Leisure guilt

As students are enjoying winter vacation, there lurks a feeling of regret in the back of their minds

As students are enjoying the respite of winter vacation — this time a long one of over twenty days in Punjab - they express weariness that there lurks a feeling of regret in the back of their minds as if they were wasting their time by not spending the vacation productively. That is, leisure is adulterated with guilt. This feeling is natural in our cultures, where enjoying leisure means idling away important time, thus inviting failure at our own risk.

Students imbibe this feeling from their environment, whether it is home or school. Teachers assign them truckloads of homework, assignments or tests to make the most of a weekend or vacation academically. Parents eulogise those institutions that keep children swamped even during holidays. Consequently, students drop out, if not academically, then psychologically.

Every personal problem is also a social problem. This means that most of our problems, no matter how personal they may seem, are connected with the type of society we live in.

The leisure guilt has its roots in the myth that busyness is the telltale sign of success and moral uprightness. 'An idle mind is the workshop of the devil' indoctrinates in us this leisure guilt. When we attribute a utilitarian purpose to every recreation, leisure is blighted with guilt. Leisure has to be justified by productivity: reading must be utilised to enhance vocabulary; meetups with friends are purpose-driven; even people are seen with headphones on jogging. The winter respites aren't embraced for rest and recovery but rather as audits of one's discipline. "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure," states Goodhart's law.

As per the natural rhythm of flora and fauna, winter is the time of rest and recuperation. It is the intermission to get ready to welcome spring — the time of rebirth. But modern life goes upstream against seasonal rhythms. When winter requires us to slow down and halt, culture coaxes us to accelerate. The conflict eventuates not upon genuine rest nor productive work but upon fatigue burdened with self-reproach leading to low self-respect.

The Protestant idea of work is moralistic: work shouldn't be considered an economic pursuit; rather, it's a moral calling, requiring an over-devotion to work by sacrificing one's own need of rest. This idea infested unoccupied time with leisure guilt, turning rest into an indulgence. The idea was globalised by capitalism, commercialisation and colonial education systems, which equate worth with output.

The lack of untainted leisure time causes burnout in teachers and administrators. The system runs them ragged with extra paperwork. They transmit this forced labour to the students who bow out of the learning process because of the unnecessary burdening of their free spirit. Moreover, a fatigued teacher may be punctual and busy but rarely motivated. That's why most teachers fail to inspire their students.

Some people never take leave of their job to have the time of their life. They might be overly dedicated to their work, but behavioural psychologists deem it an abnormal behaviour near to psychosis. The causes are their intolerance of leisure or its unaffordability. The neophobic people become addicted to routine. Routine is always the worst deadener. Sometimes, people shirking familial obligations stick ritualistically to their office routine to crowd out leisure. This familial neglect is also caused by a lack of financial resources to convert free time into leisure.

Along the spectrum of human activity, rest and work stand at extremes. The two bleeding into each other in the middle of the continuum mark middle class culture, struggling to keep themselves afloat from drowning down to the lower-income class, where rest is an extraneous concept.

Christina Maslach, a prolific author on burnout, warns that when overwork is moralised and rest is stigmatised, we will have progeny who are apparently disciplined but cognitively impaired. They work in rest and rest in work. The linear view of time - time running like a straight line — must be transformed into a wave form — the crests and troughs mark periods of high and low activity. The straight line on the ECG monitor signals the absence of life.