:

1. Their affection is straightforward, not manipulative. They like me whether I whether I bring them dry dog food or t-bone steaks, so I know their affection is real & I know they find me worthy of love.

2. They are absolutely totally dependent on me. If I gave in to melancholy & got put into a home for the chronically depressed...who'd take care of the pets??? nobody.
They'd be in the pound before you could sneeze.

& the garden keeps me going, too.

There's something in us, I think, that feels happy in a garden, something very very old that thrives on the refreshment & sustenance we find in a garden.

You're right about the pets! No matter how bad you feel you gotta get up and feed them. Then the wild birds, the stray cat that lives in the alley, the upstairs cats, the black cat, then the cockatiels want attention...the fish see you and they want to be fed, then you notice the filter needs cleaning, that plant needs water.....pretty soon you forgot what upset you. AND it's now time to go to work, so much for sleeping in! Hard to be depressed when the sunflowers are blooming and the doves are following you looking for seeds. Actually, doves are kind of pushy, one landed on my head when I was trying to fill the feeders.
Tally HO!

Both of the above plus the friends and family who need me. It is so rewarding to me to be able to grow things, watch their progress and enjoy their beauty. I thank God for keeping me healthy enough to do this. What a blessing !!

My wonderful husband keeps me going--he is full of ideas and enthusiasm, so it's hard to be "down". Also, our calico cat--she's so darn cute that she's an "upper" all by herself, even when napping. And the gardens--between dead-heading and weeding and picking and planning and plotting against those darn bugs, who has time to be sad?

What keeps me going? In a way I don't have a choice -- Life just keeps living me. But I do have a choice in the way I view life. We all have very difficult times in our lives, but after the pain subsides a bit, and with a little help, we can choose to see them as opportunities to grow in wisdom and strength. I used to think that sounded like a trite saying and nothing more. And I definitely didn't like challenges! But they came none-the-less and by them I've learned that this so called life is a miniscule happening, just the tip of the iceburg compared to real Life. It's just a little practice run in climbing to the top-of-the-rubble-heap and pretty much staying there (there will be some tumbles) no matter what.

A book read in my late twenties titled "Hind's Feet on High Places" by Hannah Hurnard has been a constant inspiration to me. Tally is an inspiration to me. I agree with what other have cited as to what keeps them going. It's my family, my friends, people I meet, people I've never met, my pets, growing things, nature, the earth, and especially the Eternal Infinite Heavens that are the beautiful and ever expanding inspiration that keeps me going.

i have glass-is-half-empty hardwiring & depression - half-full people get on my nerves (y'all need to wake up and smell the sewage some days - LOL), but my closest friends are half-full'ers, so i guess its a yin/yang thing

i've been to hell and back more times than i've broken a fingernail - some losses and setbacks are chewable, but some are devastating - i wonder when i will have built enough character, as the saying goes - with the van issues, its a down week(s) - others are better

gardening has become amazingly, unbelievably therapeutic over the years

honestly . . . grace and prayers

~ freshair

You just need a refill dear. I'll share mine with you. Secretly I hate milk and can't figure out why a glass of milk holds ten times as much as the same glass full of tea. Speaking of empty glasses I need more tea!

A good perfume or lorain oil will cover the smell of most stuff.

And you have plenty of character! You DID come back from hell afterall. And landed here, at the gardenweb. With us nuts!

Nothing lifts my mood like the smell of wet dirt, watering, sniffing flowers, stepping in dog...oh wait that is the smell you're talking about..at least it's outside! This morning I cleaned the pond filters before going to work, it was so hot I just grabbed a bar of soap and took a shower in the hose outside.

I love the name "hind's feet on High places by Hannah Hurnard". Man there are a lot of H's in that! Like a tongue twister.

Tally HO!
We don't know where we're going but we're making good time!

freshair, I I think the ability to wake up & smell the sewage is a valuable skill;
sort of like being the little boy who said the emperor had no clothes.

Somebody's gotta do it!

& it adds depth & dimension, I think.

I compare it to Christmas carols.

There are all these joyous, ringing, filling, elated carols...& there's "O Little Town of Bethlehem", which has the same sort of joyous words-sung in a minor key.

& that carol has depth & dimension & beauty.

"Nothing lifts my mood like the smell of wet dirt"

Amen, Sistah!

