The Leisure Concept - Essay Example

The Leisure Concept Name Instructor Course Institution Submission Date Week 1 The question "what is leisure?" will attract different answers from different individuals. This week's lecture was aimed at answering this particular question. The primary focus was to give a definition of the term leisure. In this regard, various open questions were raised along the way. At the end of the lecture, three essential components of leisure were outlined. These components were: Freedom of choice Intrinsic motivation Enjoyment. The one thing I loved about this lecture is the various questions posed along the way. I made a personal attempt to answer all of them. Trying to find the appropriate answers proved to be engaging and enjoyable. I was motivated to read the various texts highlighted and do some more research on leisure. It come to my attention that whatever I was doing sounded pretty much like leisure because, I felt motivated by a need to find answers and other people's perspective, made a choice to research, and enjoyed every bit of the learning process. In addition, putting the questions and leisure components into consideration made me think about children's leisure and whether what they do qualifies to be defined as leisure. For an activity or experience to be leisure, the three components are paramount. However, children's leisure activities are often directed by the views and preferences of their parents and other people (nchpad.org). Therefore, it is not a surprise to see parents making children engage in activities that they do not enjoy or feel motivated to participate in. Whereas, the adults may be having a good reason for doing so, it still goes against the definition of leisure that requires indulgence to be enjoyable, voluntary and intrinsically motivated. This lecture was, therefore, good for me because it enabled me to understand the concept of leisure in a deeper and better manner. Week 2 This week's focus was on the Historic development of leisure. To achieve this target, historical development was categorized and examined according to distinct historical periods such as: Period of hunter-gatherer societies: This period lacked defined "work" times and distinction between work and leisure Greek era: Leisure was neither a free time nor a time to choose what to do. It was a time leading to real pleasure and happiness through the realization of cultural ideas and knowledge leading to virtuous choices and conduct. It was characterized by class divisions, giving rise to the "Leisured Class" of the elites. Roman era: Gave rise to a need to balance work and non-work. Leisure was hedonistic, meant for rest and recuperation to increase workers' productivity and happiness. Middle Ages: Leisure was a reflection of the feudal class, religious duties, and festivals. Individuals were at liberty to express their freedom of leisure especially in Carnivals. The Era of Industrial Revolution: Gave rise to the definition of distinctive "work time" which consequently gave rise to the concept of "free time". Leisure was perceived as a human right entitled to men not women. 20th Century and the future: Depicts the 20th Century and the centuries to come where leisure has taken new dimensions with the increase in technology, professionalism, preferred lifestyles, and economic status. This lecture enabled me to understand the concept of leisure at a whole new level. I was mostly fascinated by the way in which leisure has changed over time, and cannot help but wonder how people of the ancient period would perceive our form of leisure. To an extent I agree with Veblen (2007) that leisure is for the elite and wealthy because sometimes to get the best form of leisure activity or experience, one needs money (nchpad.org) In my childhood, I always wished to spend my free time in Disney Land, or travel to space and sit on a star! As crazy and unrealistic as it sounds, this was my notion of what real leisure would be for me. However, for economic and other obvious reasons this was never possible. To make up for this unachievable ideal opportunity, I would spend hours watching films and reading books about Disney land and developed an interest in movies and articles featuring astronauts and related issues that had something to do with Space. With time I outgrew these and looking back at my childhood in relation to the week's topic, it seems that my perceptions of leisure have also evolved with time. The lecture was therefore educative and very relevant. I was able to relate to the development discussed Week 3 Whys is leisure good or important? This week's lecture answered this question by discussing the benefits and detriments of leisure. The benefits of leisure were discussed as: Economic health Mental health Physical health Psychological health Spiritual health Social health All these benefits contribute to individuals wellness and growth (nchpad.org). According to the Academy of Leisure Sciences, the benefits derived from leisure experiences exceed those derived from all the other public services (fritisvetarna.com). This is true because leisure provides an all-round benefit to the individuals as compared to other public services that concentrate on one aspect such as communication, fire protection etcetera. The lecture ended by posting a question on whether leisure has adverse effects. To this, my answer is yes. Leisure may have all the good benefits that contribute to people's healthy statuses and happiness. In fact, leisure goes a long way in helping people go up the ladder of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and attain actualization. However, there are some negative impacts. In the process of leisure and socialization, individuals may engage in non-socially acceptable forms of leisure such as illicit drug consumption and abuse. To some extent, individuals, especially young people attending music festivals in Australia tend to see the use of illegal drugs as a normal occurrence associated with leisure and the