Our Basic Emotional Needs and Resources

So far we now know that nature provides us with incomplete templates initiated by need and that as we learn to have our needs satisfied these templates complete and allow us to repeat learned skills and behaviours without thinking too much about them. Other needs then automatically come to the fore and we continue to learn.

Nature has also designed-in many different ways in which we can complete these templates, and these are resources which are also programmed to become available as they are needed. Resources such as memory, imagination, problem solving abilities, self-awareness and a variety of complementary thinking styles to use in different situations.

We quickly learn that we can have our needs met by using our resources to help complete our skill and behaviour templates. As we grow and develop these needs continue to unfold as life changes and new templates are continuously brought to the fore for completion. Consider the needs of a newborn child, versus a five year old, a teenager, a partner, a parent, a career individual, a retiree, and such are the number of potential templates available to us, we are capable of becoming all of these and more. We are blessed with so much flexibility , no wonder human beings have not only survived, but flourished as a species.

Of course there are aspects of each of us that make us unique and we are not all capable of achieving everything, but we are often much more capable than we ever realise. This under-used potential is a major resource which Human Givens therapy uses to help you help yourself to overcome emotional distress.

If you'd like to better understand your needs relative to other people, check out www.enaproject.org.