What are the benefits of recreational activities essay?

“All Work and no Play make Jack a dull boy” goes a popular saying.

The significance of this saying has increased manifold in today’s fast-paced and competitive world where students are forced by both their guardians and the conglomerate of society and situations as a whole to devote increasing hours in academic learning , whether theoretical or practical and knowledge enhancing activities so that they can stay ahead in the rat race. Add to that the present way of life where people mostly stay in small nuclear families and with parents working, the viability of our own home as a place where we can have recreational time has diminished.

What is recreation?

Recreation consists of activities or experiences carried on within leisure, usually chosen voluntarily by the participant – either because of satisfaction, pleasure or creative enrichment derived, or because he perceives certain personal or social values to be gained from them. It may, also be perceived as the process of participation, or as the emotional state derived from involvement.

Students, especially in higher education, now spend most of their time with college friends and outside of home for various purposes and work. Hence, in the current scenario, the best place to include recreational activities in one’s life is one’s place of education rather than at home. This not only provides a chance to include recreations in one’s life, but also helps students to socialize and become less dependent on one’s parents.

Before analyzing the effect of recreations in educational curriculum, it is important to know the impacts and necessity of recreations in one’s life as a whole. Due to the intricacies in present day society and the way of living, students nowadays are weaker than their older generations, both physically and emotionally. This gets reflected in their physical, emotional and mental health as well as their behavior and development which all the more calls for bestowing on recreations the importance that it deserves. Various studies have shown the importance of recreations on one’s life specifically in three aspects- physical health, mental health and improving quality of life.

• Physical Health: Recreational activities, especially outdoor ones improve one’s health like maintaining lower body fat percentages, lowering blood and cholesterol levels, increasing muscular strength, flexibility, muscular endurance, body composition and cardiovascular endurance. Overall it increases one’s stamina and energy level resulting in more focus for academic activities besides also having an impact on one’s class attendance and attention thus leading to more learning. And as we all know “health is wealth”.
• Mental Health: Mental health is essential for overall physical health. Recreational activities help manage stress. It provides a chance to nurture oneself and provides a sense of balance and self-esteem, which can directly reduce anxiety and depression. There is also an increased motivation to learn as it can serve as a laboratory for application of contents learnt in classrooms teaching. It provides a channel for releasing tension and anxiety thus facilitating emotional stability and resilience. Such activities help students to become more self-reliant, emphatic and self-disciplined.
• Improved Quality of Life: People who make recreation a priority are more likely to feel satisfied with their lives overall, according to an American Recreation Coalition Study, 2000. Recreational activities help create a balance between academic pressures with physical and mental well-being. The effects of recreation are multifold. It enriches self-expression, self-fulfillment ability, interpersonal skills, techniques and methods of using leisure, physical strength, creative expression, and aesthetic sense. Such attributes have a favorable effect on human beings who have limits in everyday life. Therefore, recreation is allowed to be used as a tool of therapy (Lee, 2000). Physical activity-based recreation helps participants recover from the deteriorated physical strength, caused by the lack of exercise, and develops the latent ability to achieve self-realization. This also helps people to deal with common day to day problems more effectively as it makes people more optimists and with a positive outlook to life.

Coming to the point of including recreational activities in educational curriculum, it can be said that the present generation spends less of their time in natural surroundings leading to a weakening of senses both physiologically and psychologically. Guardians, academic institutions as well as the government should find out every possible opportunity to include recreations in a student’s life for an overall holistic development of mind and body. If such opportunities are lessening in a home set up, then it should be part of the educational curriculum where a student spends majority of his/her time. In fact, recreational activities in an educational set up will be academically more enriching for the student in many ways:

• Students are more enthusiastic to learn in outdoor learning activities as compared to traditional indoor setting and also more motivated. They also develop a better attitude towards the environment and more responsible behavior
• It helps in building communication skills and team building as students have to work in groups to solve problems. There will be more discussions of ideas and feedbacks and helps students to resolve conflict among themselves
• It also helps in boosting memory as there is more practical experience and the information can be soaked up wholly by the brain in a more fresh and fascinating environment
• It also helps in moral development as students get the opportunity to undertake leadership, question actions and regulations and accept responsibility for their own behavior.
• Enhances peer relationships and interpersonal skills. Students can also excel in areas other than academics where they have an interest. Recreational activities can give a chance to discover talents other than academic excellence which can later help one in the career and life as a whole.

