Since I was a very small child, I've always been a happy person. After 59 years of life, I"ve run into my share of sadness and tragedy, but I accept it all as a natural part of life and try to counter each moment of sadness with a thought of something that makes me smile or laugh. I have thousands of happy moments to chose from, so it's never difficult to make myself start laughing.
A common statement when I was a kid was; "Tim? He's always cheerful. That kid is always laughing about something!"
I'm a very emotional person. When I see a person crying, it makes me start tearing up. Every time. This has caused some really strange moments in my life. Counter to that; if I see someone laughing, the act alone makes me laugh also. I try to go through life looking at people laughing instead of crying. There are plenty of each, but laughing makes me feel way better, so I try to do that as often as possible.
When I was trying to cheer up my Mom one time when she was crying about something, she said to me; "Tim, life isn't always something you can laugh about. Sometimes there is nothing funny to think of".
My answer to her was; "I can always think of something that made me laugh once. Always! If I *see* it in my mind again, it makes me laugh again, just as it did the first time".
I don't have time to feel sad. I have too many wonderful, happy moments that have happened to me to settle for crying.
I don't do "Depression"! I refuse to.