Navigating towards a more meaningful life

I was first introduced to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs during one of the semesters of my Bachelor's Degree programme. This hierarchy of needs, which was pioneered by Abraham Maslow in the 1940s (Suryavanshi, 2024; McLeod, 2025), categorizes human needs in a pyramid form (refer to diagram). At the base of the pyramid, the first stage in human life is physiological needs (food, water, comfort, rest), which are crucial for survival. After fulfilling these needs, the second stage involves achieving physical and emotional safety and security. The third stage is to ensure psychological needs, which is to socially belong in a community and be loved by others. In the fourth stage, achieving prestige and accomplishments is essential to supposedly build a strong self-esteem. According to the hierarchy, only when all these four stages are attained can one be able to achieve selfactualization; the final stage where an individual acquires a high level of emotional, mental, spiritual and moral satisfaction in life. Only a small percentage of people are considered to be able to achieve this level.