One thing that has not changed is my attitude towards blogging. I have not added blogs consistently throughout the semester. At the same time, the quality that is in my blogs has allowed me to provide valuable blog summaries and hopefully this one will be no different, so here we go...
Leisure education has played a major role in my life in the past few months. I have truly taken a new view on leisure and life in general. The evidence is apparent throughout my blogs.
There are three chapters to my blogs: Chapter 1 includes blog summary #1 and all previous; Chapter 2 includes blog summary #2 and previous (up to blog summary #1); and Chapter 3 includes the last blog entry and this final summary.
The first chapter evolves around questions such as: Why is it that we do not always experience leisure doing the things that we enjoy? This chapter truly shows the introduction stage of leisure education in my life. Mostly negative attitudes towards leisure are portrayed due to the frustration of not understanding leisure in my life. Although I understood that I wear many hats (DJ, parade marshall, coach, technical director, student, etc.), what leisure was and how we can educate others about leisure was not so clear to me.
The understanding of leisure became clearer at the end of this chapter with the use of words such as state of mind, intrinsic motivation, and perceived freedom as evidence. How to educate myself wasn't clear even though I didn't understand at that point that I was actually educating myself about my leisure through these blogs and observations I was making in my life. How to educate others was still a mystery.
In chapter 2 we can see a transition from little to moderate understanding of leisure and leisure education. I showed an understanding as to why blogging was not leisure to me, but explained how I understood how it could be helpful in providing us with observations that we have made over time; putting understanding on paper. Much of the discussion was about positive, intrinsically motivating experiences. This was not only on how to have them myself, but on how to provide these types of experiences to others through coaching football. Optimal arousal, flow, motivation... all discussed in relation to how I had educated myself and how I educated others through football and specific instances (woman at the dance). The pivotal question asked in chapter 2 was: is there life without leisure? This question shows a change in attitude from chapter 1; an attitude that is much more positive and much more insightful.
In chapter 3, we see first-hand how I view leisure education as significant. It changed my life. Leisure education can create opportunities, build options, empower individuals, and develop relevant skills according to Dattilo (2008, p.47). The decision making process and experience that I was involved in for my "new leisure experience" is a perfect example as to how this is true.
Weight training is something that I have said I NEVER would do... I did it. What is important is I didn't do it for the grades, I did it for myself. I was taking away an opportunity from myself, or an opportunity to choose to take part in this activity until I took the word NEVER out of my vocabulary for it. This truly took a change in my leisure attitude that can truly only be changed through becoming leisurely educated.
I always believed that weight training was only done for the look, or the "extrinsic factors" that were associated with this activity. I let this get the best of me in not wanting to try the activity because I did not perceive it as being intrinsically motivating, and I perceived it as doing it due to external pressures. I did not feel free to make the choice to weight train until I realized that I was the constraint, not these perceived extrinsic motivators.
This lead me to realize that one could change their leisure patterns. I even make reference to the fact that if something were to happen in my schedule I would make changes so that I could continue to enjoy this leisure activity that has become part of my repertoire. Increasing my leisure repertoire by "making time" for my leisure will be a useful tool to find satisfaction in my life.
It is all these skills put together that have allowed me to find balance in my life... a balance of what some call leisure and work. These skills have been useful to me to educate others (chapter 2) and to educate myself about leisure and life (chapter 3). Making decisions in my life according to my leisure are much easier due to the skills I have acquired throughout the semester and these same skills will allow me to help others in the future.
So I have learned that leisure education can help you change your own life and the lives of others. It can help you change your attitude from negative to positive as it did to mine over the course of the semester. The vocabulary that we have learned and the theory that we have cemented in our brains can be used in every course of life that we encounter, no matter the age, no matter the situation. How to enjoy and help others enjoy positive, intrinsically motivating experiences is what life is all about. To answer my own question, "Is there life without leisure?", it is now very simple to answer: Without leisure there is no life, without life there is no leisure, in order to optimize your leisure one must be leisure educated--> to be leisure educated is to be life educated... what can be more significant than that??
This concludes chapter 3.
