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“One of the oldest human needs is having someone wonder where you are when you

don't come home at night”.
Margaret Mead ~ 1901-1978, American Anthropologist

How well are your basic human needs being met?

What we are talking about here, are our human NEEDS. Each of us is motivated by needs. Our
most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. In the 1950’s a
respected psychologist, Abraham Maslow developed what has become known as the
“Hierarchy of Needs”. His work is this area has become the most respected and forms the basis
of all analysis of human needs in the search for happiness and fulfilment in life.

A simple diagram depicts the original hierarchy of needs:

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the basic
physiological needs of food, water, shelter, air to breath, sleep, clothing and sex at the base of
the pyramid, without which, the others above it would be meaningless. This first level deals with
the most obvious needs for survival itself.

Only when the lower order of needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied do we
become concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.

If the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned
about the maintenance of our higher order needs.