Flourishing Life Society
  • Home
  • Flourishing in Life
    • Addiction Recovery
    • Mindfulness Archive
    • Coronavirus 2020
    • Personal Development
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Emotion >
      • Emotional Fitness
    • Psychology Archive
  • Flourishing Relationships
  • Health and Fitness
  • About Us

Self-Actualization

Maslow's Self-Actualization Pyramid

BY: T. Franklin Murphy | June 2016 (Revised December 9, 2020)
Self-Actualization. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid
Stock Adobe Royalty Free Images
We are engaged in a constant work of becoming, satisfying needs, entertaining wants, and creating meaning. We can do this purposely or haphazardly. 
Prominently placed at the top of Maslow’s pyramid rests self-actualization; the final landing spot for the weary traveler, seeking self-improvement. At least, that’s how I previously understood Maslow’s hierarchy of needs—Physiological, security, relationship, self-esteem, and finally self-actualization—like Buddha’s enlightenment. But this understanding was amiss, viewing the pyramid through a life-long growth perspective. I missed the complexity. Life growth is not linear. Maslow’s hierarchy pyramid provides greater wisdom when examined from a moment to moment perspective.

Key Definition:  Hierarchy  of Needs

In Maslow's motivational theory, the hierarchy of needs are categorized into five groups (physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, self-esteem needs, and self0actualization needs). 
​On our life long journey, we don’t move through the hierarchy of needs by conquering one level and then continuing to the next, never looking back. This is linear thinking: Point A to Point B. For example, writing this self-actualization post, I fulfill a self-actualization need. But in an hour or so, I will set my research aside because I am hungry—a biological need. In the evening, I will greet my wife when she returns home and discuss the happenings of our days—security and relationship need. Sometime after nightfall my body will tire and need rest—biological need.  We are driven by needs. The needs push action. The foundational levels of Maslow’s pyramid stimulate stronger emotions that the top. Unfulfilled basic drives don’t necessarily prevent higher level action. I can still write while hungry. But if lower level needs are neglected long enough, the body redirects attention and remaining focused becomes more of a challenge.
​The amount of self-discipline to fulfill higher needs while the physical body beckons attention to foundational drives varies between individuals. Self-discipline is not a constant. Our response to impulse strengthens or weakens through experience, like a muscle. Marathoners master self-discipline, continuing to run when their muscles beg them to stop. The racer keeps running long after lower drives signal the need to rest.
Five-Tier Pyramid representing Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Fulfilling needs is very individual, we inherit different skills and resources from parents that ease or complicate the burden of survival. Some children are fortunate enough to move into adulthood with a paid education and a bank full of money. This significantly eases the demands of survival, leaving time to chase enlightenment, or careers unlikely to provide a comfortable living. Many mastered skills (through education and experience) increase earning capacity, freeing demands to fulfill basic security and biological needs. Several years of conscientious relationship building creates strong bonds of trust lightening concerns of abandonment. While a relationship lacking trust may continual draw attention and stimulate anxiety. Repeated healthy behaviors establish foundations that fulfill needs with less mental energy, leaving more resources for higher order needs.

Fulfilling needs is very individual, we inherit different skills and resources from parents that ease or complicate the burden of survival.

​We still bounce between the different levels of fulfillment, but a life well organized, boosted by early life decisions and direction has more energy left for self-actualization. We neglect higher order needs when the basics demand more resources.

Key Definition:  Self-Actualization

The highest level of need fulfillment and psychological development in Maslow's hierarchy of needs—actualizing one's potential.
Just as our body has nutritional needs, we also have need for purpose. Once fed and rested, secure in our relationships, and competent in our ability to survive, we encounter an existential crisis. We question deeper meanings. We have little time for the mental gymnastics of purpose and meaning when our tummies are empty, and our partner is angry. But during the calm, we begin to wonder, “Why?” When lower level needs are satisfied with less effort, we have more resources to direct towards filling the emptiness of purpose. Like eating and sleeping, fulfilling deeper needs is an on-going process. Self-actualization transcends survival by adding meaningful actions.
Life is complex. We continually face struggles, joys, successes and failures. But with purposeful effort, we improve at this complex game. The more adept we are at fulfilling needs, the richer our life becomes.
 
With each new vista of meaning, we discover new peaks to climb. Enjoy the momentary feelings of successes. Self-actualizing moments bring pleasure and strengthen self-confidence; but only momentarily. The pleasure subsides and new pushes goad us forward. Comforting and discomforting emotions constantly flow through our bodies pushing and restraining action. The feelings energize action.  We can’t transcend the biological givens of living, survival needs will intrude when neglected. We flourish not from lack of discomfort but from lack of effective responsive action to fulfill the underlying needs. We flourish by transcending lower level drives long enough to address the deeper needs of security, relationships, self-esteem and eventually self-actualization.
Please support FLS with a share:
Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He is dedicated to the science of wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.

Index:

Flourishing in Life
  • Personal Development
  • Addiction Recovery
  • Wellness 
Psychology of Wellness
  • Emotions​
  • Personality
  • Defense Mechanisms
Flourishing Relationships
  • Intimate/Romance
  • Parent/Child
  • Society
Health and Fitness
Key Word Archives
Research
About Flourishing Life
Flourishing Life Society Link to articles from 2010-to 2015
Flourishing Life Society Link to research articles
FLS link. Self-Sabotage: We hurt ourselves. We sabotage healthy endeavors to escape the discomfort of change, settling back into our self-made prisons of stagnation.
FLS Link. Fredrickson's Broaden and Build: Positive emotions promote growth by encouraging approach and observation.
Opptimisitic mindsets can improve our emotions
FLS internal link. Courage to Become: We need to courage to reach past comfort zones and encourage personal growth.
Internal Link. Self: Here I am. The consciousness of self is complex. We are dynamic beings interacting with ever-changing environments. For stability, we need a concept of self. Too firm a concept and we are limited and deceived, to weak and we have no anchor.
Life has many wonderful parts; but it isn't always beautiful. As we work to improve, we must be patient and compassionate, working through the stubborn difficulties of self-improvement.
FLS link. Posttraumatic Growth: Significant traumatizing events destroy our stable view of the world. From these ashes, growth is possible. We get back up, re-examine our world, adjust our expectations and move forward, a little wiser and stronger. We grow in response to the trauma.
We are engaged in a constant work of becoming, satisfying needs, entertaining wants, and creating meaning. We can do this purposely or haphazardly.
We are engaged in a constant work of becoming, satisfying needs, entertaining wants, and creating meaning. We can do this purposely or haphazardly.


Subscribe to Newsletter
Home
  • Relationships​
  • Personal Growth​
  • Wellness
  • Emotions
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Flourishing in Life
    • Addiction Recovery
    • Mindfulness Archive
    • Coronavirus 2020
    • Personal Development
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Emotion >
      • Emotional Fitness
    • Psychology Archive
  • Flourishing Relationships
  • Health and Fitness
  • About Us