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Defining Needs
We have seven essential human needs that need to be met for us to thrive and create the life we desire. But do you even know what they are? And are you making sure you meet them, continuously? Because if you’re not, you’re going to find you constantly feel like you’re living in survival mode. Let’s find out what they are and how to thrive.
Hi. I’m Liz Watt. Welcome back to where free-thinkers consider topics related to humanity, spirituality, reality and individuality. If that’s something you’re interested in, make sure you subscribe.
We live in such a fast-paced world that we are often busy doing things and stuff to meet deadlines, tick off our task list and get things done. We just keep doing and doing, hoping at some point the rewards of our busyness will make us feel better. We do not often take the time to consider what a need is, let alone what we need at a deep, inner level and ensuring those needs are met. If we did, individually and collectively we would all begin to thrive.
Let’s start at the beginning….
A need is something necessary for survival you cannot live without and is required to maintain life and an internal state of wellbeing.
To meet a need is to ensure that a human being has the resources to survive, maintain life and most importantly, an internal state of wellbeing. This may be different for everyone, but a need is not a luxury. It is a necessity.
When a need is met we feel a sense of relief, pleasure, wellness and ease and start to thrive. When a need is not met we feel a sense of suffering, pain, unwellness, dis-ease or illness and move towards basic existence and mere survival.
Models Of Needs
In the 1940’s, Abraham Maslow defined five core human needs which include physiological, security, esteem social and self-actualisations needs. These needs very much focussed on the physical human form, without so much consideration of our ethereal self. In the 1960s and 1970s, cognitive and aesthetic needs were added.
Today, our understanding of who and what we are expands beyond our temporal self and human form, to our ethereal self and how we relate to other things, people and reality outside ourselves. These needs can be broken down into seven categories which align with Maslow’s original needs and expand further. These seven essential human needs include physical, emotional, mental, relational, soul, higher self and spiritual needs.
As a process of development and growth, we tend to move through these needs one at a time. We start at the basic survival of our temporal human form and ascend through to relationships with the external realm, and finally a connection to our ethereal self and the ability to thrive.
Let’s consider what these needs are and how to meet them one at a time.
01 | Physical (Biological And Physiological) Needs
Physical needs focus on two key outcomes: to survive at an individual level and a collective level.
At an individual level, the physical body is the vehicle in which we reside so we can experience the physical world. The body uses the senses of touch, taste, sound, smell and sight to help us detect external conditions and navigate the external world without hurting ourselves. These senses act to help keep us alive.
We only exist in the physical body while it is alive and surviving and full of energy. To survive and maintain a high level of energy the physical body requires nutritious food, clean water, fresh air, sleep and exercise. When these essential resources are absent or of low quality, we exist with low energy and at a low level of survival. The higher the quality of these resources, the higher the quality and energy of the body.
At a collective level, the survival of the species occurs through procreation which occurs through an instinctive need or desire for sexual satisfaction. It could be that the human body was designed to make this process relatively enjoyable so that instinctively our species would continue to procreate and survive.
Learn more… ”The Real Purpose Of The Human Physical Body”
02 | Emotional (Safety And Quality Of Life) Needs
Emotional needs come down to how safe our physical body feels in the world. Emotions are an internal compass responding to the external environment, conditions and reality and telling us whether our physical body is safe or unsafe. We use the sensations from our physical senses that tell us what the external environment is, to then determine if that is safe or not.
Emotions exist on a spectrum from low-vibration to neutral to high-vibration. We experience low-vibrational emotions of anger, fear, stress, anxiety, guilt or shame when we are in some kind of danger or threat from the external world and do not feel safe. At this level we are in a state of survival, worried or stressed about money, pressure, deadlines, taxes, debt, consequences or other unsafe external factors.
We experience emotions from fairly neutral emotions of boredom, calm or apathy to high-vibrational joy, happiness or excitement when we are not in danger and feel safe. Once we move from low-vibration emotions to neutral emotions we can start to expand beyond survival and develop and improve our quality of life.
Staying in low-vibration emotions is incredibly stressful and energy draining. To thrive, we need to live in an external reality with physical qualities and characteristics that make us feel safe.
Learn more… ”What Are Emotions And Where Do They Come From?”
03 | Mental (Cognitive Or Psychological) Needs
Once we feel safe in the world, we can start to move beyond basic survival and existence and explore our mental needs.
Mental or cognitive needs refer to the ability to use our brain and thinking mind to explore, process information, analyse, identify patterns and connection and understand the world through information and knowledge. Humans have a need to mentally understand and make sense of our external world and the reality we experience.
This understanding allows us to create some sort of meaning in our life. We can start to plan with a level of control and understanding of the implications and consequences of our choices and decisions. We can start to create consciously with intention and awareness.
Learn more… ”What Are Thoughts And Where Do They Come From?”
