Leisure Concept as an Investment - Assignment Example

Leisure concept Name Unit Date 1. What is leisure? How do we define what leisure is? What are the components of leisure? Give your own example Leisure refers to free time which one can relax or do what they choose depending on their interest. This is the time that is supposed to be used depending on one’s judgment or choice. It is time that is supposed to be utilized without any obligation. For an activity to be considered as leisure, it must be voluntary. The main distinction between work and leisure is the perceived freedom. Work has restrictions as opposed to leisure. Leisure has multiple meaning to different people and is related to the person knowledge acquired. Despite this, the upheld meaning of leisure is the free time which does not involve doing activities that helps in life sustainance. Leisure activities can be divided into four categories. These categories are; active, passive, home based and away from home. Active category involves taking part in sports such as football. This category involves physical activities, hence active. Passive involves reading or being involved in a spectative sport. Watching television and listening to music fall under home based category, while away from home category includes activities such as visiting sites of attraction (Blackshaw, 2010). The main components of leisure are sports and recreation activities, arts and entertainment, countryside recreation, home based leisure, children play activities, visitor attractions and catering. The choice between each component of leisure is determined by personal preference, age group, culture, availability, family influence, fashion, gender, social group and available resources such as money. Arts and entertainment involve visiting theaters and museums while sports and recreation involve swimming or taking part in a football game. Rock climbing and canoeing all lies under the countryside recreation and catering involves dining in restaurants or takeaways (Blackshaw, 2010). For example, hiking is a country side recreation. This involves taking long walks in the country side as a leisure activity. Those involved usually follows a hiking trail set. The time taken for hiking is related to the available leisure time. Some take a day long hike while others can take weeks through camping on their hiking trail. This type of leisure component is carried out mostly in groups, but can also be carried out personally (Blackshaw, 2010). 2. The benefits and drawbacks of Leisure. Why is leisure good or important？Why and how leisure becomes important in today’s society? Benefits of leisure Promotional of self growth and helping others Looking leisure in this aspect, it involves growing as well as assisting others. Leisure serves an important purpose in life of a person as well as others. The achievements after leisure are analyzed and the end result is given more attention in this view. This view of leisure is referred to as a social instrument view. It helps a lot in ensuring that leisure time leads to a healthy development of those involved. For example, one may be involved in visiting a children’s home or the sick during leisure time. This will not only enhance personal growth, but will also help others in the society (Blackshaw, 2010). Transformation Leisure gives a possibility to seek new experiences, skills and attain new knowledge. During leisure, it becomes possible to explore oneself and focus on change. Through this, it is possible to reinvent and get transformed. Personal transformation leads to one transforming for the better according to the changes in the environment. This has a lot of benefit in today’s world due to the rapid changes that are happening. The world is changing at a fast rate and being transformative is an important benefit of leisure (Edginton & Chen, 2008). Symbol of status One aspect of affluence is having free time and using it. For example, in the modern world, one of the characteristics of rich peoples is owning luxury vehicles, boats and jets. The affluent are capable of being involved in leisure travels and attending parties. It becomes possible to be involved in costly leisure activities which the lower social class cannot afford. Though in some cases, those in lower social class are involved in leisure activities, leisure has been a major indicator of social class (Edginton & Chen, 2008). Environmental benefits These are benefits that are accrued if the leisure time is dedicated to protecting the environment. Some of the leisure activities are geared toward having a sustainable environment. There have been recreational parks that have been created with an aim of promoting leisure. The tax that is charged on using the recreational parks, golf courses and other recreational spaces helps in maintaining the environment. For example, there are parks which have been set up with an intention of earning revenue through environmental protection. Trees and flowers are planted in these parks which apart from aesthetic value, promotes nature (Long, 2007). Drawbacks of leisure Most of the young people spend their leisure time in non useful activities. These include engaging in drugs or other negative leisure activities. This leads to the development of negative traits among the young people. In most countries, there are concerns about the effects of free time on the youth. When leisure is spent on destructive activities, it eventually leads to problems. This is seen when leisure time is spent on drugs. Spending too much time in leisure may also lead to laziness (Byrne, 2006). 