Maslow’s hierarchy of needs isn’t a pyramid – it’s a tree

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A simple Google image search for Maslow’s hierarchy of needs predominantly displays a pyramid of ascending needs. While the pyramid model is useful, it fails to capture the essence of what Maslow originally developed.

I’ve used the pyramid model in the past. Here’s the model I put together based on Maslow’s writings:

Maslow's hierarchy of needs

The problem with the pyramid model for maslow’s hierarchy of needs is that human needs don’t work like a video game where you work to unlock a new level and then move on to the next one ascending to the summit. Real human needs are dynamic.

“We have spoken so far as if this hierarchy were a fixed order, but actually it is not nearly so rigid as we may have implied.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943)

Our need for basic sustenance—hunger, thirst, shelter—never truly disappears. While we may establish routines that consistently meet these needs (addressing our safety concerns), they remain fundamental throughout our lives. Similarly, social support structures formed in childhood evolve dramatically as we mature. The pyramid model falls short in explaining these dynamic and evolving needs. Therefore, I sought an alternative that better reflects the reality of human development.

Nature has the answers

Spending significant time in nature, I consistently find answers in its patterns, efficiencies, and systems. In reimagining Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I turned to trees—our distant relatives—for inspiration.

Just as a tree grows from a tiny seed into a towering presence that provides shade, beauty, food, shelter, fuel and more, so too do we journey through life’s stages progressing from infants to mature adults who have great capacity to give back. As we break down the needs humans and trees both have, we’ll see striking corollaries and learn from the wisdom of the ancients – this time in the form of a tree.

Maslow's hierachy of needs - tree model

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”
— Albert Einstein

While I find the tree model incredibly helpful in further understanding they dynamic and iterative nature of Maslow’s hierarchy, just like any model, it has limitations and will fall short in explaining the complexity of human nature on many levels.

1. Roots: Physiological Needs

Ground Yourself by Meeting Basic Survival Needs

Just as roots anchor a tree and draw essential nutrients and water from the soil, our physiological needs are the foundation of our well-being. We must have our basic survival needs met to even begin to think about anything else. Does this mean that once we have some food, water, and are breathing comfortably, we’re done with our roots? Does a tree stop growing its roots once it germinates from a seed? Certainly not. Throughout life, our physical needs change, evolve, and mature.

Trees grow deeper roots in times of drought and stronger roots when they grow in windy conditions. We also need to adapt to the physical conditions around us.

Right now the air in my area is smoky, grey, and polluted due to forest fires several states away. I’m staying alive by breathing it, but it’s not ideal so I’m seeking filtered indoor air. Air clean enough to survive is not air clean enough to thrive in. Clean, healthy, nutritious foods, pure water, physical exercise, and sexual expression are all physiolgical needs that need routine attention and adjustment to get the most out of our minds and bodies. Here are some actionable thoughts to consider in strengthening this foundational need:

“Undoubtedly, these physiological needs are the most prepotent of all needs.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943)

Are your roots strong and healthy?

Nourish Your Body: Consume a balanced diet rich in essential nutrients, stay hydrated, and ensure restful sleep to energize your growth.
Secure Shelter: Establish a safe and comfortable living environment that protects you from the elements, much like soil safeguards the roots.
Embrace Movement: Incorporate regular physical activity to strengthen your body, akin to how roots spread and fortify the tree’s base.

2. Trunk: Safety Needs

Build Stability and Security

Before we dive into the details of a tree trunk, let me say that part of the beauty of the tree model is that each component of a tree blends seamlessly into the next. It’s hard to tell exactly where the roots end and the trunk begins. The functions may also overlap and integrate with each other just as our human needs will overlap, integrate, and merge together all across the spectrum.

