Meeting Your Needs

When I attended post secondary education (sounds important, doesn't it?) I learned about Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. 

I learned that Maslow's main contribution in the area of Psychology was to think positive and move forward - everything else that lurked in the realm of the negative thinker made them sick. He wanted people to realize how amazing we can be!

The triangular visual aid Maslow created to explain his theory, which he coined Hierarchy of Needs, depicts the levels or steps of human, psychological and physical needs human beings have to ascend to reach self-actualization. Going from the bottom up:

1. Basic Needs or Physiological Needs - these are somewhat obvious and necessary for basic human survival. Without food, air, drink, warmth and sleep, the human body cannot continue to function.
2. Safety Needs - Once physical needs are somewhat satisfied, focus on safety needs take precedence and dominate our behavior. These needs being satisfied quell our need for an orderly predictable world where unfairness and inconsistency are under control.
3. Belongingness and the Need for Love - Once basic and safety needs are met, human needs become  social and involve a need for acceptance and to love and be loved. If these elements are absent, social anxiety and depression can arise.
4. Esteem Needs - This level is is attained when individuals feel comfortable with what they have accomplished from a success and status standpoint.
5. Cognitive Needs - At this point, we feel a need to increase our intelligence and we chase knowledge to gain a better understanding of the world around us. We now feel a need to explore and desire new experiences.
6. Aesthetic Needs - With the previous needs satisfied, we now find  we need to refresh ourselves with the presence of beauty, nature, art, music and the other aesthetically beautiful things the world has to offer. This leads to a beautiful feeling of intimacy and oneness with nature and everything beautiful.
7. Self-actualization - This is our instinctual need as humans to make the most of our abilities and to strive to be the best we can be. Quoting Maslow "What a man can be, he must be." It is also at this level that individuals experience extraordinary moments called Peak Experiences which include transpersonal and ecstatic states tinged with themes of euphoria, harmonization and interconnectedness.
8. Transcendence - Having personally self-actualized, there is a desire to help others self-actualize. In doing so, we connect with something beyond the ego and we experience states beyond normal human consciousness and take things to another level of being.(thanks ConsciousAging.Com)

When we are aware of where we are sitting on this triangle, we can devise a way to keep going. Positive thoughts coupled with positive actions can do incredible things. WE can do incredible things.
Thanks, Maslow!