I recently learned about Manfred Max-Neef's Fundamental Human Needs and I've been really enjoying the practice of noticing my emotions and considering what the underlying need is - for both positive AND negative emotions.

This practice has helped me realize that in the past, I almost exclusively focused on the emotions that felt difficult - sadness, resentment, confusion, fear - and didn't celebrate the ones that created ease in my life. Part of this practice is being intentional about not categorizing feelings as good or bad - they just are. And each one of them provides me with information about my needs. Very cool.

Manfred Max-Neef is a Chilean economist that rejected the economic idea of measuring economy through industrial output (GDP), as that simply measured the transition of wealth from the working class to the ruling class. Instead, he studied how meeting the universal human needs of people contributed to a vibrant, healthy society - something called "Human Scale Development".

Note: It's important to note that Max-Neef is a white man of privilege who primarily worked in poor South American communities. I have not researched him beyond exploring his alternative economic viewpoints.

Max-Neef identifies four major problems with the capitalist system:

• an obsession with "big solutions"
• mechanistic approaches to solving economic problems, which never relate directly to humanity, but rather address issues of production and efficiency
• an obsession with abstract, measurable economic quantities, which don't relate directly to humanity
• and a tendency to oversimplify, ignoring the real complexities of human life.

Additionally, within his work, he identified nine universal human needs that when met, would naturally contribute to a successful society: subsistence, protection, affection, understanding, participation, idleness, creation, identity, and freedom (Which can be viewed here).

Learning about these needs and how they show up in my life is helping cultivate compassion, motivation, trust, and confidence in myself. Liberating myself from the oppressive expectations of capitalism has helped me re-think how I spend my time. Celebrating the feelings of joy, autonomy, ease, and safety - giving them the recognition they deserve - is such a gift.