In 1943 Abraham Maslow proposed a theory of human motivation which has become known as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He proposed a pyramid, where each successive layer of need is built on the foundation of the one below it. The pyramid can help us in all kinds of ways, not least to name the needs.

 The theory has also been critiqued on all kinds of ways.

Undoubtedly all the physical needs and growth needs represented in the theory are important. Probably there are more, probably the idea that we move through them like a hierarchy, only achieving some things when other needs are met  is simplistic.

As a psychodynamic psychotherapist though what intrigues me is how do we get in our own way with this?

In general conversation it seems such a simple thing, to eat when we are hungry, sleep when we are tired, drink when we are thirsty etc. When we really dig into it, these sensations that signal our needs are easily overridden, disregarded or over emphasized.

How many times have we ignored the need to rest because of the pressing nature of the demands of life?

How easy is it to mis-attribute the sensations of hunger to other things?

How often do we override the nutrition needs of our body either by eating things that do not nurture us or by denying ourselves the things that will?

How often in a given week do we simply eat and rest to a schedule rather than in a moment by moment response to our physical and emotional needs?

Given that our nervous systems adapt to experience, if we consistently discount, misinterpret or override our sensations what are the long-term consequences for our lived experience?

Take eating as an example

Eating is pleasurable, eating is delicious, eating is sensual – but for so many of us it is filled with anguish, guilt and deprivation. On eating (Orbach 2002).

We might substitute many sensory words for the word ‘eating’ – movement, sexuality, rest, warmth, drinking, connection with nature, self, others -all things designed to fulfil a need.

How many of us feel guilty when we rest?

How many of us feel unable to move our bodies freely for fear of judgment from ourselves or from others?

How many of us are disconnected from the sensory experiences available to us?

The more crucial the need to our survival, the more our nervous systems align the fulfilling of that need with pleasure and, it seems, the more complicated our experiences become. Biological imperative, meets sociology, politics, culture, morality, religion, race, gender, physical ability.

We engage with all of this complexity of understanding within the physical space of our bodies.

So connection to our physical experience is important.

How then do we re-establish connection once it is interrupted in some way? How can we befriend our bodies, look out for them, look after them in a way that nurtures and grows us rather than squashes and shames us?

It might not be the first thing we think of when we think about the things therapy can help with. Maybe we think more about emotions, reactions, thinking patterns, relationships and the narratives of our experience.

Yet we all have a body we all interface with our experience through the bones and tenons and sinews of our physical selves.

Susie Orbach has written extensively on reconnecting to the physicality of eating

Eat when you are hungry. Eat the food your body is hungry for. Taste every mouthful. Stop eating the moment you are full. Find out why you eat when you aren’t hungry or don’t when you are

With a change in emphasis I wonder if we couldn’t apply this mindful, connected approach to all of our physical selves

Eg. Rest when you’re tired, take the kind of rest your body needs, experience the rest and the impact it has on you. Move when you’re rested. Find out why you don’t rest when you need to or can’t get started again when you stop.

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