Maslow

"In any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety." - Maslow

i feel like i spend my moments stepping forwards and then backwards again, afraid of change. afraid of becoming a butterfly. i think i am the hungry caterpillar content to munch my way through all the leaves and fruit not worrying about when to spin my cocoon. like i went into a cocoon and came out still a caterpillar. 

stepping into growth is scary. terrifying in fact. and no one can do it alone. nosy nora says we all need each other. it's hard to accept that need sometimes. hard to accept that i'm not superwoman.

dr g. said that moods are like the stock market. that there are ups and downs and sometimes little blips. and that you have to look at the overall ongoing mood - rather than focusing on the downward blips. but man it's hard when you're in the middle of a blip. 

choosing to step into growth while in a downward blip is rather tricky. the step back into safety feels better - even when that safety feels bad. growth and change means stepping into the unknown and that is uncomfortable. 

you can also look at moods in relation to maslow's hierarchy of needs: this five stage model can be seen in the pyramid below. regardless of all the criticism of his theory, i think that it is important to look at the ways in which needs affect your ability to function. worrying about self-esteem and self-actualization when you don't have enough food to eat, or shelter ... well that seems rather difficult. 

"Any thwarting or possibility of thwarting of these basic human goals, or danger to the defenses which protect them, or to the conditions upon which they rest, is considered to be a psychological threat." - Maslow

you can't self actualize when you're working on esteem. and you can't meet your need for love if you are busy meeting your need for basic necessities like food and shelter. 

"Human needs arrange themselves in hierarchies of pre-potency. That is to say, the appearance of one need usually rests on the prior satisfaction of another, more pre-potent need. Man is a perpetually wanting animal. Also no need or drive can be treated as if it were isolated or discrete; every drive is related to the state of satisfaction or dissatisfaction of other drives." - Maslow

so lets think about moods like the pyramid too, with different levels of contentness and enoughness. 

in the case of my moods, the necessities like getting out of bed, eating breakfast, and going to work every day affect my ability to reach a higher level on the mood pyramid. this cymbalta chart is sort of what i am referring to. one day i will figure out how to create and insert my own drawings into my blog. in the meanwhile, this will have to do. 

being stuck in melancholy makes daily tasks a challenge. it makes thinking about life a challenge. unlike maslow's pyramid, the top of the mood pyramid also poses challenges and risks. ecstasy and mania make it difficult to make good choices because you feel invincible. 

now let's look at moods like the stock market like dr. g suggested. 

moods go up and down, and are often affected by external circumstances. the overall trend is what we need to be looking at when it comes to mood. 

how are your moods? have you ever kept a chart? do you pay attention to what brings you ups and downs? try it. and let me know how it goes. 

be kind to yourself, 

xoxo

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