Environmental Needs
Environmental needs include our need for safe, secure, nurturing, stable,[1] and aesthetically pleasing environments where all our essential needs are met. This includes a need for a safe spaces where we can rest, develop, and grow, secure finances, consistency, and stability. Stability includes the emotional consistency of stable and nurturing parental relationships, as well as financial stability sufficient enough to remove the anxieties and uncertainties of basic survival.
List of Essential Needs Categories
Seven Essential Needs] > Cognitive Needs, Emotional Needs, Environmental Needs
Notes
Note that safety includes the absence of violence of any kind, including physical violence (e.g., spanking), emotional violence (name-calling, shaming), and psychological violence (verbal aggression, intimidation, condescension, passive-aggressive attacks, etc).
The fulfillment of environmental needs – safe, secure, nurturing, stable, and aesthetically pleasing environments – can yield profound physiological, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual benefits. Here's a brief overview:
- Physiological Outcomes: A safe and secure environment significantly reduces stress and stress-related health issues, thereby promoting overall physical health. Adequate environmental conditions also decrease the risk of developing many diseases and can lead to longer, healthier lives.[2][3]
- Egoic Outcomes:
- Emotional Outcomes: A stable and nurturing environment can significantly enhance emotional well-being, leading to decreased rates of anxiety and depression, improved mood, and increased life satisfaction.[4][5]
- Cognitive Outcomes: Secure and stimulating environments contribute to cognitive development, improved academic performance, and enhanced problem-solving skills. Children growing in such environments are more likely to develop stronger cognitive abilities.[6][7]
- Spiritual Outcomes: Fulfilling environmental needs can also foster spiritual growth by promoting a sense of peace, connection, and overall harmony with one's surroundings. People living in aesthetically pleasing and nurturing environments are more likely to report higher levels of spiritual well-being.[8][9]
The consequences of a failure to provide safe environments is cumulative psychological, emotional, physical, and spiritual damage. Swami Vivekananda notes "The older we grow, the longer we are knocked about in the world, the more callous we become."[10]
From the Literature
"Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thought nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away. Anonymous. Shoshone."[11]
"The sight of your cities pains the eyes of the red man. But perhaps it is because the red man is a savage and does not understand.
There is no quiet place in the white man’s cities, no place to hear the leaves of spring or the rustle of insects’ wings. Perhaps it is because I am a savage and do not understand, but the clatter only seems to insult the ears.
The Indian prefers the soft sound of the wind darting over the face of the pond, the smell of the wind itself cleansed by a midday rain, or scented with piñon pine. The air is precious to the red man, for all things share the same breath — the animals, the trees, the man.
Like a man who has been dying for many days, a man in your city is numb to the stench."[12]
"We original Americans have generally been despised by our white conquerors for our poverty and simplicity.
They forget, perhaps, that our religion forbade the accumulation of wealth and the enjoyment of luxury. To us, as to other spiritually-minded people in every age and race, the love of possessions is a snare, and the burdens of a complex society a source of needless peril and temptation.
It is simple truth that we Indians did not, so long as our native philosophy held sway over our minds, either envy or desire to imitate the splendid achievements of the white race. In our own thought we rose superior to them! We scorned them, even as a lofty spirit absorbed in its own task rejects the soft beds, the luxurious food, the pleasure-worshipping dalliance of a rich neighbor. It was clear to us that virtue and happiness are independent of these things, if not incompatible with them.
Furthermore, it was the rule of our life to share the fruits of our skill and success with our less fortunate brothers and sisters. Thus we kept our spirits free from the clog of pride, avarice, or envy, and carried out, as we believed, the divine decree — a matter profoundly important to us. Anonymous"[13]
"All who have lived much out of doors, whether Indian or otherwise, know that there is a magnetic and powerful force that accumulates in solitude but is quickly dissipated by life in a crowd. Even our enemies have recognized that for a certain innate power and self-poise, wholly independent of circumstances, the American Indian is unsurpassed among the races. Anonymous"[14]
Footnotes
- ↑ See Polyvagal Theory for the neurological foundations and importance of this need for safety. Porges, Stephen W. “Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety.” Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience 16 (2022). https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2022.871227.
- ↑ Evans, Gary W. 2003. "The Built Environment and Mental Health." Journal of Urban Health 80 (4):536–55
- ↑ Morello-Frosch, Rachel, and Bill M. Jesdale. 2006. "Separate and Unequal: Residential Segregation and Estimated Cancer Risks Associated with Ambient Air Toxics in U.S. Metropolitan Areas." Environmental Health Perspectives 114 (3):386–93
- ↑ Evans, Gary W., Nancy M. Wells, and Annie Moch. 2003. "Housing and Mental Health: A Review of the Evidence and a Methodological and Conceptual Critique." Journal of Social Issues 59 (3):475–500.
- ↑ Evans, Gary W., Nancy M. Wells, and Annie Moch. 2003. "Housing and Mental Health: A Review of the Evidence and a Methodological and Conceptual Critique." Journal of Social Issues 59 (3):475–500.
- ↑ Evans, Gary W., and Pilyoung Kim. 2013. "Childhood Poverty, Chronic Stress, Self-Regulation, and Coping." Child Development Perspectives 7 (1):43–48.
- ↑ Sirin, Selcuk R. 2005. "Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research." Review of Educational Research 75 (3):417–53.
- ↑ Kaplan, Rachel. 2001. "The Nature of the View from Home: Psychological Benefits." Environment and Behavior 33 (4):507–42.
- ↑ Williams, Florence. 2017. The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
- ↑ Vivekananda, Swami. “Karma Yoga.” Collected Works of Swami Vivekananda. Vol. 1. 9 vols. Advaita Ashrama, 2016. https://www.holybooks.com/wp-content/uploads/SWAMI-VIVEKANANDA-COMPLETE-WORKS-Vol-1.pdf
- ↑ Nerburn, Kent, ed. The Wisdom of the Native Americans. Novato, California: New World Library, 1999
- ↑ Nerburn, Kent, ed. The Wisdom of the Native Americans. Novato, California: New World Library, 1999
- ↑ Nerburn, Kent, ed. The Wisdom of the Native Americans. Novato, California: New World Library, 1999
- ↑ Nerburn, Kent, ed. The Wisdom of the Native Americans. Novato, California: New World Library, 1999
