What Does a Human Need to Be Happy 1/3: Physiological Needs
How do we provide for human physiological needs?
Not to mention our emotional needs. And I’m not talking just about taking care of our children. I’m talking about human beings in general.
There’s more to this question than meets the eye. To gain a deeper understanding, let’s start with an example.
If you’ve ever owned a pet, you know how much joy it can bring to your life. Take a dog for example. A dog greeting its owner with its tail wagging is the very embodiment of happiness. No wonder animals are even used for emotional support with pretty impressive results. Pet owners often experience reduced stress levels, improved energy, motivation, and quality sleep.
But with having a pet also comes the responsibility for its well-being. This excerpt from wikihow.pet sums up very well what it means to take care of a dog (but the same holds true for any animal):
“You need to provide for its needs, both physical and emotional. This means providing nutritious food, clean drinking water, shelter, and the opportunity to live in a safe home. It also means ensuring the dog is happy by providing ample play time, plenty of exercise, and stimulation for its mind. Caring for a dog is a big responsibility, and dog ownership is not something to enter into lightly”
If you take care of an animal’s physical and emotional needs, it is most likely happy.
I think we can all agree on that.
What Are The Basic Human Needs?
Now, what about us humans?
Humans are of course far more complex creatures than a dog or a cat, but we also have basic physiological and emotional needs that must be met in order for us to be happy.
In this blog post we will take a look at how meeting our physiological needs contribute to our happiness. In the next blog post we will delve deeper into human emotional or psychological needs.
Let’s take a look at something we have all probably seen at some point in our lives: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Although this is by no means a perfect model for understanding human needs, it provides some excellent talking points.
The hierarchy is often portrayed as a pyramid to illustrate the flow of human motivation. This means that motivation arises from the lower levels and the needs at one level must be sufficiently met in order to pursue fulfilling the needs on a higher level. Each level builds on the ones below.
Today it is more often thought, that the levels are continuously overlapping each other, so that the lower levels may take precedence back over the other levels at any point in time.
Physiological Needs: The Foundation Of Well-Being
At the bottom of the pyramid, the foundation, are the physiological needs. These are pretty self-explanatory. Obviously we need air, water, food and sleep. And toilet paper. Whatever you do, don’t forget the toilet paper (Okay, that’s something I doodled in, it’s not included in the original hierarchy).
Most of us are able to fulfill these needs every day, but if we take a closer look at how things are, the pyramid might already be falling apart on the first level.
Pollution is a major problem in some countries (or areas within a country). It is not just enough to breathe air. The air must be clean. Even if you have clean air in your city or state, how often do you go out to nature?
It’s very different to enjoy fresh air outside than to sit around breathing the filtered air in an office building. Not to mention that being out in nature has other great benefits for your mental and physical health.
What about water? Clean water is an essential for life. This may not be a problem yet, but let’s make sure we have enough clean water for everyone in the future as well. Water shortages are a real thing and I for one don’t want to see a future where private companies own what’s left of our clean water sources.
In any case, I’d say for now we get enough clean air and water. Otherwise we wouldn’t live very long.
We also have a physiological need for reproduction, but we have made such a taboo out of that topic that it’s best discussed at another time. Let’s just say that it’s completely natural and not something to be ashamed of.
Let’s discuss our food for a while, because that’s where things get interesting.
You Are What You Eat
Circling back to where we started, if you have a pet you try to feed it a proper diet. You search google, read books or consult experts on what is a proper diet for a dog, a cat, a parrot, whatever animal you might have as a pet. For example, we won’t feed chocolate to a dog, because we know it’s toxic to them.
Surprisingly, chocolate can be toxic to humans as well. It’s just that the amount you’d have to eat is ridiculously large, something like 20 pounds. (Don’t even try, I know what you are thinking: A large amount, you say? I can eat 20 pounds of chocolate in one sitting! 😉 )
Getting back to the subject at hand: What about us humans? How to meet the basic nutritional needs of a human being: What is the proper human diet?
Have you read books about human diet? Do you consult with experts? More importantly: Do you feed yourself a nutritious, healthy diet?
If not, why not? The answer is usually that we try, but often resort to foods we know are not good for us, because we are tired, stressed or just looking for something for comfort.
Don’t blame yourself if you find it hard to eat healthy. There are a million different diets out there and a billion different food items from which to choose. The food industry claims that everything they sell is well thought out, nutritious and healthy for you, at least in moderate amounts. Doctors often just encourage you to “eat less and exercise more”.
Our Modern Diet Fulfils Our Needs The Wrong Way
The unfortunate fact is that it’s not in the food industry’s interests to feed you a proper human diet. Their goal is to get you to buy as much food as possible. They make money that way. That’s why most of what we eat is filled with sugar, fat and processed carbohydrates in such a way that gets us addicted.
Once upon a time it was beneficial for us to eat sugar in the form of fruit, because fruits were also filled with essential vitamins. We developed a sugar “addiction” to make sure we would eat as much fruit (and vitamins in the process) whenever they were available. It was beneficial for our survival.
Today we do not need to binge fruits in order to survive. We have fruits, vegetables and other food available to us all year round. But our bodies and minds still react to sugar the same way as they did ages ago. That’s why almost every food we eat has added sugar in it. To make sure we eat it as much as possible and still want more.
