7 ways to reconnect and socialize to avoid depression

It's easy to get stuck in a rut and taking on depression is no simple task. Along with having a healthy diet, regular exercise and taking time for yourself, here are some other things you can practice to help boost your mood and prevent depression.

• He or she should feel compelled to tell you the same, and the constant sweet talk will spread a veil of love and comfort over your day.

• One major five-year study finding that depressed people who got married scored much lower on a depression test than those who stayed single.
• Improvement occurs regardless of how happy people are in their marriages or how much they fight with their spouses.

• Instead of settling down in some cookie-cutter closed community, choose a home in a safe urban area in which you can walk to restaurants, theaters and shops.
• A study of 740 older adults living in a major city found that living in "walkable" neighborhoods protected older men from depression better than less walker-friendly areas.
• It wasn't just the exercise that played a role, researchers found, but something within the neighbourhood itself, possibly the sense of connection it provided.

• Walk around the gardens in all seasons and note what's new and how the winter landscape differs from that of spring and summer.
• The peacefulness of gardens will help reduce stress hormones and improve mild depression.

• Drumming — whether on real drums or banging on the bottom of a pot with a wooden spoon — helped 112 retirement community employees in Pennsylvania feel more energetic and less depressed and angry.
• Drumming helps connect your physical body with your feelings, creating synergy between the external beat of the music and the internal beats of your heart, breathing and hormone cycles.
• You can drum alone, but you'll get a better boost from a drumming circle. Look online or in your local newspaper — you'll be surprised how easy it is to find one.

• Just 12 minutes of a massage (sign on for the 30-minute back rub) provides a natural mood boost, significantly reducing the risk of depression according to numerous studies.
• There are big boosts in serotonin levels and big drops in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in those being stroked.
• Ask for lavender or rosemary massage oil; six weeks of aromatherapy massage may also reduce anxiety.

• You'll get countless benefits: the altruistic benefit of "giving back"; the social benefit of interacting with others; the physical benefit of moving around (walking dogs or cleaning cages).
• If you play with the dogs and cats, their joy provides a virtual vaccine against depression. Just playing with Fido for a few minutes a day boosts levels of feel-good brain chemicals like serotonin and oxytocin.