03/06/2026
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1HXgvmFPSU/?mibextid=wwXIfr
THE GROUND LEVEL OF LIFE
HOMEOSTASIS AND PRIMARY RESPIRATION
In his Hierarchy of Needs Abraham Malsow gave us a psychological theory of motivation, famously depicted as a five-level pyramid. This psychological model asserts that people are motivated to fulfil basic needs before moving to more advanced, psychological needs.
At the base of the pyramid, he places immediate physiological needs including homeostasis. His view of homeostasis is limited to the body’s automatic, internal drive to maintain a stable, constant environment for life to persist. When homeostasis is perturbed, physiological needs are generated (hunger, thirst, cold). These needs that take top priority in Maslow’s hierarchy.
Antinio Damasio takes a broader view, he tells us that Homeostasis ‘ensures that life is regulated within a range that is not just compatible with survival but also conductive to flourishing, a projection of life into the future of an organism or a species’ *
The ground level of this pyramid is the province of our practice. We interface with life in the raw. Our paradigm and experience inform us that within the fluctuations of homeostasis order is maintained by the intrinsic rhythmic forces (seen in even the simplest living organisms) that we call the Tide. Through the Tide we tap into the biological imperative to thrive, to flourish. We work from the bottom up, from the ground of potential that gives rise to the full spectrum of health.
*Damasio, The Strange Order of Things
