The Emotional Needs Audit
How well are your needs being met?
Nature has programmed all of us with physical and emotional needs. These are the ‘human givens’ that cannot be avoided. How stressed we are depends on how well they are being met now, and how well we deal with the situation when they are not. Rate, in your judgement, how well the following emotional needs are being met in your life now, on a scale of one to seven (where 1 means not met at all, and 7 means being very well met), by ticking the appropriate boxes.
If your scores are mostly low, you are more likely to be suffering stress symptoms. If any need is scored 3 or less, this is likely to be a major stressor for you. Even if only one need is marked very low, it can be enough of a problem to seriously affect your mental and emotional stability. Stress, anxiety, anger, depression and addiction are the result of our innate needs not being met, either due to environmental factors, harmful conditioning or a misuse of the imagination (worrying). People do not have mental health problems when their innate needs are being met in balanced, healthy ways. By highlighting ares in your life where your essential needs aren’t being met as well as they could be, you can use this questionnaire to help you think constructively about how your life could be improved.
