The Spiral Dynamics of Human Needs
Humans are complex creatures with many layers of needs. In this article, I will present my own analysis of how the different colors of the Spiral are associated with human needs. Each section has questions to help us consider which of our needs are being met?
Are my Beige body needs being met?
Are my Purple home needs being met?
Are my Red autonomy needs being met?
Are my Blue stability needs being met?
Are my Orange achievement needs being met?
Are my Green harmony needs being met?
Are my Yellow self-actualization needs being met?
Are my Turquoise self-transcendence needs being met?
Note: For those new to Spiral Dynamics it may be helpful to refer to my introductory post about the Spiral. Or you can consider this table for a refresher :)
So with that said, let’s dive into the Spiral Dynamics of Human Needs!
Beige Needs: BODY
Healthy Body | Satisfied Urges | Sustenance | Survival
Ah, Beige… I feel like it is often the most overlooked color. This is somewhat understandable as it’s hard to talk about Beige, since it’s pre-language. Yet Beige is the most fundamental layer of the Spiral. It is associated with consciousness itself, and it underlies everything we talk about and do and perceive.
Beige BODY needs are our survival needs — food, water, warmth, shelter, protection… and it extends to everything we need physiologically for a thriving life: physical touch, a robust and nutritious diet, unpolluted air and water, healthy sleep rhythms, physical movement/activity, sunlight, and physical synergy with the natural world — the natural world outside of us (eg: seasonal rhythms and microRNA exposure) and inside of us (e.g. our gut microbiome).
Unfortunately, in much of modern culture, Beige needs are very neglected (along with Purple needs). People today are so disconnected from their bodies! They don’t notice their breath. Or their muscles. Or their instincts. They suppress the body’s voice calling for them to eat, drink, rest, and stretch! Instead, they pop an Orange pill and push through to try to continue their Orange productivity! Alas, all the while consuming the cost-effective, nutrient-lacking food that Orange marketing has convinced them is safe, while being exposed to a plethora of man-made toxins and spending less time than ever in the natural world of dirt, wind, and sunlight. Ah, I wonder what this increasingly disconnected, disembodied existence will do to all of us in 20 years… and our children…
If we aren’t getting our Beige body needs met, then everything else suffers. As individuals and a society, if we fail to shore up our most foundational physiological needs, everything else that’s built on top of this will crumble around us.
Beige Check-Up Questions:
Are you taking care of your body, and do you feel at home within it?
Do you notice (and respond) when you’re getting hungry, or getting sick, or getting tired?
Do you, at times, push your body physically, and spend sufficient time moving, exercising, and stretching?
Do you spend time in nature, getting sun, and physically touching plants and animals?
Is your diet free from chemical toxins and contain foods that are local and seasonal?
Are your needs for physical touch and physical closeness to others being met?
Are you able to manage your bodily instincts in a healthy way?
Body-Scan Activity
The best way to connect with our Beige needs is not through intellectually thinking about them, but in feeling them in our body. One way to get into the body is through a body scan: Wherever you are, take a moment to Pause… take a Breath… and drop into your body. Don’t analyze, but simply notice how your body feels. Use your felt sense…
Where do you feel contact with the ground? Notice your feet and sit-bones, connecting you to the earth. Starting low-down, perhaps with your toes, move your attention up your body inch-by-inch. Every several inches, pause and really notice how that area of feels. Is it warm or cold? Does it feel the air around it? Move up your belly… chest… shoulders… and down your arms to your fingertips. If you feel any urges from your body, try to honor them however you can — perhaps that means softening that area or sending your inhale to that location. Finally, move your attention from your neck up to the top of your head, making sure to rest upon your throat… jaw… sinus cavities… cheekbones… eyes… and brow. Close by considering your whole body again, as it rests in space, and (with respect and compassion) take a full breath to conclude the practice.
Purple Needs: HOME
Comfort | Family | Safety | Intimacy | Partnership
Ah, Purple, one of my favorites! In Purple, people merge with their environment and the people around them, which makes them feel connected, cozy, and safe… The feeling of Purple is the loving embrace of your parents. It’s curling up in your evening nook with your favorite book. It’s singing together in church. There’s a healing magic behind Purple. A simple beauty. A feeling of being “held” and “known.”
Purple HOME needs are our intimacy needs — the need to feel spiritually held and connected (with others, places, and spirits) — which leads to a a deep feeling of comfort and existential safety. This includes feeling comfortable/relaxed (part of feeling “at home”), feeling embedded in a place, and feeling bonded to family — parental figures, siblings, and close friends.
