November 24, 2008 Maslow ruined my shopping trip

I was at the book store, happily perusing the shelves looking for something interesting. I love the book store. So there I was, minding my own business, wandering up and down the isles, looking at the covers and reading the backs of books that caught my eye. Then it hit. That uncomfortable feeling with the slight pressure. But I didn't want to be done yet, didn't want to go home. So I ignored it. But it wouldn't go away, it never does. It must be dealt with. *sigh* NO - I wanted to finish what I came for, and I didn't want to be rushed. Then I started thinking about it. You know, getting all introspective and stuff. Why am I fighting it? I can take care of it here and continue shopping. It's not like I'm the only one to ever experience it, people do it all the time. And then I started thinking about why it's consuming so much of my energy to fight it. I remembered learning about Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. That silly little triangle, that psychology theory. It seems that you have to meet certain needs before you can go on to the next level and meet those needs. The need I was trying to meet and the reason I was in the book store in the first place was an Esteem Need - Achievement. I wanted to buy a book, to achieve that goal and then go home and add it to my happy little book shelf. The Esteem Needs are 2nd from the top on the hierarchy. I was almost to the top. ALMOST! But then that pressure hit and threw me all the way back to the bottom. The needs go in this order:
1. Physiological: breathing, food, water, sex, sleep, homeostasis, excretion.
2. Safety: security of body, of employment, of resources, of morality, of the family, of health, of property.
3. Love/Belonging: friendship, family, sexual intimacy
4. Esteem: self esteem, confidence, achievement, respect of others, respect by others
5. Self-actualization: morality, creativity, spontaneity, problem solving, lack of prejudice, acceptance of facts.

.....Yes....what threw me back to the first level was I had to poop.