Good Balance of Work and Fun - Essay Example

Leisure In Mind Assessment #2 Part One: A Reflective Essay In our lives, coming up with a good balance of work and fun is essential to our well-being. Eckersley (2004) identifies the things that enhance one’s well-being as marriage, religion, friends, work, leisure, health and money. It also comes from one’s capacity for control, self-esteem and optimism. Being adaptable, ability to work toward goals and a sense of coherence add to personality traits that lead to one’s happiness. Eckersley also believes that a sense of belonging is fundamental to human motivation and accepts that one’s sense of meaning and purpose is paramount to his experience of true happiness. The growing attention to the study of more positive things is a welcome shift in psychological research. It has been said that happiness is a decision one makes for himself. If that statement is true, then it is an indication that happiness can be learned, and so, is accessible to anyone seeking it. Wallis (2005) highlights the belief that people can change their levels of happiness by working on three components namely getting more pleasure out of life; becoming more engaged in what one does and finding ways of making life more meaningful. This leads us to the definition of leisure, which is something most people leave out of their lives and then wonder why they dwell on misery. Neulinger (1981) posits that leisure is “a state in which the person feels that what he or she is doing is done by choice and because one wants to do it” (p. 15). A person engages in it with his own volition and is not pushed by an external force to do so. Further, Neulinger states that “leisure is not just a component of the quality of life, but the very essence of it. It is not a neutral state of mind, but a positive, highly desirable one, and an important value. Leisure in my opinion is the guideline needed for any decision relating to the quality of life” (1984, p. 66) The study of leisure has brought it up to a higher level naming it “Serious Leisure”. Stebbins (2006) defines it as thus: “the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or volunteer activity that people find so substantial, interesting, and fulfilling that, in the typical case, they launch themselves on a (leisure) career centered on acquiring and expressing a combination of its special skills, knowledge, and experience” (p. 5). This essay picks out two leisure episodes from my life as I see them. I shall lead the reader through the details of my leisure experience and explain some theoretical background that may explain it. Leisure Episode #1: Watching a Live Stand-Up Show in a Comedy Bar It was a weekday, and I do not usually go out at night. However, this assignment gave me a reason to escape a ho-hum evening at home doing routine chores and endlessly watching TV shows on cable. So I was supposed to take a leisurely time for myself and get credit for it… how cool is that? It was something I was not used to doing, as my leisure activities are limited to movie watching, strolling in the mall and eating in fastfood restaurants during weekends. From our lectures, this is considered “Leisure-Work” because it is an activity I am freely engaging in knowing I would derive both intrinsic (enjoyment of the activity) and extrinsic (complying with the requirement of the assignment) rewards. Tonight, I go to a comedy club to watch newbie comedians take their shot at stand-up comedy. I leaned back, willing my stresses to stay home as I decide to enjoy the evening. With a cool Margarita drink on hand and crunchy snacks on the table with my closest friends…..it promised fun, laughter and bonding for the night. From the first lady who stood up onstage wearing an outrageous costume and out of this world make up and hairstyle, I was captivated! I hung on to every line and rewarded each funny quip she delivered with my hearty belly laugh. Once in a while, I would slap my friends on their backs and they would slap mine as a sign that they totally agreed with the jokes and enormously enjoyed the show! During the breaks between sets, my friends and I used the idle time to catch up on each other’s lives or recall a favorite joke we just recently heard in the bar. The great company, along with the fun food and drinks greatly enhanced my enjoyment of this particularly interesting leisure activity. I know, years from now, my friends and I may forget the comedians and their jokes, but the memory of our togetherness and the pleasure we experienced as friends will forever be etched in our minds and hearts. One of my favorite leisure activities is engaging in humor. In the recent experience I had at the comedy bar, I realized that some of the concepts we took in class were brought to life. The creative comedians exhibited “Csikszentmihalyi’s flow”. It was apparent that they fully enjoyed what they were doing, and were really in their elements while doing their jobs delivering joke after joke. Their heightened senses were also very alert to comments from the audience and were quick enough to react accordingly, branding the comments with their humor. The audience, in turn, were taking their leisure “seriously”. Humor serves a variety of purposes. People use it all the time in social situations. A significant amount of research indicates that humor is valuable in coping with life’s challenges (Martin, R.A.,1996; Martin, R. A., & Lefcourt, H. M.,1983; Miczo, N, 2004) It alleviates stress and can be resorted to in building stronger interpersonal relationships. Studies on humor’s implications on physical health have likewise been done and it shows that “there is very little evidence of stress-moderating effects of humor on health-related outcomes, using