There are 5 things you can do, daily, to give yourself a fighting chance against depression.  They are the following.

 

Get 6-8 hours of sleep.

Eat 3 healthy meals a day.

Be consistent with your hygiene, daily exercise, after consulting your primary care doctor for safety reasons.  Avoid isolating behaviors.

 

All of the significance of these activities will be explained in person.  

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Arresting ruminations before they arrest you. Several different tricks can help you stop the rumination process.

 

--Get busy Perhaps one of the most effective things you can do is to make your body and mind busy with something outside of yourself. If you are absorbed in an activity, you may find it harder to engage in negative ruminations. These types of activities may include doing household chores with your favorite music playing, making a phone call, surfing something interesting and positive on the Internet, running errands, taking dogs out for a walk, (if you have any), and so on.

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--Work out Vigorous aerobic exercise or weightlifting can "exorcise" those toxic thought patterns for a time. Be sure to exercise during the day or early morning, because exercising too close to your bedtime can disrupt your sleep.

• Get up and out Rumination is more difficult when you are outside of your home or in the company of others. (In certain environments your mind must maintain a level of vigilance or try to stay tuned into others' conversation). If you know that you are more apt to ruminate during certain times of the day, you may want to try to schedule activities for these times. (Some people ruminate just before bed. Maybe step outside for about ten minutes and look at the stars, if they are present. I do that when I let our dog out to the backyard. I go out with him and look at the stars if all the storms have pushed into the Atlantic, during the summer rainy season in Florida).

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--Let your thoughts go Practice letting your negative thoughts pass by and simply observe them like pictures on a TV screen. Don't engage with it. Don't try to judge or analyze it. Just acknowledge its existence and let it go. (You know, Elsa from the "Frozen" movie).

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--Get better at redirecting your attention. You can strengthen your attention "muscles" and deliberately focus on less distressing things. I have found focusing on the promises of God or trying to imagine what the first moment in Heaven will feel like, look like, and sound like). Try using task concentration training, a method of observing your environment, because it can successfully disrupt negative ruminations.

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--Be skeptical Your depressed thoughts are a symptom of your depression, so try to take the thoughts with a grain of salt. You can resist the urge to ruminate by deciding that the thought is neither true nor important. Even if they feel important and seem worthy of introspection--they aren't. They only exist to make you feel more depressed.