Relationship between Leisure and Mental Health

The idle man only occupies himself with killing time, without seeing that time is the one who kills him. Voltaire

The analysis of leisure has a double complexity, on the one hand; the way each one practices it and, on the other hand, the concept that is had of it.

The concept of leisure also has a polysemic function (poly - many, semi - meaning). For some it is work and for others it is fun (recreational leisure), in the same way someone who is idle consumes drugs or eats excessively (negative leisure), or even their leisure time is dedicated to being with friends (social leisure) or to paint a picture or take photos (creative leisure). One more is the paradox of feeling pleasure by practicing leisure behaviors that have an immediate gratification whose result is an improvement in health and others that gradually deteriorate it despite feeling pleasure and relative calm.

Contents

• A quick look at the definition of leisure
• Leisure and neurosciences
• A biological and evolutionary explanation
•  Is leisure then good or bad for health?

A quick look at the definition of leisure

There are many definitions of leisure, some related to: free time (Wikipedia, 2016), cessation of work, inaction or total omission of activity, fun or occupation or rest (Real Academia Española, 2016), the set of operations at that the individual can voluntarily dedicate himself or his social participation or his free creative capacity (Dumazedier, 1968).

In this way leisure is related to a multiplicity of tasks. Also, there are two major classifications to understand it:

• Negative Leisure: drug use, excessive food consumption, gambling or any action that damages health or does not provide personal development or growth.
• Positive Leisure: living with family or friends, carrying out an activity that benefits health, creating a personal and social environment to develop new skills or reinforce those you already have and even make friends, contacts and businesses on social networks.

Leisure and neurosciences

If we experience a positive or negative state of leisure, the brain does not care, having a situation of well-being and unfortunately it does not matter if the pleasure is related to sex, cocaine or family life. However, each of them will bring positive or negative consequences not only to our health, but will also affect the people around us..

The so-called reward pathways of the brain are areas related to the experience of pleasure. The thoughts can activate them or some stimuli such as knowing that we will experience some activity interpreted as pleasant (expectation of happiness). By forming an addictive circle, we like to do or experience some activities and just as we experience pleasure, we like to do those activities..

The things that we like and enjoy generate pleasure, the expectation of pleasure generates pleasure and when we consume some substance to feel good, the brain is waiting for it, if we do not have it, it causes us displeasure and the so-called withdrawal syndrome, if not we have what we like and by getting that external stimulus people are capable of doing extreme things such as stealing or killing in the case of when a leisure behavior becomes an addictive relationship.

A biological and evolutionary explanation

The evolutionary psychologist Dr. Doug Lisle, explains through what he calls motivational triad how food consumption traps us, and curiously it is the same mechanism of how addictive behaviors can trap us, as well as leisure behaviors in the positive and in the negative. Lisle points out, “we have biological mechanisms given by our nature to be able to survive and pass genes from one generation to another: first, we look for pleasure as motivation and she describes, there are two things that generate that: food and sex, two other pillars, one is to avoid pain and the other to do everything with minimal effort ”(Forks over knive, 2013).

 Is leisure then good or bad for health?

In leisure we like all those things that give us pleasure (be it good or bad), we avoid pain (at least temporarily) and since we like leisure (good or bad) we do it investing the minimum effort, just because we like. However, the short-term or long-term cost of our leisure behaviors comes at a price..

In the short term, all those things that give us pleasure are enjoyed because it ignites the brain circuits specialized in it, and chemical messengers such as dopamine, the pleasure hormone and oxytocin, the hormone of peace, relationship and rest..

Oxytocin, neutralizes the stress hormone (cortisol) creating a circle of health and well-being, it is known as the calm and relationship system.

This system works most efficiently when the body is at rest and helps the body grow and heal. The ability to learn and solve problems increases when we are not under the pressure of stress. Although oxytocin levels naturally depend on a plurality of factors in each individual, such as heredity and quality of life, the results reveal that the higher the level of oxytocin in the blood, the more intense the feeling of calm and there is more absence of stress (Uvnäs, 2009)

Perform activities such as: meditation, yoga, tai chi, exercise, massage, praying, creating and maintaining bonds between people, affectionate contact, sex, breastfeeding, feeding, sunbathing , having positive thoughts and many more, are generators of oxytocin in positive leisure. We can even have a certain calm temporarily when we consume drugs, the big difference is knowing that in positive leisure this hormone is produced internally and in negative leisure it comes from a chemical that when it enters the body gives us a certain pleasure, a a certain euphoria and a certain peace, which can only be had with the consumption of the substance that in general is toxic, addictive and sooner or later makes the organism sick.

We need calm and contact, not only to avoid illness, but also to enjoy life and practically all positive leisure activities help us to achieve this goal..