The five senses are the means for a physically oriented input from our world. They have been the quintessential tools for feedback about our physical world from before birth (in the womb). The senses have a specific way of teaching about reality. They dictate what is real and what is not. Sometimes the input contradicts what we experience or more importantly, what we think we should experience. We then do what is necessary to maintain our truth by seeking agreement about that truth. If we are going to twist reality to match our truth, then defense for bending the rules of reality must be ever a possibility as the search for agreement continues.
It occurs to me that having NEEDS means you have some inflexibility. WANTS, on the other hand, indicate more flexibility. When wants become needs, flexibility gives way to inflexibility. Generally speaking, I wonder if more flexibility equates to more life opportunities while less flexibility sets one up for death (the ultimate inflexibility – when there are absolutely no options [for the mind or body]). Example: I WANT arms, but I don’t NEED them. Therefore, if I lose one, I still have options. On the other hand, I NEED to breathe. When I lose my breath, I lose my consciousness and then my life – very soon, I have no options and I die.
Good analogy!
Dependency on anything, immediately takes us out of control of options. Our mind turns wants into needs, then blames away from itself (the mind) if something goes wrong to avoid being wrong.
The mind uses a wide variety of tools through the body, to get its want/need satisfied; everything from verbalizing reasons to physical displays of threat and defensiveness. Some people can get really skilled at this. When compliance is achieved, through agreement and/ or getting someone to back down from the challenge, what follows is the sweet satisfaction of victory of one mind winning over another mind. Rightness can be a powerful aphrodisiac or pacifier for the mind. The body, being obedient, acts out the minds illusions. Our options do definitely narrow when wants are converted into needs, as well as the options of those that have been exploited by a needy mind.
There are very few real needs for the body, yet the mind will keep searching for what it wishes to experience. The mind very rarely takes the body’s safety and well being into consideration, once it has made up its… you know.
A want can be minimized or dismissed, but a real need can’t. If the mind can convince others that its want is really a need, the battle is won. If the mind is unsuccessful, it will call for back-up from the body, if necessary, to achieve its goal. The precious and enviable goal is that of being right, which also means to be justified.
One of the best ways to achieve a goal/want is to prioritize it above others. A WANT doesn’t hold the same priority for me that a NEED does. So, elevating a want to a need is more likely to get appropriate action from me to achieve it. I NEED to breathe – and so I will do what it takes to get my next breath. A goal with that kind of priority is VERY likely to be achieved.
For example, suppose I want to lose 10 pounds. If I tell myself that I want to drop 10 pounds, I MIGHT achieve it. But if I convince myself that I NEED to drop 10 pounds, I will take it much more seriously and PROBABLY drop the weight.
A downside of this strategy comes when I elevate a want to a high-priority need and then fail to achieve it, which might make future goal achievement far less likely to succeed.
Another downside is that I might prioritize the want above more important needs – for example, I might buy an expensive Christmas gift for my friend and as a result fail to make my rent for the month.
Prioritizing wants and needs has always been a human thinking challenge.
Fer sure! If failing to meet a want goal that is prioritized as a need means failing at sustaining life successfully, I agree. If that failure then threatens other real needs, I might get a apocalyptic wake up call, ya think?
re: Wake up call
Absolutely!
Will I like that wake up call? Uh, probably not so much, I think.
Will a wake up call wake me up? Maybe. Maybe not.
I think that nature is our most effective wake up system; when our behaviors go against the “flow” a kind of alarm goes off that is less than comfortable or comforting. If we don’t wake up and the impact of our actions aren’t too out of the “flow,” we may get another chance to “fine tune” with life.
From my own experience, those alarms don’t go off more than once or twice before an alarm goes off I can’t ignore. If I don’t get the “hint” from nature, perhaps by another source, one, hopefully, I am willing to pay attention to and do something about.
However that alarm sounds, it is no joke!