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Before we begin, how would you describe your leisure style?
This question isn’t about what you wear during your downtime (although “resort casual” is always a win). Instead, consider how you behave when discretionary time arrives, and you’re free to choose how you recharge.
A) Fast + Frequent
You gravitate toward small, regular doses of leisure—perhaps a midweek reading break, a baking experiment on Friday, or a weekend hike. Nothing extravagant, just consistent engagement.
B) Deep + Intermittent
You conserve your leisure energy until an extended break: a long vacation, an immersive hobby-intensive retreat, or an adventurous itinerary. Your time off is rare, but epic.
C) Null + Void
You embrace literal rest (in the prone or horizontal position). Leisure means quiet withdrawal: streaming, scrolling, and practicing the fine art of doing nothing.
D) Fire + Brimstone
You suspect rest is the downfall of civilization. Leisure is for the undisciplined; productivity is your creed. (Spoiler: You may need this article more than anyone.)
If you selected C, please resume your nap—consider it research for the afterlife.
If you selected D, proceed with caution. Exposure to leisure may alter your beliefs permanently.
If you selected A or B, you’re already engaging in health-promoting recreational patterns.
Leisure 101
Across decades of research, leisure is consistently shown to support well-being. Leisure activities—defined as “activities that are freely chosen, which are pleasant and intrinsic rewarding to the self”—contribute to emotional balance, physical functioning, and life satisfaction.
Researchers often distinguish between two types of leisure:
1. Breathers
These hort breaks are designed to interrupt stress and restore attention. Examples include taking a walk in the middle of a task, going for a coffee break, watching a movie, or taking a day off work. These interludes reduce stress temporarily and elevate mood in the moment.
2. Restorers
These are longer or deeper forms of recovery that provide sustained benefits. Examples include spending quality time with family and friends, immersing yourself in nature, diving deep into a hobby or activity that puts you into flow, meditating, and taking a chunk of time off to unplug and fully press the reset button. These help reduce long-term burnout and build resilience over time.
Optimal well-being requires both breathers and restorers. Do you actively engage in both categories?
What’s Better: Frequent or Intense Leisure?
Although immersive vacations (Style B) have benefits, research increasingly supports the regularity of leisure (Style A). Research shows that “individuals who engaged in more frequent enjoyable leisure activities had better psychological and physical functioning. They reported greater positive affect, life satisfaction, life engagement, social support as well as lower depression and negative affect; they had lower blood pressure, cortisol… and better perceived physical function.”
Key Findings:
- Researchers also found evidence that “engaging in multiple types of leisure activities plays a role in buffering the negative psychological impact of stress. Individuals who had experienced more stressful life events in the past but who also typically engage in more (leisure) activities showed lower levels of negative moods and depression, and higher positive affect, life satisfaction, and engagement than their low (leisure) counterparts. This is congruent with the idea that enjoyable leisure activities offer a breather from stress and increase restoration.”
- Findings demonstrated that “individuals who habitually participated in enjoyable activities experienced higher levels of positive affect in everyday life… In contrast, individuals who infrequently or never engaged in enjoyable activities depended upon recent uplifting events to experience higher levels of positive affect.”
Translation: Two epic vacations a year are delightful, but small, regular doses of leisure confer more reliable health benefits.
A Quick Test: Your Leisure Profile
Psychologists developed the Pittsburgh Enjoyable Activities Test (PEAT) to measure the frequency of restorative activities and their link to physical and psychological health:
Rate your frequency for each activity below on a 6-point scale:
1: Never
2: Less than once a month
3: At least once a month
4: At least once a week
5: Every day
6: Not applicable/do not enjoy
Over the past month, how often have you been able to spend time doing the following:
- Sports
- Quiet time by yourself
- Attending a club, church, or fellowship
- Hobbies
- Going out for meals with friends and relatives
- Visiting family and friends
- Doing other fun things with people
- Taking vacations out of town
- Being in parks and other outdoor settings
- “Unwinding” at the end of the day
What the research found:
- Higher PEAT scores were linked to better physical health, including lower blood pressure and body mass index, lower stress levels, and better sleep quality.
- Enjoyable leisure activities, as measured by the PEAT, are associated with positive psychosocial states and may help predict health outcomes.
In short, enjoyable leisure predicts health outcomes.
Enough Theory. More Living.
So, how will you use your next sliver of discretionary time? (Reading this article counts as a breather. Reading it outside? Nearly medicinal.)
Let’s balance our restorative and breather activities and aim for higher scores on the PEAT bullet points that pique our interest. Slow and steady wins the leisure race, which can be a comfort when we don’t have the resources to dash off for a two-week Mediterranean cruise. A well-timed coffee with a friend is a great start to a rewarding life of leisure.