So the trunk of a tree … trunks develop several important layers. The outer layer is the bark; its function is to protect the tree from pests, weather, and other external forces. Just like the bark of a tree, we need to establish protective boundaries in our lives. These come in several forms, but the primary one is a shelter. We need a home. A safe haven we can relax in and let down our guards, but even beyond just a physical shelter, we need emotional shelter. Our homes are places of refuge where we can rejuvenate ourselves.

The trunk also consists of a spongy layer called the cambium that carries nutrients and water throughout the rest of the tree. I like to think of this as our resources and systems that provide for us over a longer period of time. This is having a stable source of income, emergency and retirement plans, proactive healthy living and more. If we can’t ensure stability over the long haul as well as during times of crisis, we’ll struggle to meet all our needs.

The inner layer of a tree trunk is hard, woody, and designed to support the weight of the entire tree above it. This structure represents our resilience in life. Do we have the emotional skills to manage whatever life throws at us?

“The safety needs can become very urgent if they are unmet… seeking security becomes a primary focus.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943)

Is your trunk solid and reliable?

Financial Foundation: Develop a solid budget, save for the future, and plan for financial stability to solidify your trunk.
Personal Protection: Take proactive measures to safeguard yourself and your possessions, ensuring your trunk remains strong against external forces, disasters, and emergencies. Building emotional resilience is usually more critical than some of the prepper type physical resilience.
Health Safeguards: Obtain health insurance and engage in preventive care, reinforcing your resilience like a healthy trunk resists disease and decay.

3. Branches: Social Needs

Extend and Connect with Others

Branches reach out to the world, connecting the tree to its environment. Our social needs compel us to form relationships and communities.

Most trees have one to four primary branches connecting directly to the trunk, supporting all other branches. These primary branches represent close and intimate relationships, which are the most critical to meeting your social needs. Carefully cultivate skills to build strong relationships and work on challenges as they arise.

The secondary and tertiary branches on a tree are just as important to the tree as primary. There are many more of them, but they aren’t as large. In our lives, we tend to develop several layers of friendships beyond our intimate ones. Close friends, distant friends, acquaintances, etc. Each layer is important, but requires decreasing time and attention as we move further out, just like a tree. Work to build strong networks in each of these layers.

The need for love is not synonymous with sexual needs (which are physiological), but includes the desire for affection, companionship, and belongingness.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1954)

Are your branches full and sound?

Cultivate Relationships: Nurture connections with family, friends, and community members, much like branches intertwine and support one another.
Join Communities: Participate in groups that align with your interests, extending your reach like branches spreading toward the sun.
Communicate Openly: Practice effective communication, listening actively, and expressing empathy to strengthen your connections.

4. Leaves: Esteem Needs

Grow Confidence and Recognition

Leaves capture sunlight, fueling the tree’s growth. Esteem needs empower us to develop self-respect and gain acknowledgment from others. Leaves come and go throughout the seasons and life cycles of a tree. Similarly, we experience cycles in our esteem needs. Sometimes it’s our time to shine in the spotlight and other times we need to go hibernate away and work on goals and plans for future growth. It’s also important to recognize that our outward image and identity are fleeting and impermanent, just like leaves on a tree. They’ll come and go. Pinning our worth and value to the leaves – our accomplishments and self-identity – will limit our growth in the long run.

“All people in our society… have a need or desire for a stable, firmly based, high evaluation of themselves, for self-respect, or self-esteem, and for the esteem of others.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943)

Are your leaves full, and do you acknowledge their impermanence?

Set Personal Goals: Define clear, achievable objectives that allow your leaves to reach higher.
Celebrate Achievements: Acknowledge your successes, letting your leaves flourish and display their vibrant colors.
Develop Competencies: Pursue opportunities for personal and professional growth, expanding your foliage.

5. Roots & Shoots: Cognitive Needs

Seek Knowledge and Understanding

Recent science has shown that trees communicate and sense their environment with their root and branch tips. They can sense light, temperature, wind, water, and even other plants and trees of the same or different species nearby. These special sensing parts of a tree are how it makes sense of its enviroment and adapts to best flourish therein.

