Or, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Maybe your days are filled with rain and lemons. Maybe singing or making lemonade seem like an impossible dream.

These deceptively positive posts are one of the only ways I have right now to force myself to push through the heavy fog and think of bright things. Do you have anything like that? What makes you happy? Seek it out and hold onto it with both hands.

Defiance is a great way of pushing through. I use it to cover ground when I’m walking, to go out when I don’t feel like it, to pick up the phone before I change my mind. There are many ways of ‘singing in the rain’. It all begins with a determination to not let circumstances pull you down. You are more than the health problem or anxiety that keeps you from living. If you can’t go out, invite others to come in. And remember how much you have to give back.

I always find a smile is a good start. Smile to melt the grumpiness of somebody else, or to temporarily cover up your own discomfort. A smile can be the beginning of being happy no matter what, just like singing in the rain. When I was a lot younger my brother and I would start to pretend laugh and always ended up actually laughing. The Killers tell us to ‘smile like you mean it’. CS Lewis said if you struggle to love someone, act like you do and eventually you will. A tiny start can be the beginning of something good, just like the music builds at the opening of a song.

There’s a Christmas carol that goes, ‘what can I give Him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb, /if I were a wise man, I would do my part/ Yet what I can I give Him/ Give my heart.’ Never think you have nothing to offer. Never give up on yourself. Look inside and see how precious you are. Remember the people whose faces light up when they see you.

Believe, despite everything, that you have reason to sing.