The difference between leisure and self-care

Leisure v. Self-Care v. Wellness

Leisure can be a simple concept and way of living but it has a rich and nuanced history with deep ties to self-care. Yet, it’s important to understand that while leisure and self-care are intimately connected, they are not the same thing. In this long-form piece, we dive into the origins of leisure and self-care, how these concepts intersect and why the differences between the two matters.

The concept of leisure

Leisure, distilled down to its essence means free time. But to enjoy free time, to allow yourself respite from work, family duties and any other obligations — without feeling guilty — you first need a solid foundation of self-love. Why? So you can prioritize you and your needs before anyone else. You must be willing to invest in yourself and your happiness. You gotta be your own bae, sis!

Time is the essential component for leisure to exist. To truly indulge in leisure, you first need access to free time. And guess what? How much time to navel-gaze you have at your disposal is tied to your class, socioeconomic status and gender because these factors largely influence, if not fully determine your access to free time. Some of you with well-off backgrounds have the privilege to leisure by default — with greater ease — while others in the working-class cohort have to make greater efforts to integrate leisure into their lives.

To make this more visual, let’s picture a tree… If self-love is the necessary bedrock for leisure to flourish, or say the roots of our analogous tree, the base of the trunk is access to free time (i.e. a combo of class, socioeconomic status and gender) while the trunk of the tree represents leisure. And so what about the branches and leaves? In our view and interpretation of leisure, the branches and leaves = self-care and wellness. More on this later.

The origins of leisure

The word “leisure” comes from Latin licere which is “license” in English, meaning to be permitted, to be allowed. It was then translated into Old French and that’s how we get the first use of the written word in the 14th century to convey a meaning of “free time, time at one’s disposal.” As “leisure” evolved, the word also served to convey “opportunity to do something, chance, occasion, an opportune time” but also ‘’lack of hurry” and especially “opportunity afforded by freedom from necessary occupations.”

Although the word is Latin, the concept of leisure was invented by the Greeks centuries before its first use in writing. Essentially, partaking in leisure led to the rise of ancient Greek philosophy. This happened because Greeks viewed leisure as an enriching time to seek the truth and understand the self. For this to happen, contemplation and reflection were vital because these cerebral pursuits represented true freedom of self as the mind was not occupied with work or other external commitments.

To the Greeks, leisure constituted a “cultural arena in which vital questions of human means and ends, of purpose and hence of meaning, have been addressed.” This is how leisure led to identity and self-development through personal growth and freedom, since “the sign of an educated person was active leisure.” Essentially leisure led to self-awareness which then led to philosophy as we know it today.

It’s crucial to realize that leisure sprung forth from a foundation of affluence and class privilege and that heritage prevails today. There were no broke Greek philosophers, fam! The poor peasants were busy building the Parthenon while Socrates and his fellow aristocratic apprentices analyzed their inner selves and distilled the meaning of life while enjoying the sauna and a loong bath 🤣. Leisure has historically been a privilege enjoyed mostly by the upper class. Hence why even today your class and socioeconomic status (and gender) still majorly factor into the level of leisure available to you.

Going back to the etymology of leisure, the Greek word for “leisure” is schole which means “school,” further implying that ancient Greeks viewed leisure as a state of being and a free time of a special kind — to learn, to grow, to do what is truly worthwhile. The fact that the Greek word for “business” is the negative from schole means that to them, business/work was something negative, something that was necessary but not a means to find satisfaction.

As philosophy professor, A. R. C. Duncan wrote in his 1963 essay on leisure, “The reason for this opposition between leisure and business, which seems curious to us today, was that to the Greeks a man’s leisure-time was the part of his life in which he did the things he really wanted to do, the things which gave him genuine human satisfaction; business/work was something he had to conduct in order to keep alive or earn a living.”

Eventually, with the rise of industrialization, capitalism and with the genesis of the workweek as we know it today, we grew to think of leisure in relation to work. We came to perceive human life divided into doing productive work (studies, jobs, obligations, chores, etc.) and the hours of leisure or free time. But our notion of free means free from work.