We have a similar need with seeking understanding and knowledge about our world and how we best fit into it. We have a need to continually learn and devlop our understanding to fully express ourselves.

“Research has revealed that trees can share information and resources through intricate root systems and fungal networks, sometimes referred to as the ‘wood wide web’.”⁴

Are you continually learning?

Engage in Learning: Enroll in educational courses or workshops to encourage new skills and knowledge.
Stay Curious: Ask questions and explore new experiences and hobbies.
Reflect Deeply: Participate in activities that encourage critical thinking and self-reflection.

6. Blossoms: Aesthetic Needs

Appreciate and Create Beauty

Trees grow blossoms to attract pollinator species to them. The pollinators are attracted by scent, sight, color, and shape. These sensory signals the tree puts out into the world ensure its survival, but also provide beauty and diversity to the world.

While our creative and aesthetic needs may not serve to attract pollinators, the outcome is comparable. Humans are inherently driven to create—whether it’s art, music, technology, or wisdom—to enhance the beauty of the world around us.

We can do this through many functions, but seeking out some expression of our thoughts and feelings is important to becoming our truest self and reaching our highest potential.

“At once when aesthetic needs are met, the person experiences a sense of wholeness, completion, and perfection.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1968)

Are you creating beauty?

Immerse in Art: Visit galleries, attend performances, or create your own art, harvesting the fruits of creativity.
Experience Nature: Spend time outdoors, appreciating the beauty around you as a tree thrives in its natural setting.
Enrich Your Surroundings: Decorate your space to reflect harmony and balance, like a tree adorned with ripe fruit.

7. Fruit: Self-Actualization

Reach Your Full Potential

The crowning development of a tree’s growth is its fruits or seeds. After all the work to grow from a tiny seedling through all the challenges a tree faces, the final and culminating development is when a tree grows mature fruit. The fruit represents the tree’s success within its sphere and shows that it was able to live up to its fullest potential.

Just as each species of tree bears distinct fruits, every individual realizes different manifestations of their potential. Upon reaching self-actualization, we produce remarkable ‘fruits’—whether creative masterpieces, acts of service, or personal fulfillment—that challenge and stretch us to our fullest. It may be some amazing creative masterpiece or it may be that you found purpose and joy in taking care of children or traveling the world. Whatever it is, it will challenge you, cause you to grow, and stretch you to the fullest.

“What a man can be, he must be. This need we may call self-actualization… It refers to the desire for self-fulfillment.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1943)

What’s your fruit?

Identify Your Passions: Discover what truly drives you, allowing your canopy to expand.
Embrace Growth: Step out of your comfort zone, reaching new heights like branches pushing skyward.
Live Authentically: Align your actions with your core values and beliefs, ensuring your tree grows true.
Express Creativity: Engage in pursuits that reflect your unique self, adding diversity to your canopy.

8. The Forest Beyond The Tree: Self-Transcendence

Connect Beyond Yourself

A single tree is part of a greater forest ecosystem. No tree survives without the help of bacteria, fungi, insects, birds, and other plants and all those creatures rely on the tree for their survival. They’re all connected into one complete ecosystem. The boundaries between the tree and the ecosystem are often blurred. Fungi even connect trees to other trees through the roots allowing them to transport nutrients and water between organisms. When we zoom out, there is no separation between the organism, the ecosystem, and even across and between ecosystems. All are dependent on each other. In a sense, we’re all one whole.

Self-transcendence involves the realization of our profound interconnectedness at every level—between individuals, humanity, and the planet as a whole. We exist not merely as isolated individuals but as integral parts of a collective ecosystem. We don’t exist as individuals, we exist as a collective whole.

Transcendence refers to the very highest and most inclusive or holistic levels of human consciousness… behaving and relating, as ends rather than means.”
— Abraham Maslow (Maslow, 1971)

Are you giving back?

