Leisure Constraints: Painting Analysis

1. On October 11th, I participated in baking as a leisure activity. I previously had gone out and bought all the necessary ingredients in order to do the activity at home and not as a part of some community class (See Appendix A and Appendix B). Leisure can be described as a state of being (if you feel as though the activity is leisure, then it is), an activity (non-work activity) or as free time (time left after completing life’s basic tasks and work requirements) (Heintzman, 2013, p. 4-6). Furthermore, for an activity to be considered leisure, it must be intrinsically motivated and have a sense of perceived freedom. Intrinsic motivation suggests that there are no other factors that are persuading someone to engage in an activity and that
Originally, I did not want to bake as my leisure activity. I enjoy activities that let out creativity and your artistic side and I wanted to participate in an activity called Paint Nite with my sister. It is a session where you choose/ sign up for a painting that you like and an instructor provides a step by step lesson on how to reciprocate the painting using the proper techniques. Unfortunately, I encountered some constraints when signing up for this paint lesson. Leisure constraints are obstacles or barriers that may prevent an individual from taking part in an activity. The three categories of leisure constraints are intrapersonal, interpersonal and structural constraints. Intrapersonal constraints refer to the individual and beliefs that may affect one’s decision to participate. Interpersonal constraints focus on someone hesitating to participate in an activity because of the lack of support or lack of people to accompany them. Lastly, structural constraints are related more to the cost of an activity, or other barriers related to the facility itself, etc. (Jackson, 2013, p. 79). In my experience, the constraint that prevented me from participating in the paint program was a structural constraint. This is because the facility only allowed people 19 years of age or older to participate because drinking is involved (although optional). Since I was not of age, I was not able to participate in the activity and therefore had to substitute my leisure activity for something
I do not consider this leisure activity to be a flow experience because I did not meet all the “requirements” needed to experience flow. As described by a social psychologist, Csikszentmihalyi, flow occurs when a person’s skill level and level of challenge are matched. If the amount of challenge exceeds the skill level, this results in anxiety, and if someone’s skill level is greater than the amount of challenges presented, then you experience boredom (Heintzman, 2013, p. 8). In order to experience flow, you must feel a sense of timelessness where you are unaware of the present time because you are so invested and immersed into the activity that you forget what is going on around you (Csikszentmihalyi, 2004). Flow also involves having a sense of control where you do not feel too far out of your comfort zone and it also involves the activity being satisfactory in itself without the need of any external rewards. Personally, I experienced some flow because I was unaware of how fast time was passing by, and I didn’t have any assignments due the next day (or for that week). However, I think what prevented me from fully experiencing flow was the thought of how behind I would become and all the tasks I would eventually need to accomplish at some point. In order to experience flow, I think that I would need to have finished all work and school related tasks prior to choosing to engage in the activity. This way all worries and intrapersonal constraints would be removed and the