Introducing ‘Everyday Moments of Leisure’: Highlighting Enjoyable Breaks and Pauses

Momentary experiences of leisure in the context of routine activities, such as pausing to watch a sunset out the kitchen window, or to chat with a friend as you pass them on the street, have received little attention in the leisure literature, yet are common in the context of everyday lives. Where the boundaries of such momentary experiences have not been well considered, we used a process of concept synthesis to develop a conceptual definition of everyday moments of leisure, drawing on 15 cross-disciplinary articles and book chapters systematically identified and reviewed, with key concepts and examples extracted and analyzed. Everyday moments of leisure are subjectively-defined and noticed enjoyable, personally-resonant momentary experiences that occur within ordinary places and activities. Such moments have antecedents of perceived sense of safety, receptivity to the activity, and ease of participation, and involve a juncture, or shift in attention from the obligatory to the enjoyable, as well as the attributes of noticing and connection to the self. Although short in duration and seemingly insignificant, we assert that noticing short-duration leisure experiences may offer an important avenue for experiencing leisure in the context of everyday lives.