Happiness, leisure and recreation

Abstract

Leisure is viewed by most people as a desirable goal in itself but ‘having’ leisure can be problematic because it ties expectations of happiness and contentment with a negative goal — not being occupied by work. How then do people ‘do’ leisure? How is the free time at their disposal to be filled? Unsatisfactorily-filled leisure is a frequent complaint of clients; albeit often implicit in complaints of feeling generally unhappy because of boredom or lack of friends, partners or a social community of any kind. We get the impression that what some might call ‘depression’ often seems to have a high boredom content. Some suffer the pain of loss, or of unrequited love, and some may complain of ‘loneliness’. Others cope with the boredom of leisure and the pursuit of happiness through the use of ‘leisure drugs’. This leads to excesses, addiction or loss of control, which may include criminal activity to fund a craving. The cravings are varied, including a range of ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ drugs, alcohol, tobacco — or just shopping or spending. Leisure-without-boredom is a complex construction; leisure-withcontentment/happiness is not easy to construct as many clients will see it as the absence of something, rather than the presence of something, or the doing of something specific.