FREE TIME VS CREATIVE LEISURE

"The human experience of leisure is everywhere and in all people. It Is present in games, sports practices, trips, holidays, or weekends full (or empty) of music, party and a long etc. His absence could be seen in boredom, lack of integration, creativity, initiative and as a consequence in sadness, meaninglessness or Adolesc Drogadicción.

Manuel Cuenca

From an analysis of free time Cuenca establishes three different types of leisure, namely:

A passive or casual leisure, characterized by inaction or by the practice of activities that do not imply not type of challenge, nor enrich in a themarisensei way any dimension of our life, like nattabeauty for hours and hours in front of the television to see programs No more content.  It Is A leisure that Stebbins defines as "an activity that has an immediate reward and that does not require or requires very little training for its enjoyment", and points out as examples the banal conversations and the free sensory stimulation that however does not become Harmful to our body.

A harmful leisure, characterized by the practice of activities that put at risk or directly threaten, against our physical and emotional health, like consuming drugs or excessive alcohol.

And finally a Substantive leisure which, according to the same Stebbins, "implies the systematic search of an intense satisfaction by means of an amateur activity, of voluntary or of a hobby, that the participants find so important and attractive that, in most of The cases, embark on a leisure career with the intention of acquiring and expressing the skill, knowledge and experience necessary in it. "

The latter type of leisure has the following characteristics:

• Requires perseverance, discipline and effort
• Involves some kind of training or education process
• Involves a high degree of taste, identification and commitment
• Report Rewards and lasting benefits

However, although the choice between these three categories of leisure is a personal decision, she is not exempt from the economic, social and cultural fruticultor of the medium.  And this, for two main reasons. The first is because it depends on the menu of leisure activities that each individual has at his disposal and the second one because the practice of leisure is a practice that is learned either formally or casually, i.e. through example and coexistence.

References
Cuenca Cabeza, M (2004) Pedagogy of Leisure: models and proposals, Deusto: Universidad de Deusto.
Stebbins, R.A., "An optimal lifestyle: combining serious and casual leisure in the pursuit of personal well-being", in Cuenca M. (ED), leisure and human development, Universidad de Deusto/World Leisure, Bilbao, 200, PP 106-116.