Recreation and leisure are two very important aspects of your life. They refresh your mind allowing it to start afresh for the next activity of your routine. It eases your mind for a while and prepares you for the next task. You tend to discover and develop your talents more efficiently. Some play games, some hold conversations with their friends, some watch television or browse through social websites while some relax their brains by listening to music or carry out their hobbies. With an increase in technology, there have been many additions to the list of recreational activities. Computer and phone games might sound cooler than outdoor activities, however until today scientists emphasize more on outdoor physical recreation.

“It’s time to take a break” – this is the most pleasant phrase to a human ear. This implies that now you can start laughing or joking with friends or do whatever you feel like apart from the norm. Recreation has always been a part of life. Even in the dark ages (from the 5th – 15th century) when people were subject to hard labor and wars, leisure and recreation were mostly used to train people in for acquiring certain skills such as the “art of warfare”. Recreational activities can be outdoor or indoor and communal or solitary. It depends on the choice of the individual. Today we are going to discuss the positive effects of recreation, types of recreation and how you can motivate yourself to wake up and perform the activities.

Importance of recreation in one’s life

Physical heath– Outdoor recreational activities improve one’s health by lowering body fat percentages, cholesterol, and blood pressure. It also helps in increasing muscular strength, flexibility, and endurance. Overall, it promotes good health by increasing your stamina level and helps you to stay away from frequently falling ill. When you feel physically fit and energized you do can do your everyday work with full focus.
Mental health– Good mental health is equally important for maintaining the overall health of an individual. Recreation activities have proven to minimize stress. It helps you to nurture yourself and increase your self-esteem which further reduces anxiety and depression from your mind. This gives relief to your mind and puts it in relax mode. When the nerves of your brain are relaxed you tend to think positively and learn things easily. This even helps you to become emotionally stable, emphatic and self – disciplined.
Improved Quality of lifestyle– As per some surveys, it has been proven that people who keep recreation as one of the priorities of their life are more likely to feel satisfied with their life. That is mostly because they are the ones who can maintain a stable work-life balance. There are multiple effects of recreation. It enhances self-expression, interpersonal skills, creativity, and mental well being. It also helps people to deal with their day to day problems making them feel more confident about life. Thus, people turn out to be optimists with a positive attitude towards everything.
Banish loneliness from life– Most of the recreational activity is done in a group, be it a pizza party or a sleep-over party, visiting a movie hall or a water park, surprising a friend or her birthday or anniversary. Hence, when you participate in a recreational activity, you don’t feel lonely or leftover. Your mind rejuvenates when you spend some good times with likeminded people. The time spent together becomes your fond memories which even relax your mind when you recall them.
Build family unity– In today’s fast-paced life, people do not get time even to spend with their family members. Family is who we look up at the time of happiness as well as crisis. Therefore, the expectation is also more from each other in the family. If we don’t spend time, we tend to lost connection. Planning a dinner date or a short tip will not allow making your family happy, you will also be benefited from a relaxed and fresh mind.

Types of recreations

Outdoor– Public places such as parks, beaches, and historical monuments are venues for many recreational activities. Nowadays the tourism industry is booming because of the recreational activities that they offer in the holiday packages. They have confirmed the fact that many visitors are especially attracted by the recreational offerings. Some of the advantages of outdoor recreation:

It takes you close to nature. The fresh air makes sure you breathe a good amount of oxygen. The greenery soothes your eyes. The entire environment makes you feel relaxed and happy.
During an outdoor recreational activity, your body does a good amount of exercise which helps you to lose weight without much effort.
When you make a plan for outdoor recreational activities, you often do it with your friends. It promotes more socializing in your life and increases confident in yourself.
Indoor– Some individuals cannot make it for outdoor recreations due to time constraints or type of job profile. Indoor recreations include watching televisions, listening to music, playing video games and the get-togethers planned at homes. Though doctors prescribe outdoor recreations as more effective, still indoor ones can be done to get some benefits at least.

Few good points about indoor recreations are:

It doesn’t require proper planning. You can do it whenever you feel stressed. When you feel overburdened with your mind work, maybe a song of your choice or a comedy television program can calm down the nerves of your brain.
No need to travel. You don’t have to get out of your house for the recreation activity and hence no travel cost.
When you plan an in-house party, you can get the feel of outdoor recreational activity with your friends at the comfort of your home.

When do we sleep more than required?

Sleep is an important aspect of our life. Proper sleep is very essential to maintain the overall health of an individual. If you do not sleep properly, it can affect your hormone level, mood, and weight. Sleeping for 7-8 hours is normal. Some people tend to sleep more than this and do not want to wake up. Some reasons can be:

Stress – When you overstressed you want to sleep more and more.
Sad – When you are sad for any reason, you want to keep your eyes closed and sleep. That is because when you sleep you don’t remember anything.
Bad mood – People are seen to be oversleeping to avoid facing a bad mood. They feel as soon they wake up they would be again disturbed with the thought that caused the bad mood.
After an argument – After involving in an argument people sleep more to give some relax to their mind and get rid of tension.

How can we motivate ourselves to step out of bed and perform the recreational task?

Oversleeping can only help you relax for a temporary span. That is not the ultimate resolution. You can feel relaxed from being sad or bad mood only when you can eradicate the thought from your mind that causes them. Engaging yourself in some recreation activity will help you to overcome the problem and make you feel good and happy. Some of the tips that can help you to get up from the bed and engage in some recreational activities are mentioned below:

Listen to your motivating voice – Psychologists say that self-help is the best help. You can get the best help from your conscience. When you open your eyes, just say to yourself that “today I am going to do something to beat the depression”. Activity and depression can’t live together. Once you make up your mind and put your foot down from the bed, you will be able to push yourself forward. Just have a recreational activity planned so that as soon as you are out of your bed, you can be involved in those things.
Head towards the shower – Shower helps to soothe your mind and water. The water does the trick of relaxing your mind and makes you feel fresh. After the shower, your brain feels relaxed and for a short period, you forget about the past experiences that caused you the stress. Keep your activity plans ready and instruct your mind for the next set of work that needs to be done. Do some recreational activities that will keep you away from distress for which you have wanted to sleep more.
Get a job or a reason to wake up every day – When you are super busy in life you recover from melancholy and tension soon. The reason is you do not get time to think and overthink about the reason that causes the bad mood. If you working, you are good to go. The work pressure is enough to drag you down from the bed every morning. If you do not work, engage yourself in doing something that would keep you on your toes and will force you to wake up even before the alarm clock goes on.

Recreational activities have worked wonders for ailing minds. Just boost yourself to come out of the comfort of the bed and get busy in some recreational works.