Naturopath Mental Health  – Our needs create desire and motive. Why do human beings do the things they do?

All human beings are driven by the same six fundamental needs, which shape all of our emotions, actions, qualities of life, and ultimately, our destinies.

There are also six fundamental needs that everyone has in common, and all behaviour is simply an attempt to meet those six needs.

The Six Human Needs

1. Certainty: assurance you can avoid pain and gain pleasure. Security, survival.

2. Uncertainty/Variety: the need for the unknown, change, new stimuli.

3. Significance: feeling unique, important, special or needed.

4. Connection/Love: a strong feeling of closeness or union with someone or something.

5. Growth: an expansion of capacity, capability or understanding.

6. Contribution: a sense of service and focus on helping, giving to and supporting others.

What differs among each of us is how we value these needs. Are we driven primarily by certainty and significance? Connection and contribution? Variety and growth?

What we value shows up in how we live every part of our life. For instance, the person who values variety will have a very different life to someone who values certainty.

The means by which people meet these six human needs are unlimited.

For example, the need for certainty some people pursue by striving to control all aspects of their lives, while others do it by giving up control and adopting a philosophy of faith.

Variety makes us feel alive and engaged.

Then there’s the desire for significance—a belief that one’s life has meaning and importance. Some individuals will pursue this need by competing with others, or by destroying and tearing down those around them.

Others may strive to fulfil this need through connection with other human beings.

The force of life is the drive for fulfilment; we all have a need to experience a life of meaning.

Fulfillment can only be achieved through a pattern of living in which we focus on two spiritual needs: 1) the need to continuously grow, and 2) the need to contribute beyond ourselves in a meaningful way.

All dysfunctional behaviours arise from the inability to consistently meet these needs. When our attempts to reach fulfilment fail, we will settle for comfort—or for meeting our needs on a small scale.

The idea is to look to replace any dis-empowering ways of meeting your needs with things that empower and support you and others.

Which needs tend to show up most in your life, particularly when you are experiencing stress, fear, angst, or difficulty? Where do you spend most of your time in your relationship and in other areas of your life?

Naturopath Mental Health – What is the primary driving force of your life? What needs do you value most?

 The secret is to understand where you truly are and how it impacts your life so that you can ultimately learn to expand the choices available to you to create fulfilment.