04 | Relational (Social) Needs
Once a person understands how the world and reality operates, they can start to interact with the external world and create meaningful relationships outside of themselves.
A relationship with someone or something outside of ourselves is a reflection of our internal world that helps us understand ourselves more. The external world reflects back to show us what we do and do not like, want and need personally in relationship with other people or things.
The need for relationship motivates actions and behaviours that help us find other people and groups like us, who will accept us and embrace us.
When we are in positive or high-vibration relationships we can know other people outside of ourselves and experience and create intimacy, affection, acceptance, belonging with family, friends, partners or children. We feel safe and secure and loved, and able to maintain a high quality of life. This tells us to stay and experience more of this.
When we are in low-vibration or negative relationships we experience rejection, disconnection, isolation, loneliness and other forms of separation. We feel unsafe, uncertain and unloved and move back into survival mode and emotions of fear, stress and anxiety. This tells us to move away and experience the opposite, or something different.
05 | Soul (Esteem) Needs
Once we understand who we are in a relationship with others in the physical realm, we can move onto understanding the aspect of ourselves that exists in the ethereal realm as it relates to our physical human form. Our soul needs require us to know and experience who and what we are beyond the human form as a unique soul and an aspect of Source Consciousness.
When our soul needs are being met we understand ourselves not just as the body, mind or emotions of a human being but as something that is experiencing and observing those things. We realise we are in control of our experiences and can exist as the observer and make conscious and aware choices about our body, mind, emotions and actions and behaviours towards ourselves and others. We are a soul.
When our soul needs are being met we understand and know who we are and accept and have esteem for ourselves without the need for external validation. To meet our soul needs we must gain esteem from ourselves. We achieve this through dignity, achievement, mastery, self-acceptance, acknowledgement, self-respect, independence, freedom or self-expression.
When our soul needs are not being met, we are not aware of who we are. Our senses, thoughts emotions, actions and behaviours run on autopilot and our body moves through the world in a state of unconscious reactivity. Without a true connection to ourselves, we seek to gain esteem from others to validate and understand ourselves. We achieve this through reputation, status, admiration, acknowledgement, respect, prestige, allowance or acknowledgement. When we look outside ourselves to affirm who and what we are, our soul is neglected, its needs are unmet and we suffer.
06 | Higher Self (Self-actualisation) Needs
When we can express our true self and feel valued, worth and accepted for who and what we are as a unique soul, we can move to meet the needs of our higher self through self-actualisation.
The needs of our higher-self include realising personal potential, growth, self-fulfilment and peak experiences and achievements, pursuing goals, and most importantly finding and fulfilling the intended purpose we were created for.
When we connect to our higher self and understand our purpose and the reason for being here, in this human form, in this lifetime, we have a clear reason for everything we do, the reality and things we create, and the situations, conditions, events and environments we choose to experience. We start to act and behave with purpose and intention and create in the world in a way that adds real value and serves not only ourselves but others. We become all that we can be and meet our self-actualisation and the needs of our higher-self for this particular lifetime experience.
When we are disconnected from our self and have no purpose, it becomes difficult to feel fulfilled and become what we were intended to be. We do not meet the needs of our higher-self, and we struggle and suffer.
07 | Spiritual (Transcendence) Needs
When we begin to live with purpose we understand there is much more than just the individual body, mind and heart, or even soul that we are.
To meet our spiritual needs we must understand that we are part of a much bigger, greater whole. We are but a drop in the ocean of consciousness. We start to connect more with nature and humanity as a whole. We become aware of mystical phenomena that exist beyond the human form as we understand we are part of an integrated eco-system. We understand everything we do, think and create affects the whole, and that everything anyone else does affects us. We start to see not only the physical three-dimensional reality of the world but the bigger picture of everything.
When our spiritual needs are not being met, it is because we are living in a state of separation and disconnection from the whole. We believe and live as if we exist in isolation, separate from everyone and everything else, and without consideration of how our actions and behaviours affect anyone or anything. We live disconnected from, unaware and unconscious of Source Consciousness and the very essence of what we are and what created us.
Learn more… ”What Are Source, Spirit And Soul?”
Meet Your Needs And Thrive
We came here as an ethereal being and a soul to experience life and reality on earth in a physical human form. We forget the essence of who and what we are and through our life and experiences learn to grow, remember and reconnect.
We do this partly by meeting our human needs. Our physical, mental and emotional needs exist to help us navigate the temporal, physical world and keep us safe. Our relational needs help us understand who we are related to the external world. Our soul, higher-self and spiritual need help us navigate and connect to the ethereal realm from our human body on planet Earth.
Our needs are a compass to help direct us on the path to evolution and remembering. To grow, expand and ascend requires us to meet our needs at every level, and continue to maintain them to the highest level we can. The more we do this, the more we can learn to thrive.
The choice is yours…
…Liz Watt