A big part of my personal spiritual development has focused on changing how I relate to human “needs”.
At this point, I sense a human body physically needs very little to survive!
but our modern societies teach and encourage people to seek many material items, control their environment to look a certain manicured way (we call the latest fashion in our homes, clothes, lawns, kitchen colors), and to crave substances daily (like caffeine) and desperately as “needs we can’t live without”.
From my experience and research, the human body truly only needs for its physical survival: (1) air to breathe, (2) clean water with pure minerals from the earth, (3) some plants and veggies for food, (4) some shelter from weather extremes, (5) some friendly people around.
For me, the rest is up for questioning as optional.
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Applying this to my daily life, any time I feel jittery or anxious to make a decision or get something done right now, that is when I slow down, pause, and seek to learn what is causing this impulsive/compulsive feeling within me to emerge — that is pushing me to do or get something I “need” now….in order to feel better, calm, relieved, relaxed, happy, satisfied.
Usually I find some kind of fear…and then I choose to sense more deeply into what is causing the feeling of fear:
(1) identify what am I feeling afraid of happening, losing, or experiencing?
(2) and what is causing me to be afraid of that?