Experiences and Meanings of Leisure, Active Living, and Recovery Among Culturally Diverse Community Dwelling Adults with Mental Illness

This paper presents the findings from Phase II of our multiphase, community-based research project that examined in-depth insights into the meanings of leisure and active living in the recovery experiences of culturally diverse, community-dwelling adults with mental illness. A series of three face-to-face, semistructured interviews were conducted once each week for 3 weeks with each individual who was purposefully selected from a pool of Phase I study participants. This case-study subsample (n=23;14 women and 9 men) included seven White, six Black, six Hispanic American, and four Asian American participants, aged between 23 and 78 years. The findings suggested that actively engaged leisure would act as a mechanism (i. e., ''leisure space'') for ''movement from'' stress and tension and ''movement to'' something enjoyable and meaningful (e.g., a source of fulfillment, social connections, the reaffirmation of self-worth, hope for the future, altruism).