As a licensed mental health advisor, I hear many of my clients tell me that they are willing to go crazy because they have a lot of free time and more stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many states are reopening their leisure industry, many of my customers believe that the safer way – and a more thoughtful way to get to healthcare workers and prevent the spread of COVID-19 – is to follow epidemiological and scientific advice by going home stay.
Some of my clients suffer from depression because they have lost their jobs, spent most of their days bored, and thinking about fear-based thoughts. The purpose of this short article is to suggest two interconnected ideas on how to create a psychological breather for positive emotions during your day that can also distract you from worry and stress.
First, develop a home optimal leisure lifestyle (OLL) that consists of a serious leisure activity that is complemented by casual and project-based leisure. Serious free time focuses on the acquisition and expression of special skills, knowledge and experience, the development of which takes months and sometimes years. In everyday life, this is often referred to as developing a hobby and is based on mastery that was achieved through hard work and a lot of effort.
My youngest son took the extra free time he has now and developed a serious, skill-based hobby: he bought a watch repair kit and is working on repairing old watches. I learn how to play the harmonica on Bruce Springsteen songs.
The Wikipedia page on hobbies identifies hundreds of hobbies based on skills, many of which are at home. The internet can help build and develop skills. There are often online communities full of people who welcome and support you in your new serious leisure activities.
Leisure activities include short-lived activities that require little or no special training. This type of leisure is based on hedonistic pleasure that requires little effort. For example, my wife and I are watching and enjoying comedies and documentaries on Netflix.
Project-based leisure activities are short-term, one-off or occasional creative endeavors. My wife serves her community through her sewing projects and serves a local nonprofit agency. When our children were young, they chose a leisure learning project (often insects) every week, and we all had fun when we studied together. Just like in your free time, you can use the internet to find projects in your community. Nonprofits are often more than willing to combine your personal strengths, passions and skills with a project they are working on.
Developing an OLL offers temporary moments in your day for positive emotions – a psychological breather when you go crazy and experience boredom. To learn more about OLL and the three types of leisure that I just described, visit the Serious Leisure Perspective website. There you will learn more about Robert Stebbins, who has pioneered academic work for over 40 years and has led to the development of serious leisure time perspectives and the OLL framework. In addition, this website lists hundreds of studies that demonstrate how people's positive emotions increase when they engage in serious, casual, and project-related leisure activities.
Studies show that people can reduce stress if they laugh more (leisure activities), find a hobby (serious leisure activities) and carry out meaningful activities such as volunteering in their communities or for social purposes (project-based leisure activities).
Behavior activation makes people / clients more active and involved in life by planning activities that can improve their mood. Consultants can help clients who have plenty of free time, whether due to unemployment or wanting to continue quarantining themselves, by working with them to create a daily schedule based on the development of an OLL. This includes the use of free time to pursue a serious leisure activity (e.g. a new hobby such as digital art, nail polishing, drawing comics or bird watching), a leisure activity (e.g. reading, exploring new music genres, watching) Comedies), hanging out virtually with friends) and a project-based leisure activity (e.g. sewing high-quality face masks for healthcare workers, volunteering at the Humane Society or a political party, supporting a non-profit organization with fundraisers, creating a family history book through daily interviewing of uncles, aunts and cousins.
Behavioral activation is an evidence-based treatment for depression that has been shown to be very effective. Everyday language is simply about involving people more actively and actively in life by planning activities that can improve mood. Cultivating an OLL and engaging with serious, casual, and project-related free time in your home country is one way to create a psychological breather of positive emotions during your day that can also distract you from worry and stress.
Self-disclosure of my OLL
The following is a self-disclosure of my OLL during a self-imposed lock at home for more than three months during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is provided so that readers get an idea of how an OLL can be incorporated into everyday life, which now offers much more free time.
Serious leisure activities: Development and expression of special skills, knowledge and experience; acquires a lot of effort and is associated with enjoyment.
My daily activities
Learn to play harmonica on Bruce Springsteen's songs
Study creative writing and try to write short stories
Recreational Activities: Minor skills aimed at distraction; combined with pleasure.
My daily activities
Watch more documentaries and comedies on Netflix
Reconnection with "forgotten musicians" of my past (what I heard as a young man). Includes learning and appreciating musical narratives and sound arrangements from various music genres. Examples: Chris de Burgh, James Taylor, Al Stewart, Aprilwein, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Thin Lizzy, Supertramp, Triumph and Neil Young. I extended this to the music my father and mother (both deceased) liked. These included Hank Williams, Waylon Jennings, Tom Connors from Stompin, Hank Snow and Freddy Fender.
Read the "classics" of literature such as Mary Shelleys Frankenstein, Cervantes & # 39; Don Quixote and Arthur Miller's death of a seller
Project Free Time: Short-term activity to complete a project 
My daily activities
Cleaning parts of the house that have not been cleaned in years and donated to Goodwill Industries
Gardening
Weekly health exercise project: 5 to 15 miles bike ride three days a week; run sprints on an outdoor track one day a week; Train at a bowflex twice a week
Note: I used my stimulus check to buy a Bowflex online and set it up in the garage. This exercise machine, garden plants / seeds, and used books (also bought online) are the only recreational resources that I bought during the pandemic. Many of my free time activities, such as playing the harmonica, creative writing and developing my appreciation for former musicians, were learned or improved through resources on the Internet.
****
Related Reading from the Archives of Counseling Today (co-authored by Rodney B. This): "The Serious Leisure Perspective in Psychosocial Counseling"
A USA Today statement by This: "Coronavirus Break: People Need People, But It Is Risky To Resume Social Activities So Soon"
****
Rodney B. This is the author of five textbooks and more than 100 articles on leisure. His writing about leisure was published in USA Today and the Mayo Clinic Proceedings Journal. He is a professor of leisure, tourism, and nonprofit leadership and a member of the affiliated faculty for professional advice at the University of Northern Iowa. He works 10 hours a week as a licensed mental health advisor at Covenant Family Solutions in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Contact him at [email protected].
****
It should not be assumed that opinions and statements in articles appearing on CT Online reflect the opinions of the editors or guidelines of the American Counseling Association.
