Social benefits of recreation and leisure

A hobby is a regular activity that is done for enjoyment, typically during one's leisure time. Hobbies can include collecting themed items and objects, engaging in creative and artistic pursuits, playing sports, or pursuing other amusements. A list of hobbies is lengthy and always changing as interests and fashions change. By continually participating in a particular hobby, one can acquire substantial skills and knowledge in that area

Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to leisure pursuits engaged in the outdoors, often in natural or semi-natural settings out of town. Examples include adventure racing, backpacking, cycling, camping, canoeing, canyoning, caving, disc golf, fishing, hiking, horseback riding, hunting, kayaking, rock climbing, running, sailing, skiing, surfing, ATV riding, and sports.

Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time.Free time is time spent away from a business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. From a research perspective, this approach has the advantages of being quantifiable and comparable over time and place

Benefits of Recreation and Parks: How Recreation and Parks Contribute to a Healthier and Sustainable Ontario The health, social, economic and environmental benefits of recreation and parks are well documented through evidence-based research.[1] The benefits reach all facets of life in Ontario, from economic development to environmental sustainability. Click here to download a printable version of the Benefits.

Article by Stephanie Ekis, MS, CCC-SLP At the beginning of every month, I sit down with the calendar that lives on my refrigerator in my house and write down all of the things that need to be accomplished.  It quickly becomes filled with appointments, to-do lists and various other things that need to be completed.   It is not unusual for me to look back at my calendar and realize that there are very few “fun-time” appointments. In my younger years, I would often laugh at people who actually scheduled a date with their spouse or wrote down times to work out at the gym.  I never understood why those things needed to be written down.  Now I understand…it is really easy to let recreational and leisure activities fall by the wayside because there are so many other things to do. I can only imagine how busy a household might be when raising a child with autism.  Medical appointments, therapy visits and keeping up with school is a full-time job.  Consider [...]