Hierarchy of needs and self care Are you familiar with Maslow's hierarchy of needs?

I like the expanded version which has finer details and more of a focus on dealing with deficits and the ability to grow and expand.

Maslow came up with this hierarchy of needs of humans and it has to do with what you need in order to be a healthy, happy human at the very top.

And the hierarchy of needs is usually depicted as a pyramid.

So at the top are the self fulfillment aspects, creativity, altruism, or helping people, finding and living your higher purpose, realizing and enacting your full potential as a human transcendence.

These things at the top of the pyramid are the things that we as humans aspire to look forward to.

We want them.

But you can't start at the top of the pyramid.

You can't start with living your higher purpose.

It's kind of like career development.

As a newly minted 18 year old, your first job will not likely be CEO of a medium sized company.

You do not get to go directly from high school to being a high earning lawyer.

There are steps to be taken to grow into that type of position and person.

And even if you are magically placed into that position, you don't usually fill or complete the job very well.

When trying to be all you can be as a human, you have to support your body and your emotions and your mind first.

That's what I have found and that's what Maslow's hierarchy of needs explains.

At the bottom of the pyramid are our basic physiological needs.

These are the lowest base needs that need to be met before anything else can happen.

We want to start off these base needs of the body with a firm yes.

But in order to go up, up the hierarchy of needs up towards being your very best person, you have to also address the quality of how well you're meeting these physiological or basic needs.

And there are seven of these.

Oxygen, water, food, sleep, sex, shelter and clothing.

Let's go over those quickly.

The oxygen.

You just need to breathe.

You breathe every day that you are alive to survive.

But then you can upgrade that breath so that it's also enriching, relaxing, energizing and gets you where you want to be.

Water.

We need water every day.

We need to get enough food.

Not necessarily every day.

Fasting is an option for humans, but you don't need more than you need in order to accomplish what you want to do for the day.

But you do need enough food that you can move, grow, think and whatever else your day involves.

Sleep.

Yes, you need sleep every day.

Or your ability to be a human suffers.

Sex.

That's a yes for both women and men alike.

It dramatically affects your emotions and your mind.

But it's also a base biological and hormonal need.

Shelter.

As humans, we try to live anywhere we can, not just in caves and other homes that nature provides us.

And clothing.

If we had feathers and full body fur and huge layers of fat like other animals, then we could happily live without clothing.

But in general, we need clothing.

After these base physiological needs are met, we go up the pyramid a little bit to this is partly environmental and partly nervous system regulation.

These are the next needs to be met.

But how do we meet them?

You can divide these safety and security needs up into three Freedom from fear, stability and health.

So freedom from fear means environmental, social, unpredictability, nature of the world.

Anything that causes fear is to be avoided.

Not totally, but enough that you can get yourself further up the pyramid.

Stability.

This means of body, mind, environment, finances, social relationships.

So much more.

Health.

Well, clearly health, the absence of disease, but also health is promoted by acts like sunshine, exposure, movement of the body, feeling safe from accident or injury.

These safety and security needs are more important than many people realize.

And they sometimes don't know that they have not addressed them as well as they need to to be able to go up the pyramid towards enlightenment.

After these basic physiological and basic safety and security needs on the pyramid, the next up is belonging and love, intimacy, friendship, belonging to a community, relationships.

This area tends to be where women in particular focus.

But you can't get there if you haven't met all the other more base needs first.

Above the belonging and love area or hierarchy of needs is esteem.

Respect for yourself, respected by others.

To feel valued for who you are and what you bring to the table.

So so far, all the needs we have discussed in this pyramid have been in the area of deficiency needs.

That means that all of these needs must be met before you can move up the pyramid to the next area, which is growth.

So the top of the pyramid, the growth begins with cognition.

So you move from esteem up to cognition.

Knowledge, curiosity, exploration, a need to understand.

When I check in with my students at the beginning of classes, their ability to be at this level will drive our class.

How much thinking can they do today?

Do we think we need to focus on more simple movements that they already know?

Can they self police their actions or do they need more feedback from me today?

If cognition is troubling for any of my students, we go back to which of their base needs was not met today.

So that we can even things out.

Above cognition is aesthetics.

Pleasing the senses, pursuit of artistic endeavors, order, elegance.

It's hard to make something pleasing and elegant and ordersome orderful if you haven't had those more basic needs met.

The kitchen can only look so pretty if it's empty of food.

Above aesthetics is self actualization.

Seeking personal growth, fulfilling personal potential.

Your peak experiences like the upcoming Intentional Vitality Retreats.

And above self actualization is transcendence.

Going beyond yourself.

Spiritual connections, altruism, unity, Belonging to something bigger, higher connections, mystical experiences so how do I design my wealth, my wellness lifestyle and choose my self care actions?

Knowing what I know about the hierarchy of needs, I make sure that I address all of the basic needs to the absolute best of my ability and knowledge.

I don't skimp.

I adjust as needed.

I think about fulfilling my needs every day possible.

I know this is the only way I can get to the top of the pyramid.

I prioritize sleep.

I prioritize high quality food optimized for my body.

I prioritize movement and any other of my needs.

I do more than the minimum.

I choose to thrive.

More than just survive.

I challenge my brain.

I immerse in beauty and nature.

I create and I welcome peak experiences like my upcoming Intentional Vitality Retreat.

I hope you decide to join me there.