The most important way Purple needs are met is through ritual. (I’m using the word “ritual” a bit broadly here.) Rituals have a “homing” effect — turning the foreign and dangerous into family and safety. Imagine you’re living alone in the wilderness… how might you turn your Beige cave into a Purple home? You might try some decorating (which is both a ritual and aesthetic practice, likely to also incorporate cultural expression), and keep the floor swept and clean (a cleanliness practice which also establishes a kind of sacred set-apartness), by writing on it or marking it with symbols (something which may literally “claim” the space but also makes it your own by leaving your “mark”), and by relating symbolically with the space (perhaps personifying your home as a “she,” or thinking of the “house being happy” once she’s cleaned, etc.). And of course you could also do an explicit homing ritual like burning sage to clean the energy, marking the entry with your blood, sprinkling it with water, saying a prayer over it, or kissing it. Perhaps you can see how all these activities imbue intention into the place, which unifies the physical place with our spiritual minds… and imbues our physical person with the spirit of the place.
These same sorts of rituals become even more powerful when practiced together, and they are the primary ways we are bound to each other. Modern societies today are bound-together by shared holidays (and the rituals/customs/celebrations associated with each of them), by shared social progression (like going to kindergarten, elementary school, high school, university, a career, and retirement), milestone celebrations (birthdays, graduations), group-bonding rituals (summer camps, family vacations, watching the game, religious gatherings, eating together, dancing), by filing certain social roles (being a child, teenager, young adult, spouse, parent, elderly), fulfilling pot-arcs (the hero’s journey, the maiden-mother-crone arc, coming-of-age rituals, baptism - first communion - confirmation), by honoring politeness customs (smiling at people, greeting them a certain (regional) way, shaking hands/fist-bumping, saying “thank you,” standing a certain distance away from people, not staring, facing the same direction in the elevator), and even shared language, which while not exactly a ritual, accomplishes, in part, the same purpose by connecting people together while signaling a shared cultural arena. Even within those speaking the same language, variations like accents, expressions, references to shared stories and mythos, words that signal affiliation, and jargon all play a role in quickly establishing a sense of familiarity and bonding (or of foreignness). As far as I know, in every place in the world, religion has been an integral part of the formation of many of these rituals, and continues to make accessible additional binding-rituals for those who practice (connecting to community, spaces, spirits, and God or the sacred) in fasts and feasts, rites and sacraments, weekly church services, communal singing, shared language, mythos, and customs.
Purple Check-Up Questions
Do you feel at home?
Are you deeply and connected with family and/or friends?
Do you have spaces and rituals/activities that make you feel warm and safe?
Do you spend unstructured time “just being” with your loved ones?
Do you have daily and weekly activities that bond you with others?
Are there traditions you cherish?
Are you spiritually protected?
Do you practice rituals to process emotions and mark changes?
Do you engage in childlike play and feel the magic of mundane moments?
Purple Activities
There are many ways to increase our Purple feelings of embeddedness in the world. I’ll share 2 activities, one that can be done while alone, and another that’s done with someone else:
Candle Prayer: Go to a quiet place with a candle (or a few candles). Think of one person you love. This can be someone living or deceased. While holding them in your heart, say a brief prayer, and light the candle. The light of the candle is the light of your goodwill and affection. The smoke is your intentions rising up to heaven, carried on the heat of your love.
Rose-Thorn-Bud: With someone you are close with, or wish to develop closeness with, ask them what their “Rose-Thorn-Bud” of the day is. That is, ask them to share: one highlight of the day (Rose), a difficulty or pain of the day (Thorn), and what’s one thing they are looking forward to (Bud). They can share theirs with you, and you with them. Perhaps there’s someone in your life who would appreciate this check-in on a daily basis, and you can do this with a friend or family member daily for a period of time. If this seems like too much work, consider deciding to message each other each day, but with just a one-word answer to each question :)
Red Needs: AUTONOMY
Self-Expression | Adventure | Boundaries | Power | Fun
Whoo! Let’s get revved up for Red!! In Red, YOU are what matters… not the family, or the spirits, but YOU and whatever makes YOU come alive! In human development Red is when the child starts to separate from the family, be disobedient, explore new things, go on adventures, and decide for themselves! Red values strength — physical might for sure, but also cleverness, perseverance, and social influence.
Red AUTONOMY needs are our self-expression and adventure needs — to follow our desires, try new things, and discover ourselves apart from the collective.
Common examples of Red needs being met would be getting tattoos, going to parties, and moving to a new city; gaining social influence or power in a relationship; achieving financial independence; setting boundaries and “saying no” to something you don’t want to do. Red AUTONOMY is needed to avoid being taken advantage of and to advocate for yourself. Some people struggle with this while others have an over-blown or inflated attempt to meet this need, through power and control over others. Or, as many people do these days, we oscillate between these two extremes — ricocheting between narcissism and nihilism.
