Depression is a state of mind where your all energy, hope and drive becomes inactive. Depression is stagnant energy. Most often is is suppressed anger. You may not even realize you are angry. So many of us were taught that it wasn't right to be angry and we've learned to stuff it down.

So the most important thing to do for depression is MOVE. Move your body, change your thoughts, do something different. Sheer willpower of yours won't help it. You need to make some positive changes for yourself every day.

The road to recovery from depression:
The key of recovery from depression lies in starting with small goals. Use whatever resources are available for you. You can start with a small walk or picking up the phone to talk to some loved one. Let us discuss some of the self-help tips for coping with depression-
Cultivate supportive relationships: isolation and loneliness are enemies of the depression, therefore find some valuable support to keep away the fog of depression around you. Start with maintaining close relationships and get involved in some social activities. You can share whatever you are feeling with your friends and family. Trust them and ask them for their help. Try to get involved in some social activities so that you are around people. This will keep you less depressed. Joining a support group can also be a better idea as being with people coping with depression reduces your sense of elimination.

Challenge your negative thinking: depression induces negative spin within you which causes you to see yourself, your surroundings and your future as hopeless. This pessimistic mind frame cannot be treated with wishful thinking only. You need to work on tricks which help in replacing negative thoughts with balanced ones.

Some of the ways can be:
Think beyond yourself and of less harsh statements so that you get realistic descriptions.

Nobody is perfect in this world and don't expect the same from you. You have to battle with this self-imposed stress.

Socializing with positive people will also help you to scrap away your negative thoughts. Their thoughts and actions would influence you a lot and you will try to adopt their persistence and optimism.
Noting down your negative thoughts and giving them a positive perspective will help you to a great extend to deal with the situation.

Take care of yourself: this is an important step in coping with depression. You have to start with some healthy habits like managing stress, set goals for what you can do, schedule fun activities in your daily routine, find ways to improve self-esteem, etc.
The most important things you can do to care yourself can be taking complete eight hours of sleep, expose your body to little sunlight by taking short walks, try to avoid stressors and minimize their impact.
Often depression causes your self-esteem to lower down completely so get yourself engaged in different ways to improve self esteem. Caring a pet will bring joy and companionship in your life. So, if nothing is helping you, try for this.

Regular exercise: it is a powerful and effective tool in coping with depression. With physical activity, new cell growth takes place in your body, mood enhancing neurotransmitters and endorphins are released, muscle tension is reduced. Therefore, get indulged in at least 30 minutes of exercise per day.

Healthy diet: eating impacts your way of thinking and feeling. Therefore, take a balanced diet of proteins, carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables. Moreover, do not try to skip meals, minimize sugar and carbohydrates in your meal, increase intake of complex carbs, boost vitamin B intake and take chromium supplement on a regular basis.

Get additional help: If you feel the situation is beyond your control, the best is to seek professional help. Do not think that taking professional help means you are weak. Sometimes, you start feeling like a lost cause and to revive you, you need to feel better.