Many of you will have heard of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The one where first come food, water and shelter.  Then safety follows – that sense of home. And as you can see on this image, we then need love and belonging, esteem, and the icing  on the cake is to aim for self actualisation.

Maslow’s pyramid dates from 1943 and it’s now 2018. So may I propose a new way of considering his valuable work. The thing is, most us have the basics covered. We have food all around us – gosh. New cafés open monthly, each with more milk choices for our coffees than our ancestors could ever have imagined. We rent or own and possibly aspire to something larger or more glamorous, but either way, we’ve got the shelter bit covered.  We have love of friends and family.  And my wish for you is that you are well on the path to acknowledging your wonderful unique set of skills and gifts you bring to the world. As I was saying in class the other day, once you are past 40 you don’t get to blame your parents for anything anymore – it’s well time to step up, shift out of victim mode, and take responsibility for your life as it is! (yes, yes,  sometimes I say things in class that are also what I myself need to be reminded of 😉 )

So, while we can tweak all of the above to make improvements, these things may not really impact on quality of life so much as brining attention to more important things. For example, my kitchen bug bear at the moment is the cuts in my caeserstone island bench which I could get seen too, but really is this a good use of my time and energy when I have maybe only about four decades left and there are more amazing places to rest my attention.  So, would  you like to join me and take  2018 to be our year to step up together and work on the self actualisation tip of the pyramid.  If, like me you have the other stuff covered, let’s work from the top, down and spend a little more time and energy on living to our highest potential. There is really nothing to lose! Here’s seven ideas where to start:

  1. Your local library or bookshop. Choose inspirational reading and listening. I quit those news apps, tv and radio news a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back. If it’s something important you will hear about it. I count uplifting fiction in this category by the way because we stay alive for poetry, beauty, romance, joy and vibrancy. On that note, my friends tease me when I gravitate to tragic stories and holocaust movies, but I stand resolute in this – sadness is life affirming too.
  2. Choose people who uplift you and inspire you. And choose to uplift and inspire others by your journey.
  3. Practice Gratitude. There are so many hashtags on this so I won’t say any more today on that. But it’s important and #wearesoblessed
  4. Remember the foundations of your good health: Eat well, do stuff to De-Stress, MOVE – regular exercise affects the textures of your body and your mood. Get enough sleep because not enough makes you stupid. Get out in nature with the right amount of sun protection. Laugh. Enjoy unstructured time and be lazy sometimes too.
  5. Try new stuff. Get out of your comfort zone sometimes. Like, booking yourself in for our brand new to Sydney Cardio Pilates class launching Feb 1.
  6. Join us for our vision board workshop Feb 3. I created on last year and was blown away by how much it worked for me.  As it’s sort of intimate, I put it in the ensuite so just my family would see it. It worked on so many levels and kept me beautfully on track from January to September when I undertook some more study and things sort of fell away. But still, 9 months was delightful. So here’s how to book for that.
  7. Remember to be, as a buddhist teacher told me once, ‘wisely selfish’. To me that means, when you need to go to yoga, you go to yoga. And you leave your kids in good hands and you don’t feel guilty because you know it will fill your cup and you will be a better person/mum/partner for it. Your wisely selfish might be something different but you get the idea. Do what you need to do and live well, the very best you can.

To your highest potential this 2018,

  • Christina