Red needs are often in conflict with the needs of the collectivist (cool) colors, most particularly Blue STABILITY and Purple HOME. To be intimate with others (Purple) requires a dissolving of (Red) boundaries and maintaining a orderly life (Blue) means reigning in all the disparate ways I feel like expressing myself (Red). Thus, a balance must be struck for all the needs to be well met.
Red Check-Up Questions
Are you free to express yourself?
Do you get to have fun and try new things?
Do you ask for what you need?
Are you able to “say no” when you should (or are you easily pressured into a “yes”)?
Do you set and maintain boundaries with others… and set and keep boundaries with yourself?
Are you able to assert yourself, your ideas, and your options?
Do you confront others and tell them things they don’t want to hear?
Are you able to do what you want without excessive guilt or fear?
Blue Needs: STABILITY
Security | Clarity | Purpose | Duty | Trust
After all the chaos of Red, Blue swoops in to save us with its order! Blue gives us a moral code to follow — laws, regulations, and “answers” to life’s big questions. It unites people on a societal level with shared rules and beliefs (Purple unites family/tribe, Green unites the globe). Because of Blue, people have a sense they should treat others fairly, play by the established rules (which allows us to trust people we haven’t met), give back to society, and not be irresponsible. Alas, the rule-following nature of Blue also makes it vulnerable to over-rigidity, restrictiveness, and totalizing thinking.
Blue STABILITY needs are about clarity and purpose. It is a need for existential order — that we can predict and “know” how things work and how we fit into society.
If my social word — my job, my school, my social groups — are all well-ordered and predictable, then I’m well on my way to having my Blue needs met. But I also want to know that all this matters, that I have meaning and purpose — I want to know why. Thus Blue stability is spiritual as well as physical and social.
You may notice that Blue STABILITY is a bit like an expansion of Purple HOME needs — “homing” us into larger society and a higher purpose. Similarly, the Green HARMONY needs are a bit like another expansion — making sure that all the other people feel “at home” helps us to feel in harmony with ourselves and the world.
Blue Check-Up Questions
Do you feel secure both physically and existentially?
Are you part of a social system you trust?
Do you have faith? Do you feel like your future is secure (whether you know what it will look like or not)?
Do you have the self-control to sacrifice your wants now for the future good?
Do you have ethical clarity?
Does the world you live in make sense?
Do you feel like you are doing your duty to others, and they are doing their duty for you?
Do you have an orienting goal or purpose for your life?
Orange Needs: ACHIEVEMENT
Success | Self-Improvement | Productivity | Esteem
Orange colors the “modern” world with progress, productivity, and efficiency. It has given us many wonders in science and technology! While it’s good enough in Blue to not hurt your fellow countryman, Orange wants you to improve, to make progress, and build something great! Orange societies try to do what gets results, and thus have historically been focused on industry, business, and marketing.
Orange ACHIEVEMENT needs are about Success and Improvement. “Success” looks different for different people. For some it’s all about winning (a competitive mindset). For others it’s about the status they gain. For others its about making an impact. For many, it’s about gaining wealth, influence, and acclaim.
Some of our need to achieve is external — to produce valuable things and have a good reputation. But some of our need to achieve is internal — to have grown as a person, learned new things, developed skills, and cultivated character.
There is an esteem element to Orange needs, for often, our motivation for achievement (or one of the things we strive to achieve) is that people like us, respect us, and admire us.
Orange Check-Up Questions
Are you growing in skills and learning new things?
Are you making progress in life?
Are you “stretching yourself” or taking on challenge?
Are you respected and appreciated by others?
Do you feel like your able to produce things of value?
Have you accomplished things in life that really matter?
If you died tomorrow, would you feel your life was “successful”?
Green Needs: HARMONY
Peace | Rest | Equity | Sensitivity | Connectivity | Community
As great as Orange is, it’s often a lot of pressure… and it can turn people into productivity engines and achievement slot machines. That’s where Green comes in, to welcome you into a peaceful space, where you can just be yourself and be accepted. The Green lens is sensitive to everyone’s needs, and Green societies seek to care for the marginalized, and do their part for the global good.
Green HARMONY needs are about peace and equity. This involves zooming out and considering how everyone can live both peacefully and with a “justice” that looks more like everyone getting their needs met than everyone being held to the same standard (Blue). Equity and justice can be seen as “my” own needs, because I am connected to everyone else — their suffering is, in part, my suffering — injustice for them is, in part, injustice for me.
True peace comes, in large part, though empathy, compassion, and sensitivity to others. Similarly, when peace is present, we are safe to empathize and show compassion (while when violence dominates, Red power and Beige survival seem more practical).
Orange and Green also symbolize the work-rest dichotomy. A fitting pendulum swing between work and rest is needed for both needs to be fulfilled!
