Member-only story
The Importance of Making Time for Leisure
The mental and physical benefits of leisure
For lots of people, leisure is like a mirage: you can see it, far far away, but you can’t reach it.
Nowadays, we are extremely busy: job, kids, house chores, late meetings, overtime. Time doesn’t stretch long enough to do everything, which leads to neglect of leisure.
What you might have already realized is that, at one point of your fast-paced life, your body will manifest its tiredness. You will be told, by yourself, that you need a break. Either is through physical exhaustion, stress, mood swings, anger, or apathy, your body will talk to you, it will alert you that you need to make some changes in your lifestyle. Most times, small changes will be enough to see improvements.
As a wise person you are — after all, you’ve been living with yourself all your life — you know how to interpret the signs your body is sending to you.
It’s time to listen to your body: take a break from your oh-so-busy-life and include quality leisure time.
What is leisure?
Oxford dictionary defines leisure as “ Time when one is not working or occupied; free time” and “ use of free time for enjoyment.”
Leisure activities include all the things you do that give you pleasure and are not work-related: it’s any type of recreational activity.
Leisure purpose is to be an escape from work and personal worries, it’s a time you take for yourself, to disconnect. It’s a shot of positivity, to take your mind away from problems and quotidian issues.
How much time of leisure is needed to benefit from it?
There is no rule for how much leisure time you should have. We are all different, with specific needs. Even your own needs will fluctuate: sometimes you’ll need more leisure time, others less.
The duration of it will be determined by your needs. One day, five or ten minutes of reading a good book will be enough to charge your energies, others you’ll need one full hour of a fitness class to take it all out of your system.
