Movenber Part 2. - Maslow - Suicide - Snakes and Ladders

Maslow's hierarchy of needs. 

For self-actualisation to exist the body must be in balance. For enlightenment to exist the chakras must be in balance. Om

Male suicide rate hits two-decade high in England and Wales. [Guardian 1^st September 2020] Almost 80% of all suicides are men. That’s an average of twelve men every day, one every two hours!  Well I did not, as I am writing this blog.  It did cross my mind, late 40’s and fifties, I might die, but that would have been from an excess of ‘pain relief’, in its myriad of forms, rather than intent.

Add Covid19 and we have an unexploded time bomb for many men.

In my previous Movember post, click here if you missed it, I talked about the Chakra system and its function in providing a balanced mind and body. Chakras are dippy hippy stuff for many of you. I did receive a lovely message following my chakra post, ‘Hi Colin, I thought your explanation of the chakras was really clear. Even for a cynic like me’. I was also a cynic for many years, I wanted scientific proof such energy existed. I then discovered Abraham Maslow and our somatic needs. Somatic needs are pure energy, we have no control over them. Our very existence requires the satisfaction of these needs. When our needs are not satisfied…

‘Maslow was an American psychologist who was best known for creating Maslow's hierarchy of needs, a theory of psychological health predicated on fulfilling innate human needs in priority, culminating in self-actualization’.  (Wikipedia)

His thesis states that there are five layers to our needs as human beings. It also tells us that the order cannot be circumvented i.e. It is a progression and can only take place in the prescribed order as we ascend the pyramid.

See the pyramid above.. Now imagine a game of snakes and ladders covering it. Our life purpose is to reach the pinnacle. In times of stress and uncertainty there are snakes everywhere. Many lead all the way down.

Let us look at each layer in turn:

 1: Biological or Somatic Needs

• Breathing • Drinking • Eating • Excreting • Sleeping • Sex

Our somatic needs are pure energy over which we have no control. If these basic needs are not met, the body is unable to function sufficiently to consider any other needs. We will kill to meet these needs.

Our somatic need for sex creates frustration, anger, violence, death and destruction on a worldwide scale. Domestic violence and sexual abuse by men will reach pandemic levels as a result of this virus. . Men need help, not condemning, as they have no control over their somatic needs.

Returning to the chakra system, this is all base chakra stuff; shit, pee, sex and survival. It also explains the run on toilet rolls in the first lockdown.

 2: Safety Needs

With our biological needs met (or we perceive they have been?) safety needs will then take over to dominate our behaviour. While historically safety needs meant shelter and protection from danger, nowadays these needs have more to do with yearning for an orderly and predictable world. Before we forget it, we live in a western society where relatively speaking our safety needs are adequately met and we are not primarily concerned with survival. Anything that makes us feel unsafe, like Covid19, will activate our primal safety needs.

This is the second chakra stuff. Our gut feelings, emotions and inner most fears. 

Maslow describes these first two levels as our Survival Needs. We return to these needs at moments of uncertainty and stress. Many of us are here right now.

The first two chakras are our life force energy. Stop reading for a moment, close your eyes and sense your body. Forget the aches and pains, how does your bowels and gut feel?  That's your Survival Chakras talking to you. 

Rectal and prostate cancer, combined, kill more men each year than any other cause, bar heart disease. Hey ho.

3: Social Needs

Assuming our survival needs are met then we can start to focus on our social needs. At this point we become social beings; friendship, intimacy, marriage, and the role of a supportive and communicative family come to the forefront.  Social beings have a need to love and be loved.  When our social needs are not met, we become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety and even clinical depression.   Men do not talk about their emotions, we store them in our survival chakras.. 

Social beings need our third, Sola Plexus, and fourth, the heart chakras, to be in balance. We need the confidence and courage to become loved and sociable. Its also the controller of our ‘fight or flight’ response.  Lockdown has removed men’s ability to fight or indeed for flight. This frustration is internalised, and we slide back down the snakes to our primal functions.

 4: Esteem Needs

Once safe, secure and loved we need esteem and this is where most of us, me included, fuck it up! We believe our esteem come from others. It does not, it comes from within.

 We all have a need to be respected and to respect others. We all engage ourselves to gain self-esteem and self-respect and will involve ourselves in activities that give us a sense of contribution and a feeling of acceptance and self-value. This can be a profession, a sport or hobby. If we have an imbalance at this level, we will lose our self-esteem and may even develop inferiority complexes. If we have low self-esteem (I have plenty), we search out respect from others through seeking fame, glory or even notoriety. Writing a blog ticks that box? Imbalances in this area can manifest itself in everything from depression to self-destruction, drugs and the like. I can resonate with many of the above.  Can you?

Add Covid19 and there are a lot of ego’s quietly moving towards self-destruction over the coming weeks and months. Our solar plexus and throat chakras dominate our ego’s and not our hearts. Self-esteem comes from the heart; it is self-love and not esteem from other.

When our esteem is destroyed, we once again meet the snakes and slide down to our survival needs.

 5: Growth Needs

It is at this point we can start to look inside ourselves and ask; what is it all about?  The sixth chakra, the third eye. The wisdom of eastern philosophies such as Buddhism and Chinese medicine have addressed this problem for many centuries. It is only the last hundred years that we have in western society taken notice of our needs for personal growth.

Moments of bliss are rare. Maslow called them ‘peak moments' or moments of self-actualisation. The seventh chakra is where we find enlightenment.. 

For peak moments to exist the body must be in balance. For enlightenment to exist the chakras must be in balance.  Om

And the point I am making is.

Please take care of your needs before your needs take care of you.