And that brings us to our modern world, in which the ancient Greek context of viewing leisure as a means to expand our awareness and understanding of the self and the world at large has been entirely lost. This is why life of leisure exists: to help us all take leisure back to its philosophical roots of cultivating self-awareness. To echo the Greeks, work and career are necessary components of a well-rounded life — and it’s a huge benefit to find joy in them! — but leisure deserves to be prioritized, too. At life of leisure, we believe that we would be happier, more fulfilled individuals if we philosophized a bit more! Let’s make consistent efforts to do like the ancient Greeks did and get in touch and in tune with our inner selves.

Leisure as a field of study

This was news to me, but did you know that leisure studies are a thing? Clearly, the topic must be considered interesting, deep and serious enough if an entire academic discipline is dedicated to the study and analysis of leisure. On that note, according to sociologist Robert Stebbins, there are three types of leisure: serious, casual and project-based. Serious leisure is a long-term pursuit or hobby that provides deep fulfillment to those who partake. Serious leisure has elements of effort, training and knowledge. An example is playing the piano. Whereas casual leisure is more immediately gratifying, short-lived and requires little to no training. Watching Netflix is an example of casual leisure. Project-based leisure is a one-off, short-term undertaking that may be creative in nature. For example, writing a standalone article for a blog.

According to leisure scholars and academics (should I become one?!), leisure is not the same thing as recreation because recreation is a “purposeful activity that includes the experience of leisure in activity contexts” which means recreation happens within leisure. Through the research of the origins of leisure and its history, I learned that leisure is the plane in which relaxation, contemplation, recreation and self-care take place. Essentially, leisure is the basis, a prerequisite if you will, for all these activities and pursuits to unfold.

Leisure in our modern lives

A helpful way to think of leisure is to treat it as a mindset. In Leisure, the Basis of Culture, a book examining the role leisure has played in history and in our culture, Josef Pieper advocates that leisure is a mental and spiritual attitude. The philosopher argues that leisure is not laziness but rather an inner silence and calmness that enables us to see reality and the deeper truths in life.

Pieper’s view aligns with the notion of leisure held by the ancient Greeks. But as much as some of us would like to lounge around for long periods of time and philosophize, the reality is that we have obligations and duties and bills to pay. So, how do we apply practical leisure to our modern lifestyles? What does an ancient Greek view of leisure look like in modern our day-to-day lives?

The answer depends entirely on your unique lifestyle, obligations, preferences and needs. And so what may be leisure for you may be work or an undesired activity to another person. But as a general rule, use the following guidelines when determining your definition of leisure. Leisure should be:

• pleasurable;
• encourage fostering self-awareness;
• contribute to an individual’s social, cultural, and spiritual connections;
• assist in stabilizing and controlling one’s life;
• and motivate one to feel free and strong.

For me, leisure means an array of things and activities including journaling, listening to podcasts, reading articles and books on topics I’m curious about, having conversations with friends about these topics, writing for life of leisure and other publications about these topics, meditating, daydreaming and so much more. At life of leisure we want to help you discover your personal definition of leisure and serve as a catalyst to aid you in implementing leisure as a lifestyle and mindset. Because as Iwasaki, Messina, and Hopper (2018) write, “leisure can lead to a meaningful life by promoting [a] a joyful life, [b] a connected life, [c] a discovered life, [d] a composed life, and [e] an empowered life.”

Although we have become conditioned to view decompressing and ‘doing nothing’ as a waste of time, leisure serves as emotional nourishment and a way to reenergize our psyche, spirit and body.

Now that we have touched on the self-love roots of our metaphorical tree and explored its trunk in detail, we can move on to examining its branches and leaves i.e. self-care and wellness. But before we dive into the history and evolution of self-care, let’s keep in mind that self-care happens within leisure.

The diluted meaning of self-care

By now, we are familiar with the buzzword “self-care,” but what does the term really mean? To some, self-care equals bath bombs, face masks, massages and essential oils while to others self-care is yoga, vacations and therapy, so what is the actual definition of self-care?!

