Climbing the Ladder to Wellness
By: Kousalya V Kumar
Tags: Wellness, Hierarchy Of Needs, Lifestyle, Wholeness, Planetary Health

Through the absence of what we think we have to have, we can discover our wholeness — Renae A.Sauter

Image Source: Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

The world is slowly moving towards a wellness-centric living. The aspects of our everyday life from the food we eat, the emotions we feel and the social engagements we involve in, contribute to overall wellness. The world is transcending from dwelling over only eliminating illness. Medical advances and interventions have made it possible for us to worry less about health and improve other areas of life. Renowned positive psychologist Abraham Maslow highlighted the necessity of fulfilling various needs before one could attain self-fulfillment. When placed side by side, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs overlap with our journey towards wellness. The process of attaining wellness might mean we will have to climb the ladder to it.

In the late 1940s, Abraham Maslow developed the idea of the hierarchy of needs. The central theme of the hierarchy of needs was that an individual had to have the lower-level needs met before they can move up the pyramid of needs. The hierarchy of needs encompassed physiological needs, safety needs, belongingness and love needs, cognitive needs, aesthetic needs, transcendence needs and self-actualization. Decades later the concept of wellness came into existence covering physical, emotional, social, spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental dimensions. Although developed years apart, each of the wellness dimensions fit into the varying strata of the needs pyramid. The map to wellness might have been well charted by Maslow in the form of his pyramid.

The basic premise of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that the various needs in the hierarchy should be fulfilled before self-actualization can be attained. Self-actualization is in line with wellness in terms of attaining one’s full potential, thriving and seeking personal growth. Both wellness and self-actualization require not only a balance but also fulfilment of the various dimensions contained within them. Less or absence of even one aspect might mean a lag in the race towards wellness or becoming self-actualized.

If wellness is the Holy Grail we are seeking, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs might be our guiding map. The hierarchy portrays the needs that should be met and the order in which they should be met to reach the overall wellness stage.

The biological and physiological needs ensure a person has food, shelter, water, sleep and all other basic requirements. This stratum of the hierarchy along with the safety need covering protection, security and stability contributes to the good physical and emotional health of an individual. The love and belongingness stratum encompasses love, friendship, intimacy, trust, acceptance and affiliation that contribute to emotional and social dimensions. The pyramid strata esteem needs, cognitive needs and aesthetic needs contain within them the wellness dimensions spirituality, vocation, finance, and environment. A culmination of all these dimensions and needs leads to a state of wellness.

The attainment of wellness or self-actualization is more about striving than the attainment. By trying to acquire and fulfil each need, individuals increase their wellness quotient. The whole concept of wellness is dependent on the striving as one need is fulfilled, another emerges. The gap between deficiency and fulfilment is the fuel to move towards wellness and self-actualization. The essence of wellness lies in the journey rather than the destination. Maslow’s construction of the needs pyramid resembles building blocks one over the other. Pulling out even one block means the whole structure collapses. Similarly, wellness is constructed through careful balance and every piece of it is essential. The resemblance between Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and wellness might be coincidental. But adapting the needs pyramid to attain wellness means a clear direction to move forward.