I always thought Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs (the colorful 5-layered pyramid we've all seen) completely useless.
Here is the real list, from Charles Whitfield's "Healing the Child Within:"
- Survival
- Safety
- Touching, skin contact
- Attention
- Mirroring and echoing
- Guidance
- Listening
- Being real
- Participating
- Acceptance
Others are aware of, take seriously, and admire the Real You
Freedom to be the Real You
Tolerance of your feelings
Validation
Respect
Belonging and love
- Opportunity to grieve losses and to grow
- Support
- Loyalty and trust
- Accomplishment
Mastery, "Power," "Control"
Creativity
Having a sense of completion
Making a contribution
- Altering one's state of consciousness, transcending the ordinary
- Sexuality
- Enjoyment or fun
- Freedom
- Nurturing
- Unconditional love (including connecting with a Higher Power)
This is the list I'll work on. Since finding my real self I've struggled to find out how to feel being real. Knowing I have a real self wasn't enough to be happy. I finally found out how. Some I missed out on growing up (those are in italics). Some I found as an adult. Some important ones I found when I married Becky. Some I discovered in books, some with a therapist. Not done yet.