Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - Notes

These are some notes that I took while learning about Maslow's "Peak Experiences."

A peak experience involves:

• Intense happiness
• Heightened sense of reality
• Expansion of awareness
• Feeling one with the universe
• Clear thinking and understanding
• Feeling more powerful
• Loss of placement in time and space

Hints:

• Experience fully, vividly: be present.
• Make a growth choice 12 times a day.
• Shut out external behavioral clues.
• When in doubt, be honest and take responsibility.
• Be prepared to be unpopular.
• Make peak experiences more likely.
• Identify your defenses and give them up.
• Do not do things that do not reinforce your goals.  DO things that do!
• Find a mentor who has achieved your goal.
• Avoid nay-sayers.
• User visual reminders.
• Track your progress.
• Focus on positive. Forgive the negative.
• Find social support.

Superior Traits:

• no fear of the unknown
• self-acceptance
• accepts reality
• no unnecessary inhibitions
• focus on mission in life, devoted to duty
• serene
• lack of worry
• alone without being lonely
• self-starter
• owns behavior
• non-stereotyped
• present
• has peak experiences
• awe
• loss of placement
• expects good
• kinship with good, bad, and ugly
• profound relationship with few
• friendly with many
• humble
• discriminates between means and ends
• tedious = enjoyable
• unhostile humor
• self-depricating
• creative
• resists enculturation
• indignant of injustice
• has imperfections
• impatient when stuck
• resolves dichotomies
• no "conflict"
• wise
• child-like qualities
• more interested in stuff than having stuff