“You don’t know what you don’t know”

At my first year of University I learnt about Maslow Hierarchy of Needs. At every stage of my life I understood it differently. To be exact I started to understand full meaning of it as I was evolving. The graph below explains it pretty well, but the trick is that it is very hard to identify what stage you are at. I personally never met a person who thought they never went past Safety Need stage or Psychological stage, because we can only judge from the perspective we are at.

I remember myself at the first level of the

, then at the second, then at the third. At every stage I thought that I was right at the top of it. It was because I did believe I was safe, that I was in love, and it seemed I was acknowledged by others and I lived my full potential, yay! It was only until I have actually reached the next level of development and I understood what it meant to really love unconditionally, and by recognition and respect it actually meant not as much acknowledgment from others but from myself. I was always a person for whom it was easier to get respected by others than by myself. For example, all this “get approval from others” game had been stopping me from writing this blog; it was because I was afraid of being judged, or saying something wrong, or offending and upsetting someone. Nowadays myself knows that power of intention is very strong. I clearly understand that I am just expressing my truth here, sharing my knowledge, that I am just being honest with you and this cannot possibly offend someone.

Another very important thing is to understand that no matter what level you are at of the pyramid it does not make you a better person than those at the level below. For example, do you know that if a person have struggled as a child or have been abused, it is very difficult for them to get past the safety level? It has to be identified first where your problem sits then most likely you need to ask for help and at last you have to work through it. Otherwise it can manipulate you all your life. Can person who did not experience that judge the person who did….I don’t think so. So if you are a person who realizes they should not judge someone based on just their knowledge and understanding, but rather accept and help if you are asked.

I strongly believe that we are responsible for the knowledge we have, responsible for applying it and even for sharing it. It is important for your own self-development. When I pass information to others I feel that I free up some space for more :-)

Here is a tip to help you identify where you stand and what problems you are most likely to be solving at the current stage of your life. Ask yourself what would you do if you had only one week to live and then look at the pyramid closely…You will understand…I am sure you will…

P.S. Read through this post again and notice how I use ‘now’ a lot, it means I am present at this very moment. Hey, I like it!

Love to all, Natasha Petrova