Our world is more connected than ever before with more ways of interacting with people than we know how to use well. Still, more and more of us find ourselves having to endure the lingering pain of loneliness. Loneliness, in fact, might be one of the biggest public health concerns, having been linked to increased mortality. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly important that we all learn how to deal with this painful feeling.

Depression is a reaction to real problems. It signals the need to change something. While the need to change may be real and the call for action urgent, the overriding challenge is that depression often inspires inertia. But how you feel about your life, in most cases, can be changed, no matter how chronic the root of your depression is or seems. Come see how to begin that change today.

Part II of How to Stay Happy on a Rainy Day. Is life raining down cold, bitter darkness? How can you find purpose in your trials? Change what you do, your thinking and your beliefs for greater peace.

Through gasps of tear-filled pain, of an intensity that was heart-breaking, she told me how wonderfully things were going … externally. As she cried, she told me about the turmoil she feels at missing a family that doesn’t deserve to be missed and about external circumstances that really were pretty wonderful, all the while feeling utterly sad and empty