Ever since I looked up & reviewed Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs it's been in the back or front of my mind. It made me realize that I've had things out of balance a lot. I've had my head in the clouds, trying to do God's work without taking proper care of me & 3rd Dimensional needs. All I have is me to do these things. Long ago I figured out that I had to be my own parent, my own mother & father. My beloved grandparents died when I was in my early 30s & they were the closest constant I had as far as mother/father love & energy. Or I should say, the only healthy, constant source. After they died I had to provide it for myself & glean it now & then from friends & other family. My mother suffers from some severe personality disorders & my father was non-functional as such. I learned about family love from TV & watching the interaction of others. That's pretty faulty when you think about it. The best guidance came from within, that part of me that knew when things were "off," & desired better. I tried very hard to give to my children from my own unmet needs. I tried to give them what I'd never had except from my grandparents. As we all do, I made many mistakes but as with so much, intent counts & so does heart. My parents were completely self-centered & I was not. My full intent was to give them the best life I could & my focus was on them. I was centered on them. So I made mistakes but was a much better parent than I'd had. As a result, I sometimes enjoy wonderful mothering from my adult daughter. I did better than my parents did & she's working to do better than I did. Since she has yet to be blessed with children of her own, she mothers those around her when she sees a need. She's a great blessing to many, including me when I need that. She does it beautifully, graciously, & entirely from the heart. My son tries to father me some, with financial advice & care about my physical situation. It's very touching. He too will do better than I did. It does my heart such good to see them in action.
What's been so on my mind since reading the Hierarchy of Needs is that I have to get my head out of the cloud & concentrate on that second level, the safety level. I realized how much of my life has been without those things. There's only me to make sure I get them, & that should be my main focus right now. I've been moving toward that lately & reading the list really snapped me to attention. I have been caring for & taking care of others & not myself, & that's been the overall pattern of my life. As part of that, I've been focused on doing God's work & being guided & directed, but neglecting a focus on my needs. I have such a strong desire for self-actualization but must take care of the lower needs before I can get there. And there's only me to do that. I'm writing about this because I don't believe I'm the only one who has things out of balance.
Maslow acknowledges that we work on more than one level at a time, work on more than one need at a time. I'm not saying I or you have to entirely concentrate on only a lower level need & forget about the higher. What I'm telling you & myself is that those lower needs are true needs, not wants, & must be taken care of before you can entirely achieve actualization at the highest level. So working only to achieve the highest level needs is out of balance & in most cases won't lead to filling all our true needs. I live in the 3rd Dimensional world & must take care of 3rd Dimensional needs while seeking the higher course. These days I'm out looking for an office job. I wanted to work from home, just using my talents & doing God's work, communing with my cats (cats are an actual need for me!). This isn't bringing in the income I need so I've gotten serious about finding an office job, & had quite a surprise yesterday. I interviewed for a position that blew me away. I walked in with Mike Dooley's book on manifesting change because I'd been reading it while waiting. The Director noticed it immediately, started talking about manifesting, Reiki, working with essential oils - my language! Then the Reiki Master & holistic practitioner in the room chimed in, & I became very excited. This was an ad I answered from the Pennysaver, but had a bit of a feeling about. That feeling was small so I was, as I said, blown away by what I was hearing. I had no idea that a group of advanced possibility thinkers who were totally innovating a health care delivery system would be out there searching for a team employee. So now I see it doesn't have to be one or the other - a job or God's work, drudge or fulfillment. I took the forward steps toward what I need & the Universe delivered that interview (read Mike Dooley - this is straight out of his book that this happens).
No comments:
Post a Comment