Many days the energy required to stay safe and take care of basic needs takes precedence right now over the higher aspirations in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs--- love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

This is hard. No doubt. Let’s give grace towards ourselves when it feels like too much. Let’s give grace to each other. Prioritize basic needs like sleep and nutrition. You have to be filled up in order to pour out.

For those in a care-taking role of children, aging parents, or even a spouse or sibling dealing with a disease or disability, the needs are ever around you, always beckoning. In this way, you may find yourself constantly in a stress response yourself--experiencing anxiety and a sense of being overwhelmed almost all the time.