Ekaterina Netchitailova

Echoes of a Multilingual Mind

Walking is the best sport

What is your favorite form of physical exercise?

If you met me when I was twenty-seven years old, you would probably be a bit overwhelmed by me.

When I was twenty-seven years old I lived in Amsterdam, and worked as a financial analyst of banks and a portfolio manager in a nice financial company. I was a ‘perfectionist’ then, trying to excel in everything I did.

I would wake up at six o’clock in the morning and run for an hour, before a quick coffee and going to my work, where I was often the first to arrive.

I would work hard the whole day and leave late, burying my personal insecurities in being constantly busy. I was also studying Dutch in an intensive manner, and went to the gym after work. I was there daily!

Later at home, I would relax a bit, with a platter of cheese and some wine, and my cigarettes.

From exterior I led a cool life. I was living in one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, had a great job, friends, and my sanity. I was athletic and fit, both mentally and physically.

But in reality I was dealing with a big trauma from my adolescence hood, experiencing constant stomach pain, and lacking confidence in myself and my abilities.

So, it came as no surprise really, that on one rainy November morning, I lost my mind and ended up in a psychosis. It is associated with mental illness, but in my case it felt like liberation, because after my first psychosis, I radically changed my life. I stopped being a perfectionist and started to take my health much more seriously. My stomach pain was gone after my psychosis, and it led me to question choices in life I had done so far, with one of them, exercising my body like mad, every single day, in both the morning and the evening. When I was once checked by a doctor for my heart rate, she asked me whether I was a professional athlete, due to very low heart rate.

And so, instead of eating cheese platter, I started to cook normal, healthy meals. I stopped running in the morning, and abandoned the gym. Nowadays I can’t stand them.

But I do exercise. I exercise each morning for about fifteen minutes, and I walk everyday in the afternoon.

And walking IS the best sport, so gentle on the body, and yet you move, while enjoying the views, communicating with nature and witnessing the change in seasons.

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Ekaterina Netchitailova's avatar

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Ekaterina Netchitailova

I am a Doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, writer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, books, theatre, and human eccentricity. Despite my last name ‘Netchitailova’ which means ‘unreadable’ in Russian, my greatest passions in life are reading and writing.

7 responses to “Walking is the best sport”

  1. desirehyd Avatar
    desirehyd

    Good

    Reply
  2. Dirtsmith Avatar
    Dirtsmith

    Walking IS the best! I consider it a sacred act.

    (ANOTHER of a hundred posts I have in mind to write! 😆😆😆)

    The human animal is the walking animal par excellence. Few are better adapted for it than we are. We can walk most four legged prey animals to exhaustion (if we can track them successfully), one of our evolutionary survival features.

    From an essentialist perspective, walking might be the most fundamental human experience. (Maybe the most fundamental ANIMAL experience!)

    And most of us hardly do any of it these days. We are busy. And generally out of shape. And it’s not a “convenient” or “efficient” mode of travel or cargo transportation.

    But high speed travel is an alien thing for the human animal. Our incredible adaptability (another evolutionary advantage that is really a massive, double-edged Domoclean sword we flirt with as we “adapt” our way towards an uninhabitable habitat) allows us to engage in it freely without a second thought. But I believe it alienates us from our humanity.

    From our hyperstimulated modern perspective walking is DULL.

    But maybe it is the erosion of our humanity that causes us to perceive it that way. If you have ever had a dog, there is almost nothing they love so much as a walk! Of course they have a different experience – perceiving it mostly through the nose. But I suspect our hyperstimulation has come at the cost of our own visual, auditory, and even olfactory sensitivities that probably once made walking as deeply enriching an experience for us as for our oldest friend.

    Traveling at inhuman speeds is almost always an expression of destruction of our physical world. And our bodies as well. Why wouldn’t it be the same for our souls?

    Reply
  3. lecox Avatar
    lecox

    My favorite exercise is bicycle riding.
    It used to be dancing.
    And as I don’t have a car, I walk a lot too. Walking is good.

    Strenuous exercise is not bad if you can fit it into your life. I did some of it when I was that age (mid-twenties). But on the weekends I would usually go out for long bike rides or hikes. I joined a hiking group for a while, which was a good way to meet people.

    Reply
    1. Ekaterina Avatar
      Ekaterina

      Yes, being active in general is good!
      How is it for biking where you live?
      In the Netherlands it’s like public transport: everyone is on a bike! Everything is accommodated for bike riders!

      Reply
      1. lecox Avatar
        lecox

        In most cities in America, even the “greener” ones, bikes have to compete with cars. Even in Sacramento, only a few bike lanes along streets are protected from traffic. We do have a long bike path along the river, but this doesn’t help people who just want to get around in the city. We also have a problem with bikes getting stolen.

        Most Americans feel more or less compelled to own a car in order to get around – even just to buy food. But in cities like San Francisco, there is not enough parking and there is a problem with car break-ins. Even if everyone could afford to replace their gas car with an electric car, there would still be too many cars.

        My sense is that many Americans don’t want to “urbanize” and don’t think they can live a full and happy life in the city. Suburban housing continues to sprawl on former farmland and orchards between Sacramento and the Bay Area. With shrinking real wages, who can afford all those new houses?

      2. Ekaterina Avatar
        Ekaterina

        So interesting to read when you describe life in America.
        From all towns San Francisco appeals to me the most. It’s a beautiful town, but as you mentioned yourself economic conditions deteriorate and many people live in poverty.
        Here, in The Netherlands we are still holding up. It’s very rare that one can come across a homeless person.
        In England, where I lived previously, there is a lot of poverty and increasing homelessness. Very sad.

  4. humble833 Avatar
    humble833

    I think you are right and I should replace my walking shoes soon.

    Reply

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About Me

I am a doctor of philosophy, a university lecturer, and a lover of cats, fine wine, dancing, theatre, and human eccentricity. I was born in the Soviet Union (Moscow). I am fluent in four languages, and have spent all my adult life studying (except from 18 to 19) working and living throughout Western Europe. Despite a surname-Netchitailova- that translates from Russian into English as “unreadable”, my greatest passions in life are reading and writing. My personal struggles have made me appreciate the manifestations of weirdness that exist everywhere.

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