festival (Wilson, Bryant, Holt & Treloar, 2010) I would wish to add that another unique benefit of leisure that the lecture failed to address is the benefit of 'family bonding'. From a personal point of view, my family has the habit of spending leisure time together. We get together for family drives, barbecues, games and many more. As a child, I always loved the trips we made to the beach. These are among the things that families do during their leisure. This helps a lot in strengthening the family bonds and shaping individuals' reflections (fritisvetarna.com; nchpad.org). Although Family Bonding fits in the category of Social Health Benefit, I wish it was given more emphasis, a particular kind of attention. Week 4 Is there a connection between, stress, leisure and self-esteem? This is the week's focus and by the end of it, students have a vivid idea of whether the three are related in any way. The lecture also develops a discussion on each of the three aspects, and this further enhances the ease of understanding the lecture. Stress arises when challenges are above the individuals' ability, but there are other common sources of stress as outlined in the lecture. Stress does not have any positive influence on individuals. Individuals can cope through Direct action strategies which alleviate the problem or Palliative methods which divert attention away from the problem through leisure. Self-esteem is about how individuals feel about themselves. The Global- self-esteem, Self-evaluations, and feelings of self-worth determine whether an individual has low or high self-esteem. It has two components, Belonging derived from feelings of being loved and protected and Mastery derived from a perception that one is making an impact. In all these aspects, the correlation is positive whereby, the higher and positive the aspect, the higher the self-esteem and vice versa. Leisure, self-esteem, and stress are therefore related. My primary concern was not a particular aspect but the way in which the three are related. When one is facing a challenge that seems to be too hard to deal with, anxiety and stress comes in. As a consequence leisure no longer holds any eminence and self-esteem falls substantially. This is the case even in school whereby students with high self-esteem report lower extents of perceived stress (Gerber & Puhse 2008). I am thankful for this week's lecture because it gave me a better way of dealing with stress. I do not have issues with self-esteem, but the lecture put me in a better position to deal with people who have self-esteem issues. Week 5 The focus of this week's lecture was to shed light on the leisure patterns in the contemporary society with particular attention directed towards Australia. It elucidated what Australians do in their free time, why they do it, what they did in the past and what the future holds in as far as leisure and free time are concerned. To achieve the week's target, the lecture was divided into three key elements: Basis of Leisure Industries: Grouped into Music, Arts, Visual Art, Television, etcetera Major historical pattern of leisure in Australian and influence of immigration Examination of ERASS statistics on the latest participation figures and why things are changing. My point of interest was on the first element that outlined the basis of the leisure industries because of the universal application of this factor. I love spending time in the park, working out in the gym and visiting the sports club on weekends. In one way or the other, I make use of opportunities provided for by the Public sector through the Park, the Private Sector through the gym, and the Non-Profit Sector through the sports club. Technology has an influence on the types of leisure that these sectors provide whether in the form of performance Arts, Music, Television, Visual Arts etcetera (Mokhtarian, Salomon & Handy 2005). It was also enlightening to learn about the development of technological advances in Australia dating back to the years 1902-1945. Through this lecture, I was able to conceptualize the various stages that the pattern of leisure has gone through in Australia. Technology plays a significant role as people adopt hi-tech leisure activities, and all I can say is that leisure development patterns are not about to come to an end. I can only imagine the great things that the future holds in regards to leisure. Summary The five weeks' lectures on leisure were well prepared, easy to understand, interesting and engaging enough to motivate me to do more research. Although I had a clue of what leisure was, I never gave it much thought prior to this course. I did things because I was used to doing them. I would watch a movie to relieve stress, watch a game with my friends, go shopping or do whatever else that would occupy my time. But with the knowledge derived from this course, I will use my leisure in ways that will develop my well being. References Discover Leisure Education (nd). Available from: http://www.nchpad.org/discoverleisure/leisure4.html [Accessed 8 April 2015] Gerber, M., & Pühse, U. 2008. "Don't crack under pressure!”—Do leisure time physical activity and self-esteem moderate the relationship between school-based stress and psychosomatic complaints?. Journal of psychosomatic research, 65(4), 363-369. Mokhtarian, P.L, Salomon, I. & Handy S.L. 2006. The Impacts of ICT on leisure activities and travel: A conceptual exploration. Transportation, 33(3), 263-289 The Academy of Leisure Sciences (nd). White paper #7: The benefits of leisure. Available from: http://www.fritidsvetarna.com/1_Kultur_och_fritid/7_Benefits_of_Leisure.pdf [Accessed 8 April 2015] Veblen, T. 2007. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Oxford University Press. Wilson, H., Bryant, J., Holt, M., Treloar, C. 2010. Normalisation of recreational drug use among young people: Evidence about accessibility, use and contact with drug users. Health Sociology Review 19(2) pp 164-175. Read More

 

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