We all have wants and needs, real and cultivated, influenced by ego and culture and society.
Maslow, in 1943 created a pyramid of these needs starting with physiological, safety, love, belonging and ending with self actualization.
Appealing classification!
Let’s use his pyramid for this message, albeit a bit differently. Replace erudite terms like self actualization with joy. Now let’s start looking at our needs and wants from the top down i.e., joy is the starting point.
The naysayers are already saying “Yes but we all need food, shelter and clothing, and how will joy help?”
Well, food cooked with happiness and joy will make you happy, clothes stitched with joy will make you joyful and a house which breathes when constructed with joy will surround you with it. All of this will overflow in your relationships too.
Many of the things we think we want in life simply go away when we look at life simply. A flutter of the butterfly, a gurgle of the baby, beautiful sea shells are but a few examples to focus yourself away from the world of wants and needs. Watch the nomads of Sahara or the Indians in the Arizona desert. They wear limited clothes, eat fruits and vegetables and other simple food and have makeshift living arrangements. They look fairly happy.
Comments