You have lots of feelings. They play throughout your day. Some of them make you feel great while others clearly do not! You often talk about your emotions with trusted folks. Not so much, your needs. Why?
Are you as aware of your needs? Do you reflect on whether they are being met? You might want to tune into these important indicators of where you are in your life.
Most people, when beginning this exploration, name less than a handful of needs. It may be that they haven’t given much thought to these, or that they prefer to live in the “moment by moment” exploration of their feelings. Yet those very feelings arise from needs being either met or unmet. So…
Look at this far from definitive list of needs. Really look. Then think about your life. Where are these needs being fulfilled and where are there holes?
You cannot begin to move into living a fuller, richer life without reflection. While the list below isn’t exhaustive, its a great starting place.
And if you want to go deeper, as you reflect on these needs, note which needs aren’t being fulfilled. Ask yourself, what would it look, feel and be like if this need were being met? How can I begin moving in that direction? Who can support me in that movement?
Then begin...
You don’t have to be in crisis, to start a movement toward living a more yeasty, fulfilling life.
You do have to examine yours. So go for it.
CONNECTION
acceptance
affection
appreciation
belonging
cooperation
communication
closeness
community
companionship
compassion
consideration
consistency
empathy
inclusion
intimacy
love
mutuality
nurturing
respect/self-respect
safety
security
stability
support
to know and be known
to see and be seen
to understand and
be understood
trust
warmth
HONESTY
authenticity
integrity
presence
PLAY
joy
humor
PEACE
beauty
communion
ease
equality
harmony
inspiration
order
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
air
food
movement/exercise
rest/sleep
sexual expression
safety
shelter
touch
water
MEANING
awareness
celebration of life
challenge
clarity
competence
consciousness
contribution
creativity
discovery
efficacy
effectiveness
growth
hope
learning
mourning
participation
purpose
self-expression
stimulation
to matter
understanding
AUTONOMY
choice
freedom
independence
space
spontaneity
Annette is a former high school principal, a certified Integral Coach, an Accelerated Learning specialist and curriculum developer. She is an NLP trained executive coach and co-author of The Game of Truth: A Humorous Guide to Self-Discovery.Annette has taught Power Reading, Memory and Creativity courses around the globe. Her coaching and teaching has taken her to South Africa, Greece, Singapore and Moscow and she has presented workshops at Stanford, USC, Wellesley, Amherst, George Mason University and University of Arizona. Annette has facilitated Ropes Courses and led executive trainings at Anheiser Busch and Nikon. She counts among her clients leaders at NASA, Genentech, Twitter, Clorox, Intel, Cisco and SpaWars.