Contribute to the Community: Volunteer, mentor, or support causes that benefit others, nourishing the forest around you.
Spiritual Exploration: Engage in practices that foster a higher purpose, like meditation or contemplation, linking your tree to the vast sky.
Cultivate Compassion: Practice empathy and kindness toward all beings, enriching the entire forest with your presence.

More on Self-transcendence

While the tree metaphor may have limitations in fully encapsulating the depth of self-transcendence, it effectively illustrates the transition from individual growth to collective contribution within a larger ecosystem.

When a tree bears fruit, the fruit is purposefully developed to be consumed by some other creature to perpetuate the tree’s species and life at large. Similarly, when we create something of ourselves as we meet all the cumulative needs we have, we are able to offer our fruits to others – which is really just offering it to an extension of ourselves as we’ve seen. This is the essence of self-transcendence. It’s awakening to the reality of our existence and realizing our place in it. At once this is enlivening, fulfilling, and also destroying.

We realize our greater purpose, but the need to be a unique individual who competes, compares, and complains about everything disappear. This is the ego disolving into a healthy and subdued state and is a key feature of self-transcendence as we give back to the world for no reason at all other than to give back. No ego, no need for recognition, gain, reward, or even acknowledement.

Self-transcendence is unique among the other human needs in that it has the pattern of changing our entire way of being. Our values change, our identity changes, and our perspective of the world and our place in it changes. The model of the tree falls short here in several regards, but is nonetheless useful in putting self-transcendence into Maslow’s framework.

Why Self-Transcendence?

It may seem counterintuitive for a tree to put so much energy into creating delicious and attractive fruit that are only meant to fall to the ground and be eaten by other creatures. When you understand that these fruits bear the seeds of new generations of trees that will be carries about the ecosystem, you see why trees make sugary sweet fruit.

Some may question the purpose of diligently developing one’s skills, talents, and abilities only to ultimately relinquish attachment to personal identity and ego. This journey transcends mere biological reproduction; it contributes to the evolution of our species towards its highest potential within Earth’s ecosystem. It’s clearly not required to reproduce our species. The basics of that can be met in lower levels of the hierarchy.

The answer isn’t as simple as biological reproduction, but of perpetuation of our species as a whole and continued evolution toward our highest potential within the ecosystem of our planet earth. A self-transcendent person acts in a similar role to how we use generational wealth. Each person who develops enough to unite back to the collective of humanity and then give of their entire selves to supporting others is creating generational wealth for our species as well as finding the ultimate levels of fulfillment, purpose, and meaning. Transcendent individuals also live peaceful, contented lives filled with gratitude, wonder, awe, and beauty. It’s been called the highest mode of existence and brings out the very best in a person.

Where to begin?

So if you’ve read this far, you’re likely interested in pursuing self-transcendence as a human need and reaching a higher level of existence. Where should your journey begin?

Embracing the path toward higher consciousness is a personal and transformative journey, much like nurturing a seed into a towering tree. Here’s how you can start:

The journey will look different for each person, but the basic pattern of self-transcendence looks like this:

Meet your deficiency needs
Feel some desire to move beyond your current state
Feel ready and motivated to change
Enact changes
Seek a guide
Learn a new way
Cross the threshold
Become the guide

Embarking on the path to self-transcendence involves continuous self-reflection, learning, and growth. Begin by meeting your fundamental needs, cultivating a desire for personal evolution, and seeking guidance from mentors or spiritual practices. As Maslow aptly stated:

“You will either step forward into growth, or you will step backward into safety.”
― Abraham Maslow

With this new dynamic model of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, I hope you now choose to step forward, allowing your tree to grow taller and stronger. The journey toward higher consciousness is not about reaching a final destination but about continuous evolution—just as a tree grows throughout its life, rings building upon rings season after season. By fulfilling your needs and aspiring toward self-actualization and self-transcendence, you unlock your potential and contribute meaningfully to the forest of humanity.

References

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