existing self-report measures of sense of humor and life events measures of stress” (Martin, 2001, conclusion, para. 13). However, it was also contended that certain types of humor may be effective with certain types of stress. Aristotle defines comedy as the imitation of a ludicrous action. Such action may be a defect that is neither painful nor destructive. Later theories decided that comedy must ‘begin turbulently and end happily’, as it imitates the ‘follies and foibles’ of men and must exaggerate a little by making the human condition seem ‘worse than life’. (Butcher, 1907) Hence, the comic experience indeed involves a conscious ‘feeling’. It is more than surprise or shock which produces laughter. Laughter due to witnessing a clumsy act such as a slip on a banana is a physiological reaction due to a slight nervous tension that was suddenly resolved. (Smith,1910.) A joke will only be funny if the reader or audience understands its meaning and punchline. However, written jokes remain to be words printed on paper waiting for a laugh from a reader who would “get it”. In contrast, jokes delivered “live” by a comedian may easily be given life by the comedian if gestures and inflection is added to effect audience impact. One important aspect of a good joke is timing. Comic timing calculates the optimum delay between the setup of the joke and the payoff. Upon hearing the joke, it takes a moment or two for the audience to process it. The effective comedian waits a beat before springing the punchline. The comedian has the benefit of gauging his audience response and may be able to calculate the timing more accurately than a joke writer (Anderson, 2001). In the processing of coming up and delivering jokes, the comedian’s “flow” presents itself and because he is within a show, such flow must be seamless or else, disruption of it may spell disaster for the comedian. One unique form of performance where the reaction of the audience is integral to the success or failure of each individual performance is stand-up comedy. It is the audience who decides which is funny or not, and a joke is funny if and only if they laugh at it. The audience laughter or any other reaction is a key aspect of meaning. (Wuster, 2006) The stand-up comedian may be considered a special type of anthropologist whose commentaries on everyday life make “obvious behavior patterns, explicit and tacit operating knowledge and other insights” (Koziski, 1997, p. 87) about society something to reflect about. “The comedian thus occupies a position of insight that allows him to show the audience unpleasant social truths, as long as the audience can laugh at them, thus disarming their radical danger” (Wuster, 2006, p. 24). Of course a comedian cannot please everybody. People have diverse interests and it may be challenging to find a match that would appreciate the jokes. These jokes must appeal to the audience’ personality and value system. The cliché “Laughter is the best medicine” is true in most situations, and people capitalize on humor to escape everyday stresses. The energizing act of sharing jokes and laughing with others is beneficial to one’s over all health. “Laughter is a natural part of the human experience. By promoting it, we can help others rediscover its benefits for themselves” (Brausa, 1993) In conclusion, humor is one thing that has the capacity to bring people together despite their differences in backgrounds and situations. The human connection is strengthened when people interpret simple events with a twist of humor just so to drive away stresses and share with others one of life’s best free gifts… Laughter. Leisure Episode #2: “Facebooking” On my free time, I log on to Facebook. This has become my lifeline to my social networks whom I do not get to be with as often as I wanted due to our very busy schedules. On this particular evening, I was surprised to see a dozen notifications, mostly pointing to a particular picture of me and my friends posted on my profile page or a comment on a status message I first commented on. I checked out each notification and could not help but smile at each one. Then I dealt with all the messages on my inbox from a variety of people with a variety of concerns! I tried to email them back, always ending with either a “smiley” or a “kissy” face, depending on the level of intimacy I have with each recipient. Tonight, I saw that one of my oldest friends was online. I reached out to her by chatting. She responded, and it was a start of a fun bounce-back of messages of catching up on about a year of not being in touch. I was having so much fun that I did not even realize I was engaged in this activity for already three hours, missing my dinner time! However, I did not mind because I spent my time updating myself with what has been happening to my family and friends who were in my contact list. I browsed through pictures, their status messages, their notes which read like journal entries, and even their achievements in the various games famously played at the website! As I logged out, I knew I was richer after three hours, of information and news I may have missed had I not been online to read them. It was a great way to spend my leisure time! One level of happiness involves the social factor. Having a sense of belonging, a connection to others is key to one’s happiness. Keeping in touch with loved ones by Facebooking is one way to find happiness. The fast-paced life of people today keeps human relationships on a standstill most of the time. The many things that occupy our time – family, school, building a career at work, etc., have made rushing from one place to another and always lacking time for everything common features in most people’s lifestyles. However, the human need