Green Check-Up Questions
Are you living in a safe and harmonious environment?
Are you able to live openly and authentically without judgement?
Do you have mutually-filling and affectionate relationships that support you and the other person?
Do you feel accepted/welcome by community (and do you get to extend this to others)?
Are you connected with with people all over the world?
Do you have time for rest, emotional processing, and enjoying friendships?
Are you living in a just and equitable world?
Yellow Needs: SELF-ACTUALIZATION
Integration | Impact | Fulfillment | Virtue | Humility
Now we reach the first color of “2nd-tier consciousness!” Most people don’t grasp non-dual thinking or love paradoxes like Yellow does, but that’s alright with Yellow — they don’t want everyone to be like them, and they can relate to all the other colors just fine. Yellow won’t get offended because someone sees the world through a different lens. Like many healthy folks in Orange, Yellow is always learning and growing, but with a humility, openness, flexibility, and sensitivity that Orange rarely displays. “Integration” is the key word to understand Yellow. A person working in Yellow will seek to integrate every part of their life together — actions, desires, thoughts — with integrity.
Yellow SELF-ACTUALIZATION needs are about fulfilling your potential. This requires humility — the recognition that you are finite and full of imperfections — so that you can let yourself be changed into a better person of high character and virtue, and continually adapt to changing life conditions. Who you are as an individual is also inseparable from your impact on the world, so a big part of self-actualization is making a positive impact on others and continuing to do so by the very way you move through the world. This means finding your “niche” and fitting yourself to your environment, such that you support your environment and your environment supports you.
Yellow Check-Up Questions
Are you growing in virtue?
Are you non-reactive and rarely defensive?
Are you noticing and integrating your shadow-side, your compulsions, and your weaknesses?
Are you doing the work you’re supposed to be doing?
Are you helping others and receiving the support you need?
Are you passionate about your work, and always able to face the day with excitement or courage?
Are you internally aligned — thinking, feeling, and acting in harmony?
Turquoise Needs: SELF-TRANSCENDENCE
Awe | Detachment | Suffering | Simplicity | Divinity
Ah, we’ve reached the final color of the Spiral! Turquoise is often considered the deepest and most mysterious of the Spiral layers. It is associated with mystical experience, self-forgetful oneness, deep inner peace, and a spiritual life which is detached from the things of this world. The classic Turquoise person is the “guru” or the “monk…” off in the mountains with the Divine, or cloistered away from society in a community which fosters simple, spiritual living. Yellow tries to understand all the categories and integrate them together, but Turquoise breaks all the categories and transcends them.
Turquoise SELF-TRANSCENDENCE needs are the most difficult to put into language. They are met in transcendent encounters and are experienced as awe and contentment in all circumstances.
There’s a way in which Turquoise smashes the other needs to pieces, fulfilling them in an unexpected way. The needs of happiness, home, esteem, etc. can be experienced as “met” though a Turquoise lens, which says radical things like, “Suffering itself becomes the greatest joys when one seeks it as the most precious of treasures,” (Therese) or “I no longer grasp at the comforts of a home, but choose to be like the son of man who had no place to lay his head,” or “I understood what real glory was… true wisdom consists in “desiring to be unknown and counted as nothing.”” (Therese)
As John of the Cross says…
“In order to arrive at having pleasure in everything, desire to have pleasure in nothing.
In order to arrive at possessing everything, desire to possess nothing.
In order to arrive at being everything, desire to be nothing.
In order to arrive at knowing everything, desire to know nothing.”
-Ascent of Mount Carmel, Chapter XIII
You cannot meet your own Turquoise needs. You can only receive what it given. Yet those who seek, will find, and these seekers tend to cultivate a receptive posture through prayer and meditation, practicing non-attachment, a lifestyle of poverty and simplicity, and pursuing the depths of their religion.
Turquoise Check-Up Questions
Are you detached from the things of this world, and hold your expectations loosely?
Do you spend time in reverence, awe, and wonder?
Do you live an uncluttered life of simplicity?
Do you enjoy spending time alone, not busying yourself?
Do you enjoy silence, not seeking out noise or distraction?
Are you content in the midst of suffering, able to sit with it without trying to fix or escape it?
Do you happily receive humiliation and failure?
Do you have a sustained peace within yourself, from which you can reflect on your other emotions?
Are you present to God, a spiritual guide, or the all-in-all?
Conclusion
Thanks for coming with me on this little journey through human needs! This new application of the Spiral is something I’m interested in exploring further!
Hopefully this article brought to mind some aspirations for meeting more of your own needs. And I hope also, you are filled with gratitude in reflecting on the many different needs you do have met!
Photo Credits:
Photo by 360floralflaves on Unsplash
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