Leisure activities and purpose in life
RESEARCH BRIEF
Re-establishing a sense of authentic purpose (or as one of our research participants put it, “refinding my mojo”) can take a while, especially after life transitions that mess with our identity and most valued roles. Reconnecting with our current values, strengths, and sources of personal meaning (e.g., inner Compass and foundation of purposeful living) takes time and energy, which can be hard to muster when one feels stalled. Feeling stalled, by the way, is not exclusive to people on the heels of big life changes. Some days I wake up feeling that way, despite my commitment to living on purpose. Could be the weight of the world gets me; worries about those I love; or my monkey mind is on full tilt – whatever. The doldrums hit and I hardly feel purposey. What might we do until we get our mojo back?
Research question: Does engagement in leisure activity contribute to purpose in life?
How researchers studied this question: Investigators examined 8 years of data from the Health and Retirement Study, a longitudinal study exploring the transition to retirement of Americans over age 50. They analyzed following data from 7,277 participants collected at 3 time points: purpose in life; work/retirement status; leisure activity engagement; covariates (age, sex, race, chronic health conditions). “Leisure activity” refers to four categories of self-selected endeavors: social (clubs, group activities); physical (home/yard maintenance, exercise, sports); cognitive (learning activities, reading, writing, games); supportive (volunteer work, caring for others). Investigators used statistical modeling to examine the relationship between leisure activity participation and changes in purpose in life over time.
Answer: Yes. Frequent engagement in leisure activities appears to promote one’s sense of purpose, preventing purpose decline associated with role losses in retirement.
· People who retired reported purpose in life declines as compared to when working.
· People who frequently participated in leisure activities reported higher purpose in life at baseline and were less likely to decline in purposefulness across time.
· People reported higher levels of purpose in life on days when they engaged in more leisure activities than was typical for them.
· Frequent engagement in leisure activities appeared to have a greater impact on the purpose of retired people compared to those still working.
· “Leisure activity” refers to a wide range of individually-defined endeavors
So What? This study expands my definition of “leisure activity” and my thinking about its importance, which I’ve tended to value less than “work”. I now appreciate that beyond simply adding some fun to life, engaging in leisure activity could mitigate the decline in purpose in life that happens with age. Beyond this long-term dividend, findings suggest that an uptick in our leisure activity contributes to an uptick in how we feel about purposefulness of our lives right now! This aligns with psychologist and philosopher William James’ assertion that, “Action seems to follow feeling, but really action and feeling go together; and by regulating the action, which is under the more direct control of the will, we can indirectly regulate the feeling, which is not.” In other words, when we make purpose choices (even fun ones), we likely feel more purposey.
How about you? List 4 leisure activities (social, physical, cognitive, or supportive) that you could do today (go for small things!). What if you picked one and did it now? And then affix your imaginary “I purposed” sticker and give yourself a little pat on the back for showing up to your own life.
Source:
Lewis NA & Hill PL (2020). Does being active mean being purposeful in older adulthood? Examining the moderating role of retirement. Psychology and Aging, 35(7), 1050-1057. doi: 10.1037/pag0000568.
Find the abstract here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32790458/