Day 130 Hierarchy of Needs

April 18, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

 

I am lucky that my husband cooks breakfast for me.

What a great way to begin a day. This morning as I sat leisurely reading on my back porch and eating the breakfast that my husband cooked for me, I thought about how much I have to be thankful for:

• I have a house, comfort, food and drink. 
•  I can sit outside and eat breakfast without fear; we do not owe the IRS and our refund is in the bank. 
•  I grew up in a stable and loving family; I have a husband who loves me and cooks my breakfast; I have many friends. 
•  I have had success and respect. 
•  I enjoy reading. 
•  I am surrounded by tall loblolly trees and songs of purple finches. 
•  I am a better me than I used to be. 
•  I have been enriched sharing with others.

When I went into the house after breakfast, NPR’s TED Radio Hour was playing and speaker Margie Lachman was talking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. In the 40’s, psychologist Abraham Maslow developed a pyramid hierarchy of needs, which he claimed that humans experience in order to achieve their potential. (He later expanded it.) Achieving potential is not like climbing a ladder to the top and living happily ever after. It is a continual evolving. This is Maslow’s hierarchy with #1 being the most basic and #8 appearing at the top.

1. Biological/physiological  - basic survival needs such as air, food, drink, shelter, warmth, sleep 
2. Safety/security – personal/financial security, health/well-being, law, stability, freedom from fear 
3. Love/belonging – friendship, intimacy, affection, love/family 
4. Esteem  – achievement, independence, self-respect, respect from others 
5. Cognitive needs – knowledge, meaning, etc. 
6. Aesthetic needs – appreciation and search for beauty, balance, etc. 
7. Self-actualization needs – realizing personal potential, self-fulfillment, personal growth 
8. Transcendence needs – giving to some higher goal outside oneself, altruism, spirituality

I think of the many people in this world who do not even have their (#1) basic needs met and realize how lucky I am.

 

My gift today was a good breakfast cooked by a loving husband.

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> Day 131 From a Distance

A link to theTED Radio Hour that I heard today on NPR:
http://www.npr.org/programs/ted-radio-hour/399796647/maslows-human-needs?showDate=2015-04-17 

This is also an interesting read:

http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html     

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html