Overall it can be said that, recreational activities help in overall development of a student’s physically, mentally, and emotionally. It not only helps to gather knowledge but to use it ethically to lead a healthy and better life. It teaches one to think with reason and live with a more practical approach to life. It also enhances ones all round development, thus helping to achieve success in ones endeavors.

About the Author

Ms. Rituparna Devi is currently working as Junior Batch-in-Charge in Pune Institute of Business Management. Prior to this, she has worked as an Assistant Project Engineer in IIT Guwahati for 1.5 years. She holds Bachelors of Engineering Degree in Electronics & Communication from Tezpur Central University, Assam and MBA in Finance from National Institute of technology, Silchar.

Do you feel totally drained after a long day? Maybe you feel so stressed out that you think you don’t have the energy to face another day in your life. Life in this century is extremely hectic, tiring and stressful for a good number of people. It could empty you of physical and mental strength.

Our lives are so busy that most of us have forgotten how important it is to set apart time for fun, leisure, and recreation. You need to understand the importance of balancing your life with work and recreational activities.

Leisure time activities can include playing an indoor game, listening to music, taking a walk in the park, playing with your children or pets, social dancing, aerobics or a work-out in the gym. Engaging yourself in some kind of recreational activity that excites you is the best way to bring down unwanted worries, tensions, and stress and you feel happier and healthier. What are some of the major benefits of recreational activities?

Stronger bonds with family

There are many activities that a family can enjoy doing together on a daily basis. It could be anything like a board game, or table tennis that you play indoors, or outdoor games like badminton, or volleyball or watching a movie, or a walk or jog in the park or playing with pets. Setting apart time to engage in leisure time activities with your family is one of the best ways to bring down stress and unwanted worries. This also builds stronger bonds among the members of the family. The care, attention, and security that you get within your family will help you decide how happy you are. This will, in turn, add to your overall health and well-being.

Reduced levels of anxiety and stress

Having a calm and clear mind is important for any person to function normally. Your mental well-being decides on how well you perform each day and how successful you are. People who continue to work like a machine each and every day with no recreational activities are likely to be stressed and drained out in no time and this will stop them from achieving their plans and goals. Engaging in recreational activities with your friends and loved ones on a regular basis will bring down tensions and stress and help you maintain a proper balance in your lives.

Makes you healthy and fit

Engaging in recreational activities like a walk, jog, aerobics, a favorite sport, dance or regular workouts on a daily basis helps you stay physically strong, fit and healthy. This is good for removing sluggishness, prevents unwanted diseases, gives you better levels of concentration and helps you stay focused. Your blood results are likely to stay within the normal range and you can cut down on the number of visits to your doctor.

Better levels of motivation and self-esteem

Participating in leisure time activities on a regular basis not just helps you stay focused and happy. It improves your level of confidence and self-esteem. You feel strongly motivated to perform to the best of your ability.

Quality of your life

Recreational and leisure time activities help you to attain a proper balance in your lives. This brings about a level of contentment in your life and you feel totally free of unwanted worries and stress. This, in turn, helps a person to perform better and be successful. Thus the overall quality of your life is improved.

Increased levels of productivity ensuring successful lives

Participating in recreational or leisure time activities on a regular basis gives a person a better level of confidence, good memory, emotional and mental stability, optimism, excellent decision-making skills, and independence. It’s highly unlikely that they suffer from tension, worries, anxiety, stress, confusion, or anger.

This will increase their level of performance which adds to their productivity and fruitfulness. They are sure to be successful in their lives. Staying healthy and fit ensures that an employee attends office without having to take leaves on account of falling sick. This, in turn, will add to the success and growth of a business or organization.

All work and no play will surely make you dull, boring and unproductive. Even if we have set apart a time for leisure in our day to day lives, most of the time it gets pushed to a day off from work. You need to maintain a perfect balance between work, recreational activities and rest to be physically and mentally fit and to be fruitful and successful in life.