Friday, November 21, 2014

Leisure vs Idleness

One of the insights from Pathway last night is that there's a big difference between leisure and idleness. Leisure can be a good thing. It sort of resets your mind, giving it a break from its usual work, so that when you get back to work, you get back fresh and ready to concentrate and work effectively on the matter at hand. Idleness, on the other hand, is never a good thing. It wastes time and can distract you from your work. Rest is important. Idleness is important to avoid.

But here's the tricky part: Some activities are almost always idleness, while other activities could be leisure or idleness. The difference is in what the activity does to your mind. When you're done with the activity (assuming you're ever "done" with the activity), are you ready to focus again, or has your mind kind of shut down? Remember that a short break should invigorate your mind. And there's the key: duration. Many leisurely activities become idleness when you spend too much time on them. Taking a quick nap is sometimes a great idea. Taking long naps is rarely effective.

The idea is moderation. Work is vitally important, but if you work yourself too hard for too long, you can burn yourself out. Taking breaks can help you work more effectively and maintain balance, but resting too long can throw you out of balance again. We must be judicious about how we spend out time, including our leisure time. Some activities are more refreshing than others, and the amount of time you spend on any activity has a strong influence on whether the activity is beneficial to you or not. Make some time for leisure - but just make sure it's not too much time.

2 comments:

motherof8 said...

Another consideration? Alone or with your family or friends. We all do need to do things that are important/interesting to us as individuals and we need some alone time. We all should learn to be comfortable with just ourselves. But what I was thinking was that what might be too much time on a leisure activity solo, becomes a whole 'nuther animal when you are spending time doing the same thing with family - sharing, interacting, creating memories. A lot of time playing Solitaire might be idleness. The same amount of time playing card games with your family might be bonding. What say you?

Andrew Robarts said...

I agree. Plus, games are more fun when you play them with friends and family than when you play them by yourself.