Many of us are searching for identity throughout our entire life’s journey, it is a foundational part of what makes us human. Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper :” A Theory of Human Motivation”(Journal of Psychological Review). In his paper, he proposed a hierarchy of human needs which were broken down :1. Basic needs,2. Psychological needs, and 3.Self-fullfillment or self-actualization. Basic needs are described as physiological needs such as food, water, warmth, and rest. Also in the list of basic needs includes security and safety. Under psychological needs, we see esteem needs: prestige, feeling of accomplishment. Belongingness and love needs, ie intimate relationships, friends. The self-fulfillment needs, includes: self-actualisation-achieving one’s full potential, including creative activities. This hierarchy is a main base in knowing how effort and motivation are correlated when discussing human behavior. Maslow’s contention was that each of these individual levels contains a certain amount of internal sensation that must be met in order for an individual to complete their hierarchy- ultimately final goal is to reach self-actualisation. Present scholars believe that these levels of achievement overlap quite a bit and throughout our lives , which means the lower levels may take precedence back over the other levels at any point in time. Hardships, difficulties and many trials present these types of circumstances as we journey through toward fulfillment. What makes some people give up the effort, and others sink their teeth in the goal to reach self -fulfillment-no matter what diversions, what unfortunate circumstances? In my own personal story, I had no role model to look up to, no clear reason to believe that I may ever climb out of the bucket I was in, nor did I have a clue what I was reaching for. I am sure this is a familiar story to others. There is an old saying” There are no atheists in foxholes”. In my story , God saved my life from a traumatic assault which took the life of my first-born child, I too; almost died during this assault. Some may say , there is no God that should allow such a thing to happen, (there were family members who did say these exact words.) But I knew different, I knew that if it was not for God, answering my plea to help me, to let me live, I would not be here today writing this to you. Did my feelings get in the way of my choices, and what was right or wrong? Over the years, yes many times. We are always searching for fulfillment of who we are , always searching through each hierarchy level, floundering between levels at times, but always reaching for who we are. My faith in God has kept me stable in my quest- though feelings are hurt, understanding those pains that cause those feelings is more important , my faith has helped me grow more and more each day, if we succumb to our feelings we will always be in a state of instability. I know that I was not alone that day when the attacker let me go to. I lived to speak about that day. I thank God for saving me. Write about your feelings, get to the bottom of why you feel the way you do, learn to understand your feelings and learn to heal and grow. Give all your pain, and all your grief to God, He will also help you grow past hurtful moments in your life.