3. How leisure can help improve self esteem and stress reduction? What leisure activities do you do that helps with stress? If leisure time is utilized through exercising, there are a lot of psychological benefits that can be achieved including stress reduction and improving self esteem. Having these exercises helps in reducing the cholesterol levels and also controlling chances of hypertension. Engaging in leisure activities are contributors in stress management. This is due to fact that these behaviors helps in reducing tension and anxiety which leads to mental relaxation. Leisure activities have been associated with a reduction in stress hormones, changes in mood and changes in life perspective. This leads to a sense of well being and improvements in social skills. The psychological benefits that are accrued through leisure helps the society in a great way. This is seen through having a society of healthy individuals. Mentally healthy individuals are able to work and achieve high productivity (Stebbins, 2007). Though it’s hard to completely eliminate stress regular exercises helps in coping with it. It has been proved that exercising helps in reducing fatigue and improves the level of alertness. This leads to an improved cognitive function. Through this, it is possible to reduce stress, which may reduce the ability to fully concentrate in activity (Rojek, 2010). A leisure activity that can help reduce stress is hiking or aerobics. Through hiking, the new adventure and experiences helps in reduction of stress and promoting mental wellbeing. Those who take aerobics are also able to reduce stress. This is due to fact that aerobics has a lot of cardiovascular benefits to an individual. The improved neuropsychological functioning leads to a sense of mental wellbeing of an individual involved (Roberts, 2006). Self esteem is related to how one value himself. Having a high self esteem helps in dealing with stress more easily. Taking leisure activities help in boosting self esteem which leads to effective stress management. This is because physical activities promote self awareness and boosts confidence (Russell, 2009). Regular exercises help also in eliminating spinal related problems. Most of people do exercises during their leisure time. There are also physical activities during recreation which may be motivated mostly by personal goals (Long, 2007). 4. What people actually do for their leisure and how it had changed over time? Compare the different what are we doing now and before. What do you think about the future of leisure? The activities that are done during leisure time are known as recreational activities. These activities have been changing over time. At the moment, the main recreational activities are entertainment, contemplation or mental activity, sports and exercise, music, art, dance, hobbies, games, relaxation, social activity, humanitarian services, outdoor recreation, travelling and tourism. Entertainment involves television and spectator games. These are activities that do not require the participant to put much of physical or mental efforts. Meditation is a mental activity that is done during leisure time. This is an activity that started a long time ago and is still done today (Koshar, 2002). Sports and exercise includes games such as football and aerobics. Some of the games that are played during leisure are new or have changed from their traditional setting. For example, parachuting and windsurfing are new games as compared to football, which is an old game. Leisure activities evolve as the world changes. The influence of technology has a great impact on the leisure activities. For example, the football stadiums have been modernized with high technology as compared to past football stadiums (Huggett & Manley, 2010). At the moment, a lot of expenditure is recorded in the leisure industry. Use of luxury ships among other costly facilities are utilized by the rich. This is in contrast to the past when less amount of money was used. Hiking mostly involves taking hikes or walking which are less costly. The leisure industry has also become an important part of the economy. This is due to large amount of revenue that is collected through taxes and expenditure. For example, tourist’s visits have become a major income earner in most countries. They provide foreign exchange and also boost local business such as hotels and rental services (Long, 2007). In future, leisure will become a major investment in most countries. This is due to investment that continues to increase in the tourism sector. Using recreation as a sign of social class will end completely in the future. At the moment, the concept has not been popular since most of the people in lower economic status still have their leisure time. The only difference between the high and low social classes is the equipment that is used for leisure. The rich class attends costly parties, have fancy boats and engage in world travel for leisure (Edginton & Chen, 2008). References Blackshaw, T 2010, Leisure, London, Routledge. Byrne, T 2006, Free-time and leisure needs of young people living in disadvantaged communities. Dublin, Combat Poverty Agency, Poverty Research Initiative. Edginton, C. R & Chen, P 2008, Leisure as transformation, Urbana, IL, Sagamore. Edginton, C. R., Jordan, D. J., DeGraaf, D. G., & Edginton, S. R. 2002, Leisure and life satisfaction: Foundational perspectives (3rd ed.), N.Y.: McGraw-Hill. Huggett, C & Manley, C 2010, Teaching sport and leisure 14+. Maidenhead, Open University Press. Koshar, R 2002, Histories of leisure, Oxford, Berg. Long, J 2007, Researching leisure, sport, and tourism the essential guide, Los Angeles, SAGE Publications. Roberts, K 2006, Leisure in contemporary society, Wallingford, UK, CABI Pub. Rojek, C 2010, Leisure studies, Los Angeles, Calif, SAGE. Rojek, C 2010, The labour of leisure the culture of free time, Los Angeles, Sage Publications. Russell, R 2009, Pastimes (4th edition), Urbana, IL: Sagamore. Stebbins, R 2007, Serious leisure, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers. Read More