Nothing brings joy or fulfilment. The desire to participate in life’s activity is buried under the debris of self-nagging. Interest in work sags. You usually produce shoddy work and take refuge in utterly undependable moods, without realising that moods are good servants but awfully bad masters. Time languishes. The present becomes burdensome, the future black, the past oppressive. The defenses come crashing down and chances of putting the pieces together fade.

Is there a way out of this dark emotional tunnel? Yes. Depending on your personality, you can discover ways to enliven flagging spirits. Some respond best to constant activity. Such people must keep busy with work. Others can engage themselves in some activity that will crowd out their disturbing memories. Congenial company is the easiest way to achieve this.

There is the alternative of finding some altruistic activity by which you could help others who are in worse straits. It is a fundamental law of human nature that an act of kindness brings tears to your eyes. Heavy hearts, like clouds, are relieved by letting out the water, said Tagore.

This course of action often is highly effective. Losing yourself in another’s problems helps you forget your own. The establishment of homes for poor, charitable institutions and orphanages is based on this sound principle.

A change of scene and a change in pace can combine to work wonders. Take a short trip, go away for a few days. If you have not had a physical check-up done recently, it might be a good idea to have one.

Play with children. Watch your son or daughter doing something worthwhile. Andre Maurois suggests that this activity brings happiness as nothing else can. Watch your children carry on the struggle where you left it. It is a highly rewarding experience.

A gloomy person has a lifestyle all his own. He moves on a special axis, which can be drawn as a vertical line with the person going in two directions only — up-up-up or down-down-down.

It is better to re-cast your goals and straighten your priorities. Do not be someone else. Be yourself. Discard the myth of magical self-inflation, see yourself as you are, and set attainable goals. The sunshine of success is a great dispeller of blues, however black they might seem.

Do not expect others to feel sorry for you — the odds are better than even that life throws them just as many curves, and that they get those well-known "blues" just as often.

French writer Voltaire was once sitting by a river side throwing stones in the water. A curious young boy asked him why he was throwing stones. The great writer replied: I am throwing away self-pity, not stones!

A typical cringer of blues deludes himself with the thought that he is a loner. But the fact is that he is alienated. Alienation is different from solitude.

Whereas an alienated person may feel rejected, stressed and resentful, the ‘solitary’ one is just seeking time alone for his thinking and creativity. Solitude spurs creativity. It should be differentiated from brooding. Many creative people need to be in solitude to work. They need to go away from the clamour of the world. This can be healing but wilful withdrawal from "action" can bring in stagnation. Prolonged spells of such lassitude result not in rest but in rust.