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Depressed by the state of the world? Deepak Chopra shares the first step to finding joy again.

The author of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success shares his life-changing advice in an exclusive interview with Upworthy.

via Canva/Photos and Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons.

A depressed woman and Deepak Chopra.

It’s becoming increasingly difficult for people to shake the deep-seated sense of dread about where the world is headed. Every day, we are subjected to images of bombs dropping on civilians, massive icebergs falling into the ocean due to climate change, masked men pulling people off the streets for deportation, constant political chaos, and a culture changing so fast due to technology, it’s easy to be overwhelmed.

Added to this is a lingering sense of brokenness that persists from the COVID-19 pandemic era. The result is that in the United States, more people are being diagnosed with depression than ever before. To help our readers break free from the current sense of helplessness, we sat down with Deepak Chopra at Aspen Ideas: Health to hear his thoughts on overcoming depression.

Chopra is a Consciousness Explorer and a world-renowned pioneer in integrative medicine and personal transformation. He is also a Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, and serves as a senior scientist with Gallup Organization. He told Upworthy that the most common problem people ask him about these days is depression.

 deepak chopra, wisdom, consciousness, deepak chopra wisdom, deepak chopra speech, deepak in the uk Deepak Chopra, author and guru, at the SXSW London festival hosted in London, England during June 2025.via Deepak Chopra/Wikimedia Commons

“It's just people in general right now are stressed, anxious, and depressed. And that's because of all the things that are happening in their environment, social ecosystem, political systems, war, climate change, health,” he told Upworthy. He notes that although tough times aren’t new, modern stress seems to take a deeper toll.

“Because we have modern capacities for war, drones, nuclear weapons, cyber warfare. And for the first time, I think we are risking extinction. [Instability] has been happening since Medieval times. But Medieval tribal bonds and modern technology is a dangerous combination. So it's much worse than it's ever been,” he said.

What's the first step to overcoming depression, according to Deepak Chopra?

 depression, saddness, sad man, depressed man, mental health A man holding his head in his hands.via Canva/Photos

Chopra says that those who are experiencing depression or are just feeling down should ground themselves in their “essential being” (more on that later). But, more practically, they should spend time with people who lift them up. “Hang out with people who are joyful with only one purpose: to create joy in the world. Create joy for yourself. Hang out with joyful people and help create joy in the world,” he told Upworthy. “Joy is the only antidote for suffering. And joy is our fundamental state of being. It's not the same thing as happiness, which is the opposite of sadness. Joy is what you see in an innocent child that is happy for no reason whatsoever. It's our fundamental state of being before we get bamboozled by the hypnosis of social conditioning.”

To find out what Chopra means by being “grounded in your essential being,” we consulted his digital twin at DigitalDeepak.AI. Chopra has created an AI that encapsulates all of his teachings throughout his illustrious career, allowing everyone to access his wisdom at any time.


The concept of essential being, according to Digital Deepak:

Being grounded in your essential being is about connecting with the deepest part of yourself—the true self that exists beyond the fluctuations of the mind and the distractions of daily life. It is about recognizing that, at your core, you are pure consciousness —a field of infinite possibilities and potential.

When you are grounded in this essential state, you experience a profound sense of peace and stability. You become anchored in a state of awareness that transcends the temporary and ever-changing nature of the external world. This grounding allows you to navigate life's challenges with a sense of ease and fearlessness, as you are deeply connected to the eternal power within you.


Sometimes, we can become so overwhelmed by world events that it's easy to overlook the basic things we need to be happy and healthy. That's why Chopra's belief in the importance of maintaining positive social relationships with others, especially during stressful times, is crucial to our mental well-being. If you are feeling down, it's essential to get out and spend time with positive, uplifting people. But it's also crucial to get help from a trained mental health professional.

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A former CIA analyst tweeted out advice for coping with depressing news. It went viral.

As a former CIA military analyst, Cindy Otis has faced some incredibly difficult situations.

"For most of my career as a CIA military analyst and manager, I was around negative or disturbing content," Otis writes in an email. "It was my job to look at security issues — such as political instability, war, and terrorism — in foreign countries and help senior U.S. government officials think through what they could do about them. It was important in my career to find ways of coping with the deluge of information so that I could be useful to the federal government while still maintaining my humanity."

Photo courtesy of Cindy Otis.

‌For Otis, who's also a lifelong disability advocate, checking out of politics has never been an option — but she's found a balance.

She also knows that not everyone has her background or training.

With more and more of us feeling dismayed by the 24-hour-news cycle — do we talk about anything else anymore? — Otis decided to share her knowledge to help other people.

She released a tweetstorm of how to handle depressing news and not only still be able to function, but persevere.

It went viral.

First, she validated the fact that being inundated with negative content is bad for our minds and our health. ‌‌

Then Otis provided ideas for action. She says she wanted to help people make progress without giving in to the instinct to shut down. Finding a balance maintaining awareness and action and still caring for yourself is tricky.

"I wanted to chart a pathway forward for people to work through those feelings so they can still take action," Otis says. "Ultimately, I hope it will keep people from checking out. Ignorance and apathy are two key things that got our country to this point."

You can't be "checked in" all the time. Getting overloaded won't help move the needle of progress.

Finding balance is key.

For Otis, a part of that balance is not following the president on Twitter. "Being outraged at each new tweet from him sucks up valuable energy," she says, "when what we need to be worried about are things like the chipping away of our government institutions, lack of action from the GOP to prevent foreign inference in our country's affairs, and shifts in government policy on everything from the environment to immigration."

But we also can't just focus on the negative, she emphasizes. There's so much progress being made and so many ways for everyone to get involved in the change we want to see.

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