The Need!

Occupation is a necessary and very critical part of human life, without which I can’t imagine what life would be like, or if that’s even possible! Without occupation the lives of humans would simply be empty and without purpose.

Caulton and Dickson (2007) below talk about what it means for us as humans to be occupied.

“Being occupied is putting our minds to something and doing it. It is having something to do that contributes to the practical human world, to the exploration and discovery of things about the world we see, and/or to the imaginary world we construct" (p. 110).

Occupations can be divided into three categories (as we discussed in class this semester), these are; food/labour, craft/paper/work and plays. Going out for coffee falls under the category of food, obviously, as coffee is something that we consume. This week, the need for occupation was discussed in relation to the activities of my classmates and I under each of the above categories. The need for all of our activities differed quite considerably which highlighted to me that the need for occupation itself is very broad and a lot of the time the need is individual to the person carrying out the activity.

In saying this, i’m quite sure that the need for going out for coffee with others varies from person to person. The needs for going out for coffee differ slightly from those of food, however, even though the two fall under the same category. Although some people might like to argue this, we don’t need to drink coffee for survival like we need to consume food. Going out for coffee, like food, does however, bring people together and satisfy individual needs.

In my opinion there are three needs in particular that I think are most prominent. Firstly, it provides an opportunity for social interaction. It gives people the chance to build relationships with others, time to talk and a time to create new memories. Secondly, it gives people a chance to take time out. Going out for coffee can be a perfect opportunity to take a break from other stressors of life and to simply relax and enjoy ones self. And thirdly, the need is for the caffeine from the coffee itself. Coffee wakes you up, gives you a boost and can be especially helpful when you want to stay awake! These are only a few of the needs that I feel are important and I’m sure that going out for coffee is needed by other people in different ways.

In regards to myself, the need that going out for coffee meets most in my life is that of developing and sustaining social relationships. Going out for coffee presents me with the opportunity to give my undivided attention to an indiviual (or small group of individuals) where we can connect and purely spend time together over a drink. And, of course I love the coffee itself!

Below, Visser (1992) talks about how we humans have turned consuming food into a way of engaging in relationship with one another and creating community.

“We turn the consumption of food, a biological necessity, into a carefully cultured phenomenon. We use eating as a medium for social relationships: satisfaction of the most individual of needs becomes the means of creating community” (p. ix).

This is what I feel I have done with my activity. I think that I have turned going out to drink coffee into a means of engaging in and building on social relationships. I used to just go out purely for the coffee itself but now I realise that this need has changed and that my activity has become much more than just consuming a drink!

References:

Caulton R., & Dickson R. (2007). Whats going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In J. Creek & A. Lawson-Porter (Eds.), Contemporary Issues in Occupational Therapy (pp. 87-114). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

 Visser, M. (1992). The rituals of dinner. London: Viking, The Penguin Group