The benefits of connecting to others

When we are feeling depressed or flat we tend to remove ourselves from others, becoming isolated, which in turn can bring us down further. Connecting to others, even if briefly or in small ways, can really help to lift our mood.

Listening to podcasts can help. I regularly listen to Strangers on a Bench (free on the Podcast App). Give it a try. Keep with it past the first five minutes and you will be rewarded with a glimpse into someone else's way of thinking, their life experience, their own ways of coping with what life throws at us. Sometimes it can give us a different perspective which we can apply to our own problems or just shift our thinking in a small way. Sometimes it just raises a smile or makes us realise that we are not alone and that others are also going through difficulties - that we are all in it together.

I also love Soul Music on BBC Sounds. The programme takes a song which most of us have heard before (but sometimes it is completely new to me) and explores it by talking to people for whom it has had an important impact. It can make me laugh but also cry - in other words it touches something inside me which is a connection. It is a way of entering someone else's life, observing the effect it has had on them, but if it resonates with us, we feel less alone. We are sharing an emotion.

These are not podcasts with the usual stream of celebrities promoting a book or film, just people like you and me, working our way through life. If I come across others I will add them to this post.