One of the nagging problems of today’s life is ‘What to do with our leisure’? It is true that the modern busy of hurry and tensions does not leave one with much leisure. Yet we often make a wrong uses of whatever leisure we get. After continuous work, our mind and body require rest or relaxation. Rest helps the body rejuvenate itself.

Rest, which soothes the tired body, is different from leisure. It is the time when after getting the requisite energy back through rest, you still have no nagging worries of doing work for some time, for example, on the weekends. But most people have a wrong notion of leisure. They confuse leisure with sitting idle and doing nothing. However, the fundamental characteristic of leisure is its ability to afford you joy by diverting your mind from your routine activity to some other and more enjoyable work.
A hobby is by far the most satisfying way of utilizing our spare moments. Hobbies also help in developing a well-rounded personality.

A common misconception about hobbies is that these can be cultivated only by those who have several leisure hours, or by those who have time hanging heavily on their hands. But this is not true. Even the busiest person in the world can develop a hobby of some kind or other.

Churchill had the hobby of painting. Whenever he was tired of his nerve racking political life, he took out a canvas and brushes and started painting. This hobby gave him refreshment enough to enable him to return to his routine work with renewed vigor.

Hobbies are of three kinds: hobbies of creation, hobbies of acquisition and hobbies of recreation. Of these three, the hobby of creation is best suited for the home-maker; it can give her a lot of mental satisfaction, even while banishing her boredom.
Dorothy was always complaining about her dull and uneventful life. Her husband, a busy executive, left for his office in the morning and returned home only late in the evening. After the children went off to school,
Dorothy felt utterly bored.

As the days passed, she got more and more frustrated with the result that the boredom and listlessness drove her to depression and bitterness. Life for her appeared to be devoid of all joy.

One day, a distant relative of her husband and his wife visited them. During their stay, they relative noticed a painting hanging in the drawing-room and when Dorothy told them that it was she who had painted the picture in her college days, her guests were effusive in their praise of her talent. Before leaving, the wife suggested she keep painting in her spare time.

When Dorothy told her husband she wanted to take up painting to while away her time, he just laughed away her idea. But her guests had fired her imagination. So, the next day, when boredom enveloped her again, she decided to paint a picture "just to while away some time".

In the beginning, she painted just to keep busy in her spare time. But as appreciation and encouragement from friends and acquaintances poured in, she developed the hobby further. And after just two years, she organized an exhibition of her paintings, which won her very good reviews from the art critics.

Sometimes, a small talent in you, if properly used, can turn out to be a source not only of joy but of profit too.

Stella was a busy housewife who belonged to a lower middle-class family. As her husband was only a clerk in an office and his income was meager, life for Stella was a constant struggle to make both ends meet. She had tried to get some employment but had not succeeded.