Leisure is time at one’s own disposal; time which we can spend as we like. Most of us, however, hane to keep ourselves busy doing something for betterment of our lives. The students have to work hard at their lessons to ensure good grades. Grown – up professionals have to work most of their time for a living, and yet have more or less leisure time at their disposal.
What use do we make of our leisure hours?
Many simply waste their leisure time in doing nothing. They will just sit with vacant minds and idle round in an aimless way. What do they miss?
Others craving for change and excitement spend all their leisure in noisy amusement like pictures, dances or variety shows, etc. an occasional dance or drama or variety show is all right, but to spend all one’s time in hectic and restless activities is exhausting and unsatisfying. Certainly it does not fit one for serious work. And some indulge in gambling, etc. , which do them moral harm.
All these ways of spending our leisure time are abuse of leisure. Time are abuse of leisure. How can we use our leisure wisely, so as to get real benefit and lasting pleasure from it?
Leisure should be used for recreation – that is re- creation”. Besides bringing relief and change from our regular work, leisure would restore our energies. It would make us fit for work again. Leisure need not be mere rest or doing nothing.
A change of occupation is rest and the best way of using our leisure is to find something definite to do that interests us and that is quite different from our regular work.
A desk worker, for example, who needs fresh air and exercise, will find gardening an excellent work for his liesure hours, while a professional gardener who needs physical rest will find pleasure and relief in an indoor game book. This is where a good nook. This is where a good hobby comes in, for it gives us something definite and interesting to do inour leisure time.
A hobby is any interesting subject or pursuit, not our main business, which we take up for our amusement in our leisure hours. What is business to one man may be a hobby to another. For example, a professional photographer may have gardening as his hobby and a paid gardener may make a hobby of photography. There are many different kinds of hobbies. You can choose one that interests you most.
Many people like to collect foreign stamps. They take great pains to arrange them neatly in an album. Each stamp is a storehouse of knowledge for them. Stamps generally depict some aspect of history, geography, culture or flora and fauna of a country. The collector thus acquires a lot of knowledge about foreign countries.
Others make collections of wild flowers and ferns. They press and mount their specimens. Some again collect sea shells or fossils of different kinds of rocks, marbles and crystals. Some people collect coins of different countries. They collect coins of different periods of history. Such hobbies do not cost much and are within the reach of all.
But others such as collecting pictures, rare old books, curios and antiques are a bit expensive. You have to spend a lot of money in acquiring an old piece of art or very rare old book.
Again, photography makes an interesting and instructive hobby. For those who have the gift of sketching, painting, wood carpentry and picture framing, it is a costly hobby. You have to have a good camera and the other equipments, for which you need a lot of money.
Many people take interest in gardening, especially in cultivation of some speacial flowers, such as roses. Some people turn it into profession later on. Hobbies if pursued properly change the course of life of some people.
Still other hobbies take the form of games and sport. Outdoor games such as golf, tennis, cricket or football or indoor games such as chess and card – games are the favourite amusement of many people in their leisure hours. Men make all kinds of sports into hobbies,such as hunting, fishing, boating and yatching. It is a good thing to have a hobby. This makes a person happy on his holidays and is not likely to get into mischeif when he has nothing to amuse himself with.
A good hobby will give him not only much pleasure but also instruction. Hobby is a Godsend to those who have retired after a busy life and have no regular work to occupy their time. A man who has not cultivated a hobby feels lost when he has to retire from business and has nothing to do.
Thus,proper use of leisure helps us ward off boredom and gain knowledge too.