Maslow in 1954 created a hierarchy of needs:
He claimed that in order to achieve a level on the pyramid you need to first fulfil the level below. For example, if you want to have true love and belonging in your life, first you need to have physiological wellbeing and safety.
This helps to explain why physical health is so important for us. Physical health includes:
- Breathing
- Food
- Water
- Sex
- Sleep
- Homeostasis
- Excretion
All of these need to happen before the above levels can happen. So you cannot have safety of your health if you are not allowing yourself adequate food and water.
This applies in every day decisions. Say you’re at work and you have a project to complete. You consider skipping lunch and having it later. Your ability to concentrate on the work will be compromised.
This leads to more issues further up the pyramid, especially if the physical need is neglected longer term. You might not have security of your job, feel love for it or feel a full sense of achievement there. These feelings could be there but would be dulled compared to how they could feel.
Treat your physical health as a priority: take a bottle of water with you to work, make sure you have enough to eat and sleep, etc., and everything else will follow: safety, love, esteem and even self-actualisation.
Find out more: http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html
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