DEPRESSION, SADNESS, OVERWHELMED, PART 2

Tool #2: SERVE. This one helps me because it helps me know that I'm not the only one who has troubles. It also gets me out of my trap of sadness. It makes me look around at others and brings me a smile when I've helped someone else. The looking around part is the tough part. I tend to ask myself, "But who? Who needs my help? And how?" I try not to stop myself because of details. I've done little things, such as picking the plums off my tree and taking them to someone else. I don't know if the person needed plums. I doubt it was a turning point in their lives. But life isn't made of one big turning point after another, but it's a million little things and my little plums tell someone else that I was thinking of them. They smile. I smile. Sometimes my service is for my family. "Okay, I'm sad right now," I'll say to myself. "I'm just going to make a special dinner tonight." While I'm cooking, I'm also thinking of my husband (just me and my husband right now, we're empty-nesters). Or maybe I make us something with chocolate because we both need it. Chocolate helps when dementors have almost killed you, you know.* [name that book]
It doesn't have to be an individual I know either. I've taken canned goods to a food bank, given money to someone holding a sign on a street corner, supplied a toy for a collection, lent a hand serving food at a shelter. Not all of these opportunities came right when I was feeling down. But they are simple things that are possible when I need a smile that comes from helping someone else. 
And that's Tool #2: SERVE
What ways have you found to serve?

*The book is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.