An Occupational Triad Hypothesis

*based on the characteristics of a walking class lifestyle (shown in The Walking Class PART 1)

NOTE: for the sake of simplicity, it’s the occupational culture/reality that’s being assessed here, not the ‘entire’ life experience of the worker. A banker could indeed have a rather walking class lifestyle outside of his/her 45-hour work week, just as a postman or shepherd could be very ‘non’-walking class outside of his/her work life…

Walking class = 5 or more characteristics likely to be experienced

Standing class = 3 or more characteristics likely to be experienced

Sedentary class = less than 3 characteristics likely to be experienced

Walking Class: Shepherd, Gardener, Postman, Small-scale Farmer, Waiter (cafe/restaurant)

Standing Class: Dancer/Actor, Teacher/Sports coach/Professional athlete, Chef/Barista, Dishwasher, Nurse/Doctor/Care worker/Massage therapist, Carpenter/Plumber, Local businessman, Policeman, Firefighter, Military Unit/Soldier

Sedentary class: Software developer/computer programmer, Accountant/banker, Academic (university), Illustrator/visual artist, Psycho-Therapist/life coach, Architect/engineer, Writer/journalist, CEO/Large business owner, Driver (bus/taxi)

Why Is This Triad Useful?

Firstly, notice that I use the word ‘useful’ and not ‘correct’. After all, NO models are correct (but some are indeed useful). This triad is informative in the sense that it 1) highlights a significant portion of the ‘quality’ waking time (and how it is spent) by individuals in these professions, and 2) provides a likely estimate of what habitual patterns/movements will become ‘normal’ for these individuals.

If we assume that 35-45 hours per week are committed to the job, that another 8 hours per day are spent sleeping and another 2-3 hours per days are spent travelling to and from work, eating, sitting on the toilet, showering, getting dressed, brushing one’s teeth etc etc then those full time working hours are ‘the ones that count’, with regards to shaping the course of one’s life slowly over time.

Add to that the extra need for rest, companionship, leisure time etc, and it’s unlikely that (for example) a full time software developer is going to be spending too many of his weekly hours or weekends throughout the year hiking in the mountains or swimming in lakes; activities that might counteract the 40 weekly hours spent analysing shapes on a computer screen.

Whilst writing this article, I am doing exactly that myself, and within 1 hour I’ll be grateful that my well-being and livelihood doesn’t depend upon me doing so for an another 7 hours today. Likely, instead I’ll run, spend time with friends, organise some things using mostly a notebook and pen and teach a full day of movement classes tomorrow with real humans in a real physical space.

The idea of creating balance for oneself through short, planned windows of ‘fast food’ experiences is a nice sounding one indeed (eg. booking a 1-hour yoga class after finishing a full day of ‘non-yoga’ type work - say driving a taxi or psycho-analysing groups of traumatised youths).

In reality though, both worlds seem to be rather ‘unhuman’. On paper it works, but life isn’t lived on paper - far from it. It takes a larger perspective and/or a great deal of awareness sometimes to notice these things. Most of all, it requires change and a distancing of oneself from the thing itself to see that even a well-taught yoga class is largely foreign to a person’s ‘nature’. You’re on a mat, in an enclosed space, moving through a ritual of pre-determined poses, led by someone deemed worthy of commanding 12 people’s bodies because they once earned themselves a certificate.

These ‘rituals’ are not wrong, and they certainly have a place, but they are exactly that: rituals… and nothing more.

Rituals are for occasional situations like Christmas, or perhaps an hour in the morning; they are not a large, organic part of a healthy, sustainable human life which (instead) requires ample doses of spontaneity, boredom, wonderment, reflection, curiosity, ‘trial and error’ - those moments of simply ‘taking a walk'.

Concluding Thoughts

As a wise man once said: "if the answer is too complicated then you're asking the wrong question". The intention of this article (and indeed my entire running/walking research) is to arrive at the simple essence of things. Or, more specifically, to discover the most natural, effortless form of physically moving and being. By taking away certain habits, techniques, tools and equipment etc we often arrive (long term at least) at a better place.

For example, not eating at all provides certain benefits that no superfood on the planet can provide; sleeping on a hard floor or thin basic mat offers physical rewards that the most perfectly engineered bed never can; walking or running through a forest or up and down hills installs a state of attention, peace and balance in the body that no elaborate movement protocol perhaps ever will.

Many of the reasons for this are still not exactly known, and maybe never will be. The intangible is, and should be, a part of movement and of life. As Nietzsche famously said: "what is not intelligible to me is not necessarily unintelligent". This might be an unsatisfactory way to conclude what was otherwise a rather formal and conceptualised piece; but it's true nonetheless...

Take the walking class 'characteristics' and 'occupational triad' with a pinch of salt. Identify your own categories if they feel more truthful and relevant for you, and try placing your own occupation in a different column if that's how you experience it.

That being said, avoid dismissing these ideas too easily also: they are the culmination of 15 years' worth of hiking, running and outdoor lifestyle experiments across 4 continents and dozens of countries, in the form of pilgrimages, hikes, ultramarathons and solo trips etc; as well as the reading of every relevant book I've been able to get my hands on.

Furthermore, I've been a full-time academic, a high-level athlete, a dishwasher, carer, chef, salesman, teacher, coach, barista, waiter, barman, writer, performer, research assistant and small business owner; and so I've experienced, first hand, how it is to live many of such lives and both the traps and treasures inherent to each.

Often the best, most healthy or fulfilling lifestyle is not what you first imagined it to be!

I share The Walking Class with you in order to learn something new and to be proven 'wrong'. And yet, given the timeless simplicity of this practical philosophy, I suspect that there's little more to be said about it.

Only time will tell.

*NOTE: This article was originally written for, and published in, ReMo Magazine, Issue 2 - visit remostudio.nl to purchase / subscribe to this publication

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