Many depressed people can’t conceive of feeling “happy.” The purpose of this section is to show you that you do experience at least momentary happiness on occasion. Most people, even those who aren’t depressed, don’t feel elation—a state of intense happiness—on a regular basis.  However, they do experience the many shades of happiness that are also available to you:

• Pleasure (watching a kitten play)

• Enjoyment (reveling in a hot bath or shower)

• Satisfaction (finishing a task)

• A sense of mastery (completing a difficult project)

• Relief (finishing a task you’d dreaded)

• Gratitude (when someone, even a stranger, unexpectedly does something nice for you in some small way, such as opening the door for you, picking up something you’ve dropped, or catching up to you to return something you inadvertently left behind in a cafe or on the subway)

The purpose of noticing these approximations of happiness is this: first, to show you that, contrary to your biased thinking process, you do experience these feelings; second, by focusing on these experiences, you can enlarge upon their importance; and third, you can study these occurrences to find your own prescription for happiness.

Excerpt from The Depression Solutions Workbook: A Strengths and Skills-Based Approach by Jacqueline Corcoran, Ph.D.