Leisure Time in 2022?

HOW WILL YOU USE YOUR

LEISURETIME

By Rob Henderson

Back in the early 1960s, before the sixties were officially “swinging,” many scholars in America were predicting a serious social problem at the end of the twentieth century. The problem, they declared, was going to be too much leisure time. The Think Tanks of that era were sounding the alarm that a Cybernation Revolution was underway in which machines would slowly push people from the workforce and expedite our lives to the point of no longer needing a full forty-hour work week. Surely by the year 2000, idle free time would take over our lives.

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say this problem didn’t really play out as predicted. Was there a technological revolution? Absolutely. But endless leisure time? Not so much. In fact, inversely, a major concern of today’s first-world age is the acceleration of time. We can’t seem to catch up with it or find enough of it, leading to millions of Americans being overworked, overscheduled, and overwhelmed.

“Time poverty,” as it has been coined, comes with a series of concerns related to health and wellness. Our physical and mental health, relationships, families, friendships, community connections, environment, and even our safety and security all suffer when leisure time is not prioritized or intentional.

This brings me to this article’s purpose and the theme to which I intend to write about in future issues of this magazine. What is leisure time, really, and how important is it to health and wellness? How can we be more intentional with our leisure time? How can couples, families, and communities use wholesome recreation and the adventurous outdoors to make more meaningful connections? So let’s get started.

IN 2022?

About the Author

What is leisure, really?

Rob Henderson is dually

When asked to define the term leisure, licensed in addiction counseling and recreation/ many align with Google and default to experiential therapy and is a a definition of what it’s not: Leisure is Wilderness First Responder. freedom from obligation, work, and required In addition to therapy, he tasks, often escaping or recovering from responsibility and commitment. This is specializes in leisure and outdoor education, youth and family development, and known as the “freedom from” leisure paradigm. parenting. He is most known

But there are richer and more for his ability to integrate play and a variety of adventures empowering ways to view our leisure time. and backcountry pursuits into Instead of just freedom from, what if we his private practice as well as expand our view to a ”freedom to” paradigm, with his family. Visit where potential and possibility take the driver’s seat. Aristotle and Plato interpret it www.ARETherapy.com to learn more. this way: leisure is an ideal state of being devoted primarily to contemplation, discourse, and self-expression. And modern research adds that true leisure involves so much more than “not working.” It is a deeper involvement with creative absorption and therefore, intrinsically rewarding and naturally rejuvenating.

As you begin a new year, how will you carve out the freedom to create meaningful possibilities, strengthen your relationships, and increase your personal health and wellness through true leisure?

Consider searching out some of these titles for more information on this topic…if you have time. < 1. Escape from Affluenza (1998 PBS documentary) 2. Essentialism: The Disciplined

Pursuit of Less (2014, McKeown) 3. Effortless: Make it Easier to

Do What Matters Most (2021,

McKeown) 4. Visit www.TakeBackYourTime.org