Leisure, recreation, play, and work are important aspects of well-being. Additionally, these concepts are important to human existence because they often define identity. Plato and Aristotle viewed ôwork as a means and play as the endö (Kimeldorf 2004, 2). With the rise of industrialism, the connection between work and free time developed, with work as a fixed amount of time and free time as alternate time. According to Kimeldorf (2004), ôFree time did not exist prior to industrial clock timeö (2). Providing a definition of concepts like leisure, recreation, play, and work helps illustrate why they are beneficial to well-being and the distinctions among them.
Work is often defined as a compulsory activity undertaken for a purpose or out of necessity. We work to acquire money, provide for our families, and to earn leisure, recreation, play, and free time. Work is directly related to profitability in most cases. Leisure activities are those activities that ôprovide pleasure, involvement and intrinsic motivation,ö typically promoting fun and well-being (Fave and Massimini 2003, 325). In contrast to recreation or recreational activities, leisure often provides rest. Recreation is the use of time in a non-profitable way that helps to refresh oneÆs mind and/or body. In contrast to leisure and recreation, play is generally viewed as unrestrained, amusing interaction with things or others.
If we look at examples of leisure, recreation, play, and work, we can see how a balance of these concepts is necessary for well-being. Leisure activities often involve resting activities like lying in the sun. Recreational activities, in contrast, often promote physical and mental development. Recreational activities include such things as reading a book, hunting, shopping, or travel. Play typically involves unrestrained, fun interaction with things or others, such as playing a video game, playing charades, or
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