Creating Your Own Hierarchy of Needs

Feeling lost or like you put everyone’s needs before your own? Are you ready to find out what your essential or hierarchy of needs are, so you can live more simply, honestly and also look after your health and well-being? Then, you can support the other people in your life (as your needs have been met).

In this post, I am going to discuss –

• What is Deprivation?
• Areas of Deprivation
• What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
• Creating Your Own Hierarchy of Needs.

Let’s get started!

What is Deprivation?

There are many definitions of deprivation and some include –

• “the lack or denial of something considered to be a necessity.” ~ Google
• “the state of not having something that people need.” ~ Merriam-Webster
• “the state of being deprived.” ~ The Free Dictionary
• “a state of deprivation means something is missing, and the situation is serious. If you’re suffering from “sleep deprivation,” you haven’t slept in a long time.” ~ Vocabulary.com
• “the damaging lack of material benefits considered to be basic necessities in a society.” ~ Oxford Dictionaries

What words resonate true for you here? Do you have your own definition of deprivation? If so, feel free to share it below.

Areas of Deprivation

There are many areas or places in your life where you can feel deprived. For example –

• Sleep,
• Time and space for yourself,
• Time to move your body,
• Energy to do things,
• Peace,
• Love,
• Support,
• Healthy food,
• Money,
• Hope,
• Connection, and
• Belonging.

Can you relate? Which ones are the most present in your life at the moment? Are there any other areas or places in life where deprivation can occur? If so, please feel free to share them below.

Now you have identified where you feel a sense of deprivation, let’s move on to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, so we can shed some more light on this subject of creating your own hierarchy of needs.

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) started his professional career as a behaviourist, however moved on to become a psychoanalyst. In 1943, in a paper titled “A Theory of Human Motivation”, he proposed the psychological theory known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. His suggested we had two different types of needs –

• the first four levels of the pyramid and are needs relating to survival and focusing on deficiencies (D-needs)
• the final layer and needs relating to psychological growth and focusing on being ourselves and everything we are capable of becoming (B-needs).

Maslow suggested we focus on the first level of motivation and then once that is met then we can focus on the next level. The Abraham Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs as as follows:

Creating Your Own Hierarchy of Needs

Now you have seen Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – why not create your own? If you are not sure where to start, following are a few questions that hopefully can help you identify what you truly need, so you no longer feel that sense of deprivation.

As you are writing down your answers make sure you are as specific as possible. What do I mean by this? Instead of writing “I feel deprived because I have no time to myself”, which is quite vague. You might like to say – “I feel deprived of quiet, uninterrupted time away from my partner. Having this time allows me to do something just for me, such as going for a walk on the beach, have a relaxing bath, going to a movie or talking to a friend on the phone.”

Here are the questions –

• Are there any places in your life where you are starving yourself of what you need to live a fulfilling life? For example – are you getting enough sleep, eating food that nourishes your body or doing everything yourself?
• What do you need more of in your life right now? For example – do you need more support?
• Is there anything in your life you need less of? For example – is it time to realise that you can only change yourself and not other people?
• What would you like right now? Is there any resistance to allowing yourself to receive it? If so, what is it?

Now you have identified your hierarchy of needs and ways you can take care of yourself, what one step can you take towards implementing them now? Maybe it could be calling a friend to go to the movies. Remember it doesn’t have to be a big step, just one step… 

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”

~ Vincent Van Gogh

Over to You…

I hope this post has helped you identify what deprivation is, areas of deprivation, ways you can transform deprivation by creating your own hierarchy of needs using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart, why not join our Toolkit?