While I have pondered that question more than once, I don't have an answer for it. I have always just done, what had to be done, and somehow survived all that life has thrown at me, until now. What happens farther down the road, remains to be seen.

i have depth, dammit! LOL

skills: after years of being criticized for "not being a team player" and similar comments, i figured out that my "fault finding", when done in the right tone for the right reason, is a highly valuable element of the problem solving process - as in, you can't solve a problem you haven't even identified - the trouble is that others frequently don't - i'm often able to see down the road and around a couple of corners to recognize a future complication

some of it is truly hardwiring - similar to nightowls and early birds: you just are

minor: some of my favorite hymns, many easter (cause, you know, He died and all), are in minor keys and are absolutely lovely ~
"Oh Sacred Head, Now Wounded"
"Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy" tune Arise
"O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus"
there's a musical term for a minor piece that ends on a major chord - picardy third - since learning of that term, that concept has become a bit of a metaphor for me - the end of all of this lament and strife and grief will be stable and resolute and harmonic and beautiful

refill: gardening refills - the laughter of my children refills (they're unique and peculiar and contagious)- time away from my kids refills - time with friends and family refills - i guess that's closer to the answers others have given

have always just done: many many times, putting one foot in front of the other was all i could do & many many times, survival was the best outcome hoped for - i'm shooting for thriving now

~ freshair

You go, freshair, you go !!!!!

Tally - I think that sometimes we have to allow ourselves to have a little break emotionally occasionally. You have been through so much since the hurricane last fall. It seems you have kept a smile on your face (although I haven't seen your face - but only through reading here) and you keep going. You probably needed to "lose it" for a little while and probably feel better emotionally releasing all that tension.

I think anything we do to get our minds off our "daily grind" helps keep us all going. Gardening, pulling weeds, watering the vegetables, pulling weeds, feeding the fish in the pond, pulling weeds, oh . . . did I mention pulling weeds? My mind can wander and contemplate on many issues and solve many problems while I am busy pulling weeds. I am in my own little universe when I'm in my yard and garden.

Children are another source of happiness and sometimes stress, but mostly happiness. I have three boys and they eat a lot, pass gas and laugh about it, burp and laugh about it, and it starts all over again. I know some of those things are nasty, but boys love to laugh at their bodily functions and sometimes it makes me laugh too. Then there are those moments where they will say or do the most amazing things and it will make me stop and appreciate them more - even with all their gross bodily functions.

My faith also helps me meditate in prayer and figure things out. Like freshair was saying, the hymns can bring it all back to what is really important - trying our best to be like Jesus.

Exercise also helps. It releases those happy hormones and makes me feel a whole lot better throughout the day. I know that I would feel pretty crappy if I didn't get my regular workouts.

Get your heart pumping & oxygenate your blood!

Aerobic exercise gives the brain a more oxygenated blood supply, & the synapses fire better, elevating the mood.

Aerobic excercise would be more than my poor heart could stand. It would just stop, for lack of breath.

I can leg press 360, however and the weights are my friends. I think the excercise must cause some kind of chemical change in me that is good.

Watching my kitten when she steps on the 'copy' button of the printer- she is so amazed when the paper is sucked into the printer...funny! I can't stay down when I am around my animals.

My garden is so hot right now, and dry! We have had no rain for months, and it is really hard to keep things alive. Pulling hoses is good exercise, and I am getting a lot of it! LOL

And it does lift my spirits when I see a beautiful new daylily bloom, bright yellow and clean, stretching for the sun.

Life is good.

Janie

I feel better when I exercise. Bought a new yoga mat and clothes and realized I have no where to do Yoga! So next payday I'm going to sign up for yoga classes down the street. I still climb the stairs every work day, drag around the hoses and do some squats but I need to exercise! Scraping tiles off the kitchen floor, sanding old furniture and carrying stuff around just isn't doing it.

I have my moments of psycho behaviour. The other day the new schedule came out and I lost it when I got home. It sucks, at least I have a job, but so much other stuff went on that week it was just the final straw. I'm working 3 of 4 weekends, 3 shifts in 3 days, 7 days in a row....aaaarrrrggghhhhh! No hot water, the plumber was there Tuesday, supposed to set up the inspection yesterday, never showed up, maybe today. Then gotta get the gas company to put in the gas meter. I'm getting cranky.
Tally HO!

Well......think of it this way......if your schedule was 11-7 all the time, that would be a lot worse than changing too much, in the long run.

Or, take solace in the knowledge that with longer and longer retail hours, many retail employees have the same sort of crummy schedule as nurses, nowadays.

search for laughing babies on youtube.com

some of our favorites:
ethan ripping paper
quadruplets (wierd)
evil eye

as dani mentioned with her kitten, we can't stay bummed or mad or lethargic while watching those videos

~ freshair

Has anyone seen the babies on roller skates?

forget what it's advertising, but they used pictures of real babies faces & heads, & the rest is, uh, I don't know what you call it, something like computer-generated something-or-other.

Looks just like the babies are skating, dancing, doing tricks on their skates.

My animals and garden keep me sane - as for being strong, building character, and there being a plan, it's all total rot. Sometimes we don't get over things, we get through them.

OMG, that ad is hilarious!!!!! I love the etrade baby /babies but this is so cool in so many ways
Family and TRUE friends keep us going
Our animals are the sweet butter cream icing on the cake of life.
I am slowly getting into gardening and realizing why my Mom GGP knew it is so important

Here is a link that might be useful: Skating babies