Consequently, we get overweight and sick. The next thing to do is go to the doctor. Unfortunately it’s not in the healthcare industry’s best interest to teach you how to eat healthy and be healthy.
They thrive on the fact that you need their services. If you would be healthy, you wouldn’t need to go to the doctor. They prescribe drugs which will probably help with the symptoms, but do not address the root cause of the problem.
And guess what? It’s not in the pharmaceutical companies’ interest to make sure you get healthy. They thrive on the fact that you are not well and need to buy their drugs.
Institutions Thrive On Our Needs
That’s just the way we have built our society. Food, healthcare and pharmaceuticals among many other things have become institutionalized in a way that no longer serves the individual’s best interests. The institutions cannot exist without the individual needing them.
That’s not to say that modern medicine and healthcare are fundamentally bad and I’m sure each individual doctor has their patient’s best interest in mind. It’s just the institutions, the fundamentals, which serve mostly themselves.
Mankind has the ability to cure almost any disease and I sure am glad we have things like painkillers readily available. I’m just making some observations here. These institutions are fundamentally of our own construct, so maybe we could come up with a better way to arrange our food and medicine supply?
The point of all this being: Our physiological needs are being used to make profit for companies. That’s not a very good foundation for happiness, is it?
But eating makes me feel so good! Surely it has to help deal with stress and depression? It can’t be that bad to eat sugary treats from time to time?
Eating sugar releases dopamine in our brain. Dopamine is the “feel-good” hormone of the human body, so sugar will indeed make us feel good. The problems arise with the continuous use of sugar (or any other substance that releases dopamine).
Eating sugar causes an excess release of dopamine. This makes you feel a pleasurable “high” that you want to re-experience. You are thus likely to repeat the behavior. As you eat more and more sugar, your brain adjusts to release less dopamine and the only way to feel the same “high” as before is to repeat the behaviour more and more often with higher amounts of sugar.
So you are not getting happier while eating sugar or any food (or drugs or alcohol) that releases dopamine. It is a distraction for your mind, not true happiness.
Fulfill Your Needs The Right Way
What, then, is the proper human diet? If there is a diet for keeping a dog healthy and happy, surely there must be one for humans. I’m not an expert in this area, but what works for me is eating as “clean” as possible, “like nature intended”. Very little (if none) processed foods, lots of vegetables, fruit in moderation, wild caught fish, maybe grass-fed beef and lots of water. Here are some good starting points if you want to learn more (no affiliation, just what I think is good stuff):
What I’m trying to get at here, is that I think it is fundamental for our happiness that our basic physiological needs are met. We must have food, water, air, sleep etc. to be able to even function properly.
If these needs are not met, we are not happy. We know how to take care of an animal and this includes providing for its physiological and emotional needs. Why should you be any different? Learn to provide for your physiological and emotional needs and you will be happy.
But one of the most important concepts behind “happiness on demand” is the fact, that often what we really need and what we think we need are two very different things. It’s important to be able to distinguish between the two.
Sugar is the perfect example. We think that we need it, because we have been conditioned to use it in excess, up to a point where it’s more of an addiction than a physiological need. In reality, we can do with minimal amounts of sugar, or even none at all.
Your Body Can Tell You What It Needs
Ultimately, the best advise I can give regarding any and all of the basic human physiological needs, is this:
Learn to listen to your body.
If you just stop and listen to how you feel, your body can tell you whether it needs food, sleep, exercise, shelter from the elements or any other thing.
Your mind (conscious mind, ego) will try to get in the way. It will form habits and even addictions and may not want to let go of them. Clearing old habits will take some time and effort, but luckily we have just the right tools for the job.
Try meditation and once you are familiar with it, start to use it to visualize a different, healthier, life. Your mind will take instructions if you know how to speak to it consistently in a way that makes sense to it. Meditation is also a good tool to help you “tune in” to your body and listen to what it needs.
By listening to what your body tells you, you are well on your way to providing for your physiological needs. I put a lot of emphasis on the diet on purpose, since it is such an important part of your well-being. Many other physiological needs are derived from eating and drinking properly. Health, for example. You will very likely be healthy, fit and energetic if you eat a “proper human diet”.
Other Needs: Ends Or Means?
Then what about the other basic needs, the needs on the second level of the pyramid? Well, there are things like property, employment and resources (e.g. money). I’m going to assume that these are important for all of us, just make sure you are clear on why they are important to you (are they ends or means).
The “why” part is discussed in detail pretty much everywhere on this blog and website. Employment and money are things that should derive from who you say you want to be, or be means to that end, instead of being the things that you use to define who you are. This we will discuss further in the third blog post of this series.
Next, let’s move on to the third and fourth levels of the pyramid, and take a look at human psychological (emotional) needs.
Conclusion
Like any living being, you have physiological needs that must be met.
Providing for these needs will be the basis for your happiness.
Our current way of living may not be the best for fulfilling our actual needs. Many institutions of our construct actually benefit from your needs being unfulfilled.
What you think you need and what you actually need may be very different things
Learn to listen to your body, it can tell you what it needs. Use methods such as meditation to get “in tune” with your body.
Disclaimer
The entire contents of this blog are based upon the opinions of the author. It is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The information in this blog is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care professional before trying any of the products or methods based on this content. I cannot guarantee that you will be free of stress, anxiety or depression, or that you will be happy. I simply want to share with you what I have discovered during my twenty years of seeking happiness and what has worked for me may not work for you.
