One guess is to be grateful for anything you can be. Don't complain all the time (sometimes is ok, just dont' dwell constantly) find meaning in your life, despite obstacles, (cause there always gonna be some). Just a few ideas .....

I agree with your guesses and I think many who struggle with depression must have the hardest time finding the meaning of their life........mine still eludes me to this day but still I try to make it meaningful despite not knowing this.

I am leaning towards these things as well though...when we can let go of things such as shame, guilt (there is a time to feel these things and then let them pass) ....these things weigh so heavy on a lot of people...I think it would make the process of gaining happiness so much more simple.

I struggle with depression, & sometimes it's minimal other times more. It's not the meaning OF life, we may never get that answer.
That will always change throughout our lives.
It's meaning or attaching importance to - what we do in life, even something small can mean something to ourselves or another.
I often find when I'm more "low" I have this "why bother, or apathetic" line of thinking. That's not good only makes us feel worse.

Hope you know what I mean?? I wish more (even if it's a little) happiness or joy for everyone struggling.

Always thought that a big part (not the whole shebang, but a big part) of lasting happiness was the ability to find joy in the little things...since they make up the majority of our lives, you know?

Hmm...how to make that make sense...

Okay...a (seemingly) crappy day when I'm swamped with work and I don't want to be writing...I can focus on all I have to do, or I can step away for a moment, watch part of a movie, look outside at the first little flowers starting to poke up, call a friend and have a laugh...it's a choice...what we focus on

I don't believe in a soul the way most do, what is the soul? something unchanging, or permanent, there is nothing about any of us that is unchanging or permanent, we are transeint, always changing. when we die, we change to something else, like milk turns to cheese when milk turns to cheese, it's no longer milk

Happiness is fleeting.
A more important emotion to try and incorporate into your life would be contentment. Satisfaction with life in general, acceptance of your self and the world you live in.
Happiness bounces up and then you come down.
So be grateful for happy moments, but try to find contentment in your self and in your life.
IMO
Take care~BZB

yeah...taking joy in little things I think is mandatory but the contentment is something I know I need in my life but never have really had it because I am always striving to better myself in some way or reacha goal I have yet to reach and I dont know if I can be content until I meet this goal but contentment is something I really do need in my life.

I've never been happy, I've been depressed since I was a young child.
I think the thing that would make me happy is to have someone who loves me.
I've never had that and can only dream of how good it must feel.

i dont think you can ever truly say one could ever be always happy i know we have a soul i dont begin to know what is in there but i do belive it came to us from heaven and there in heaven is defenatly fulll of happenest ..............i have always had problems with depreshion and i dont realy rember being rely happy for eney length of time ..............although i know my soul to be good and i can see in others that they have a good soul does that mean it holds happenest it must

I think happiness is being happy where you are with what you have.

It's faith. Being so in love with God that we WANT our free wills to align with the will He has for our lives.

I have been working on this alignment for the past few years--really working on it--and I can say that I have never been happier.

My depression isn't a lack of happiness, it's best described as a "dark night of the soul" that lasted for seven years in my case. Once I was diagnosed with clinical depression and finally found the solution that works best for me, I could focus on my quest for happiness in the way described above. Until that time, I was consumed by the darkness that surrounded and permeated me.

I can not imagine how I would find any meaning to my life, find any purpose or happiness, without my (Catholic) faith and the love that is what I keep at the center of my life now.