Given the modern context of self-care — often associated with a shallow ‘treat yourself’ mentality (guilty!) — I was surprised to learn that the origins of self-care are rooted in healthcare and preventive medicine. This background makes a lot of sense when we look at the actual dictionary definition of the word which is: “care for oneself” and “healthcare provided by oneself often without the consultation of a medical professional.” According to Merriam-Webster, the first use of “self-care” was in 1841.

A brief history of self-care

According to the International Self-Care Foundation (ISF), a UK-based non-profit, self-care is “the fundamental level of health care in all societies and should be seen as a major public health resource.” The World Health Organization (WHO) has given three different definitions of self-care in 1983, 1998 and 2009. They are all variations of the same theme: an emphasis on the prevention of disease/illness and the maintenance of wellness.

But the metamorphosis of self-care began in the 60s. During this period, self-care evolved from a medical term to a political concept as the women’s and civil rights movements unfolded. Women and people of color felt neglected and disenfranchised by the white, patriarchal medical establishment and so they took ownership of their health and medical needs.

As Aisha Harris writes for Slate, “Activists saw that poverty was correlated with poor health, and they argued that in order to dismantle hierarchies based upon race, gender, class, and sexual orientation, those groups must be able to live healthy lives.” During this time, self-care was a radical concept for marginalized communities — including people of color and women — because it carried a context of survival in an oppressive world. The survival sentiment was mirrored by the Black Panther Party with the creation of the “survival programs” of the 70s in which they provided preventive medical care and social programs to the Black community on a national level.

Although written until 1988, the ethos during this time echoes Audre Lorde’s famous quote in the book A Burst of Light as she wrote, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” For context, Audre Lorde was a Black lesbian writer who was simultaneously writing about fighting cancer and fighting racism, violence and oppression on that essay.

Self-care continued its evolution as it became a trendy wellness concept among the wealthy. Self-care went from survival to improving one’s quality of life in the 80s. In its new iteration, the political connotations of self-care were diluted. The association of wellness — a holistic approach to health — and self-care remained prevalent throughout the 80s and 90s. The term returned to its political resistance roots post 9/11 as the nation processed and healed from the attacks by going within themselves.

As Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, a historian writing a book on American fitness culture, said: “You see the whole mind-body space in the fitness arena boom after that. And you see — I’m not saying it wasn’t commercialized — but there’s a kind of sense that taking care of yourself, exercising, eating well, etc. is something really kind of crucial to do in a moment of great political and cultural instability. I think that that seed has been growing in the 21st century.”

Self-care today

Going full circle, the Black community has advocated for self-care as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. Self-care reached the height of its popularity in the wake of the 2016 election when Americans Googled the term nearly twice as often as they ever had before. The reason behind this phenomenon ties to Petrzela’s statement that in a time of outward uncertainty and instability — during all-time high stress and anxiety levels — a safe place to find solace is within ourselves.

But self-care didn’t last long in this space of political defiance and as a form of self-therapy — it quickly became commodified and monetized by the wellness industry. Self-care has now become a marketing ploy to sell things and services that have nothing to do with taking care of yourself. Think: hashtags, Pinterest boards, sponcon, juice cleanses, luxurious trips, etc.

Self-care + leisure

That self-care and wellness have undergone so many transformations make sense if we revisit our metaphorical tree. After all, a tree undergoes seasonal changes most noticeable in its branches and leaves, while its trunk and roots seem to stay intact. To transcend the self-care connotations of commercialization and superficiality and to avoid the confusion of what self-care is and is not, we advocate shifting your attention from self-care to leisure. It seems we have exhausted the conversation on self-care anyway, so let’s move on to its foundation of leisure and move onwards.

The main difference between leisure and self-care is that to have self-care, we first need a foundation of leisure (free time influenced by class, socioeconomic status and gender, among other factors). While leisure may be more of an intangible concept, remember that without leisure, we cannot have self-care.

A helpful way to think about these concepts is that self-care implies external activity, doing, tending to oneself (with low levels of inner activity) whereas leisure implies external stillness with high levels of internal activity.

While we aren’t against using the term “self-care,” at life of leisure, we prefer to use “leisure” because leisure encompasses more than routines or habits. Leisure represents a lifestyle, a mindset and way of living to cope with the 21st century and its culture of workism + busyness.