What if the opposite of depression isn’t happiness, but vitality.

This post was inspred by a recent PechaKucha Night event in Cape Town. (PechaKucha is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each. The format keeps presentations concise and fast-paced, and allows for multiple speaker events).

I’ll get straight to it.

One of the speakers touched on the topic of depression and how, in his eyes, happiness isn’t the opposite of depression, but vitality is. This got me thinking.

I did a google search for vitality and found the following: Vitality is life, life force, health, youth, or ability to live or exist. The word vitality is derived from the Latin word vita, which means “life.”

Much has been written about chasing the (ever elusive) state of happiness, and there seems to be more focus on mental health these days (a good thing), but I really liked the ‘step back’ approach here.

But what does this really mean? And how to be more vital…..

Personally speaking, and not wanting to sound preachy, I think there are common threads which help, such as:

Eating healthy food / regular exercise / a meditative practice / regular yoga / spending time in nature / cultivating a passion / spending time with positive, supportive people / taking rest and recovery.

But, what resonated with me, and what really promoted this post, was the realisation of vitality ‘as a base’.

After all, what’s the point chasing around trying to be happy! Plus, the better you are in yourself, the better you are for other people, and I believe this perpetuates out.

Have a great day.