to be connected to others is always present, and so people have turned to social networking sites to fulfill this need in the midst of their busy schedules, as family and friends have become more accessible and available in just a click of a button. It also offers a myriad of opportunities for meeting more people, relaxing with online games, sharing pictures and videos and an outlet to express innermost thoughts and feelings to share with others. A person may use Facebook or any social networking site as a tool to connect to other people but merely relying on such technology and not making an effort to connect in real life may leave gaps in the relationship that need to be filled. There is still nothing that beats being together emotionally, intellectually and physically. I know the present times may make it a challenge to engage in leisurely activities especially if one’s life is filled with duties and responsibilities to fulfill. However, having a regular leisure time is a worthy investment for one’s betterment. Knowing that, I should strive to achieve an optimal leisure lifestyle. Stebbins (2000) posit that such a lifestyle refers to “the deeply satisfying pursuit during free time of one or more substantial, absorbing forms of serious leisure, complemented by a judicious amount of casual leisure” (Stebbins, 2000). I have shown that in both my leisure episodes… serious leisure enjoying the comedy bar as well as casual leisure with Facebooking. Indulging in this lifestyle not only means enjoying leisure activities to the fullest but also, it makes one realize the enormous human potential one possesses and can cultivate. When both are achieved, quality of life and well-being are likewise attained. Part Two: Learning Outcomes Vs Assessment Criteria Selected Unit Learning Outcome: Demonstrate a confident appreciation of the key relationships between leisure and the individual. Related Assessment Criteria: Acknowledge and communicate what part leisure- related psychology play in our understanding of the field. My essay demonstrated both my personal insights as well as culled information from my own research and notes from the lecture. I tried hard to incorporate the theoretical knowledge I have gained with the practical knowledge and experiences I have. I have raised various points that relate to leisure being part of one’s happiness and well-being. The overwhelming knowledge I have amassed in the course excited me and I wanted to squeeze in everything in the essay. However, I did not want to just come up with a hodgepodge of information carelessly thrown in, so I had to be discerning in selecting which theories I wanted to include. No doubt, the definition of leisure had to be inserted, and I chose the basic ones by Neulinger and Stebbins. My first leisure episode on watching a comedy show in a bar applied the knowledge of distinguishing Stebbins’ definition of serious leisure and “Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of Flow”. As the performers in the comedy bar seemingly engaged in a seamless flow with the jokes they delivered, and even incorporating audience responses, serious leisure was being indulged in by the audience as we thoroughly enjoyed the show, leaving our practical, worldly cares behind. My readings on humor and social interactions being necessary facets of one’s well-being were very helpful in bringing out its importance in leisure. Some people may choose a more isolated kind of leisure activity like painting, gardening, etc. However, my personality finds fulfillment in interacting with ideas and people. A very positive social encounter bonds people together and cements friendships. My preference for such has been clearly exhibited in my chosen leisure episodes. I love being connected with people and my leisure activities include this feature. In conclusion, leisure should not be considered as something frivolous and insignificant. On the contrary, research and experience prove that it is essential to one’s happiness and well-being, and should be prioritized along with the more serious tasks of work, duty and responsibility. So go ahead… have fun! Everyone needs to live a little! References Anderson, M.T. (2001) Not a Vaudeville Routine: How to Write Comic Dialogue, Horn Book Magazine, March/April 2001 Brausa, R. (1993) The Comedy Club, Psychosocial Rehabilitation Journal, Vol. 2, pp. 189-92 Butcher, (ed) (1907) Aristotles Theory of Poetry and Fine Art, 4th ed. London:1907 Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997) Happiness & creativity going with the flow. The Futurist, Sept.-October, 1997 Eckersley, R. (2004, October). Beyond happiness. In Psych, 26, 31-32 Martin, R.A. , & Lefcourt, H.M. (1983).Sense of humor as a moderator of the relation between stressors and moods. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.45, 313–1324. Martin, R.A. (1996).The Situational Humor Response Questionnaire (SHRQ) and Coping Humor Scale (CHS): A decade of research findings. Humor: International Journal of Humor Research, Vol. 9, 251–272. Martin, R.A. (2001).Humor, laughter, and physical health: Methodological issues and research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 504–519. Miczo, N. (2004), Humor ability, unwillingness to communicate, loneliness, and perceived stress: Testing a security theory. Communication Studies, Vol. 55 Neulinger (1981) Neulinger (1984) Smith, W. (1910) “Comedy and the Comic Experience”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol 7, No.3, pp. 84-87. Stebbins (2000) Stebbins (2006) Wallis, C. (2005). The new science of happiness. Time, Vol. 165, No. 3. Wuster, T (2006) Comedy Jokes: Steve Martin and the Limits of Stand-Up Comedy, Studies in American Humor, Issue 14, p23-45, 23p Read More