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Leisure and work make a balanced life
Work is most important for livelihood, no doubt. But unless you enjoy your leisure time in fruitful ways away from work, you will not be able to derive renewed motivation for work and life. So, an intelligent balance between Work and Leisure is essential for a successful life. Leisure time is actually related to hobbies. There are many types of hobbies. You are free to pick up your choices. This is why Bertrand Russell wrote the great book: “In Praise of Idleness.” That is, you should enjoy hobbies in your idle time. It deals with the importance of Leisure so that you will become more productive in your working life. The greatest scientist Albert Einstein was once requested to give a formal definition of happiness. He replied: “Happiness is a function of three variables- Work, Play and Ability to keep your mouth shut.” So, remain happy by achieving a balance between Work and Leisure.
What is leisure?
Leisure is generally defined as a free time which is spent away from work, job, business etc. It is also away from other activities like eating, sleeping, studying etc. It’s the time when one is free from its routine work. It’s time to pursue something from passion or heart for positive relaxation. It gives relief from labor or profession and fills oneself with energy to start again their routine. One can use leisure time by doing whatever they want. One can play, paint, sing, listen to music, and do gardening and many other things. Working for a long period of time or studying hard drains all our energy and as a result, we become exhausted. Then leisure is can rejuvenate us, renew our life as if we are beginning our life anew. So, leisure becomes all too important during such phases.
As every word has its origin in history, the word “leisure” is derived from the Latin word Licer which means "to permit or to allow". The idea and concept of leisure are very specific to a specific individual. It can be relaxing and enjoying one and stressful for another one.
What is the importance of leisure?
It helps one to feel fresh by regaining energy. Participation in leisure and recreating activities can help one manage and reduce stress and depression. It makes a person able to balance their life. It relieves boredom and improves one's physical and emotional health.
Mental wellness is an important part of our life. It impacts one's physical wellbeing also. Taking part in leisure with family also benefits kids as it models healthy ways to manage stress. Leisure reduces depression. Focusing on enjoyable leisure activities helps one find rest from daily life’s activities and stress. It also helps to build one's communication skills and self-esteem. Group activities benefit the people who are shy as they learn to communicate. Stepping back from work helps one clear the mind and return to work refreshed.
What are the benefits?
One of the main benefits is that it brings balance to one's life. It helps maintain a work-life balance by reducing stress. It enhances the immune system, improves memory and one also gets to sleep better. It renews life in every morning. It strengthens the union between the body-mind-soul. Depending on your leisure choice, it helps you learn many things new. If you spend leisure in classical music, you will power improves. If you are an avid follower of Yoga in leisure, it makes you mentally and physically the strongest person; your aging diminishes. It goes on.
What is work?
Work is the root of a meaningful life. It is the path of one's independence and also essential for survival and flourishing. It is essential for social progress. Work is a virtue and a necessity. Work has different dimensions such as work for making a living, work for developing one's talent and potential. Work helps us to grow as an individual and fulfill the task of having born as a human. To get paid for work one needs to devote a lot of time and energy. In this way, one can increase wealth to live a fruitful life, fulfill needs and also pursue goals. Work is different for different people based on age, need, skill, talent, circumstances, desires and other situations. As we all are interconnected, we produce and benefit from work and that of other individuals whose work might have an influence upon us. Work is an essential tool through which one can have a meaningful life. As productiveness is one of the most important parts of a meaningful life and a process by which we control our existence and translate our ideas and values into physical form, some need to work to be productive. Work helps us shape our personal identity as it is the building brick of the community. Work organizes our life and gives a reason to wake up in the morning. It also makes us understand the meaning of life. We can get tired of work, frustrated but at the end of the day when we are able to pay the bills, support family, we will surely understand the value of work. When we work, we produce a material value that helps us to survive and flourish. It is an inseparable part of our life. People differ in terms of many characteristics such as intelligence, talents, family, academics etc. So, depending on that, people can choose their types of work to be pursued.
What is the importance of work?
Whether one is paid or not, work is good for health and wellbeing. It builds our self-confidence, self-esteem and makes us happy financially. It provides us with money to support and explore. It gives a sense of pride, identity, achievement. Work makes people healthier and happier than those who do not work. It teaches us to become humble by involving in small talks. It gives us an opportunity to interact with a lot of new people and learn something new from them. Work functions as a balancing act, helps us progress in and outside our workplace.
How should we balance leisure and work?
It is necessary to achieve a balance between work and leisure. Research has found positive relationships between work and leisure. Sometimes tight schedules leave us feeling exhausted. On the other hand, spending a lot of time on fun activities means that nothing productive has been done. Doing only whatever is asked or whatever we want is not natural and scientific. Most people in this competitive world suffer from a lack of balance in life. Unbalanced people are affected by various heart and nerve-related ailments. So, in order to enjoy life and work, we need to create the right kind of balance between work and leisure, between duty and relaxation, between work and play. It will also help us to get our work done without getting exhausted and at the same time, we can also do whatever makes us happy. The first thing we can do is to improve the quality of activities so that we can get a lot more out of them using less time. Many of our activities are not that much productive. On the other hand, having time to do things is not enough. There are tasks that need a lot of effort, focus. So, by increasing energy levels, it is easy to focus rather than waste time. Working intelligently, taking breaks will cut down on the amount of time needed to spend on working. One needs to separate work and leisure time. Both of them are important to us and so balance is needed to maintain happiness and peace in our mind. We should understand that taking breaks from our daily schedule is important to release our body and mind. We must be aware of the requirement of our leisure. Taking a whole day off from routine recycles the motivation required to achieve goals. This is why Bertrand Russell wrote the great book: “In Praise of Idleness.”
Albert Einstein was once requested to give a formal definition of happiness. The greatest scientist replied: “Happiness is a function of three variables- Work, Play and Ability to keep your mouth shut.”
Time is the only variable in this universe, and that too is non-renewable. So, time is the most important factor in everybody’s life as well as for the whole of the Universe. Only time will teach us as we get aged, nobody can. And it is in a highly limited supply. So, we must prioritize our allocation of time. We can prioritize our tasks by categorizing them as urgent, important, less urgent, less important, trivial etc. We can set our work time by understanding our peak time. For example, if one wakes up early in the morning, then he/she can assign tough, high concentration tasks to the mornings. We can set our working hours. We can create a timeline for our activities. It's also important to make exercise and Yoga - must-do priority. We should give exercise (and Yoga) as much priority as making money. A healthy body means a fresh mind which leads to better functioning and completing tasks in less time. Only a healthy body mind soul can enjoy the beauties of life. One of the main important things is to be realistic. We must perform a self-analysis at the end of the day, each day.
