Are you tired of not having your needs understood or met? Do you personally understand what your needs are,which ones are being met, which ones aren’t and how you could be better meeting your own needs?

Well guess what?! This brief article has been created to quickly help you gain more clarity and understanding regarding your needs, and how you can go about better meeting them!

I wanted to use this brief blog post to offer you a simple insight exercise to offer you more clarity regarding your needs and how you can better meet them.

Often when we are experiencing challenging emotions, or are feeling unappreciated, unseen or unheard, there is a strong likelihood that our needs are not being met in some regard.

We are all complex beings, and each have individual and unique desires, wants and needs, and the first step to having these needs met, is to first develop clarity on what those needs are.

Secondly, it is then just as important to determine which of our needs are being met, and which are not.

Finally, we can then decide how we wish to positively get those needs met - this may require more proactivity on our part, or may require communication with those closest to us.

It all begins with Self-Awareness

I wanted to share this simple “Wheel of Needs”  insight exercise with you all to offer support in helping you find clarity about your own needs, which are being met, and which are not. My hope for you, is that through doing this exercise you will develop deeper self awareness and understanding, and in doing so, be able to improve and nurture the relationships with those in your life.

So with that said, lets get on to the exercise…

Stage One:

• Grab a pen and paper, and let’s get started.

Below is an image of the Wheel of Needs. As you can see, it has 10 psychological need categories i.e Rest, Empathy etc.

• On your piece of paper, write a list of the 10 categories from the wheel.

• Next, you are going to rate your level fulfilment / satisfaction of each of the categories. 

• If you feel that the category isn’t fulfilled at all, this would be a one. If you feel the category is as fulfilled as much as it can possibly can be, then this would be a ten.

Stage Two:

• Look to see which of the categories scores Lowest.

• If you have a few that are low, pick the one that you personally feel needs the most attention first.

• Write the name of this category on your piece if paper.

Stage Three:

• Take a moment to consider the category you chose in Stage 2.

• Which of the needs within this category feel most important to you? Which of the needs, if addressed and met, would have the biggest positive impact on your life?

• For example, if you chose the Rest category - do you need more play? Or perhaps sleep?

• Make a list of the need, or needs on your piece of paper.

Stage Four:

• Take a moment to review the list of needs you identified in stage Three.

• Next, take a moment to think about what specific and tangible actions or steps you can take to ensure that these needs start getting met for you.

• This isn’t about getting it perfect, or meeting all of your needs right away. Rather, think about what small and easily achievable step you can take right away to meet the need that sits at the top of your list e.g schedule in power nap for Saturday afternoon.

• It’s important to also remember that we are able to meet a singular need in many different ways. For instance,  if you are hoping to meet your need for play - this could be a game of cards with your friends, a trampoline park with a niece or nephew or a fun date day with your significant other.

• Write down any specific actions that you come up on you piece of paper.

Stage Five:

• Action what you have written down!

• Also, be sure to regularly check back in with this exercise to make sure that you are proactively seeking to meet your needs in positive ways!

Some Final Words

So that’s all for todays exercise! I hope you found it both insightful and positively impactful.

Through truly understanding and being able be sure to share it with those that you think will benefit.

Until next time!

Much Love,

DCM.