This Psychologist’s Secret For Boosting Mental Health? Structured Leisure Time

Many Type-A people see sleep as unnecessary. But the science of sleep says otherwise: Besides helping your cells to repair and renew, sleep clears junk information from your brain, integrates information and consolidates memories, and also provides a safe space to process traumas. And that’s just the beginning of a very comprehensive slew of functions sleep fulfills. It is definitely not redundant or a waste of time. 

We are just learning to respect sleep as a cornerstone of our lives. What if we could respect leisure as an equally important cornerstone?

Taking breaks is about spending time to buy back exponentially more time and peace of mind. That pause helps us to strategize and respond wisely, instead of reacting from a place of fear. How about acknowledging leisure’s role in nurturing your most important relationships, taking care of your body, and indulging your curiosity in other parts of life? Because the more areas of life we expose ourselves to, the more raw material we have to be creative. Not to mention, resting or leisure time (meaning, not working) activates the Default Mode Network in our brain, which is absolutely essential for creative breakthroughs, whether to create solutions or innovations. 

While many people fear becoming lax or undisciplined with leisure activities, the truth is, for many people, it will take a lot of discipline to become indolent and hedonistic.