As someone who strives for health and well-being, I wondered, “what are my spiritual needs?” Secondly, are there spiritual needs that everyone has in common? So I did some research and discovered healthcare researchers in particular, found these 7 common needs regardless of religion or culture. 

So, what are your spiritual needs? Your Spiritual needs will consist of the following 7 spiritual needs:

1. Meaning-Making
2. Transcendence
3. Love/Belonging
4. Values
5. Ethics and Morality
6. Resolution
7. Beauty
   

Researchers studied these in the context of the end of life. Each assist the person to connect with their Spiritual Self for a more Spiritually healthy you.

Many Spiritual people find that they have needs that are unique to their physical and emotional. There is actually a lot to getting your spiritual needs met and it’s critical for understanding these seven first. 

The Magnificent 7: Spiritual Needs in Depth

Each of the seven mentioned above work together in a kind of weave. You can’t engage one without the other. Also, you’ll discover these needs most when you’re facing life’s toughest battles.

Life is like that.

When you’re squeezed, what’s really important will come out first. Each need is also universal. We all need them. And they are all necessary, hence the word, “need.”

So, take heart, you even deserve them. Here’s what I call the Magnificent 7 in more depth.

Meaning-Making	A need to make sense out of suffering; finding one’s purpose in life; exploring the ultimate concerns of life with, “Why?” in a curious and non-judgmental way.
Transcendence	A need for connection to a Higher Power, to one’s Ideal Self, and to Others.
Love/Belonging	A need to be accepted as a person, to give and receive love; to have a sense of companionship; to experience compassion and union with others
Values	A need for values acknowledgment; a need to maintain a reasonable sense of control over one’s life
Ethics/Morality	A need to love according to one’s conscience with moral clarity (“I know what is right”) and moral action (“here’s what I can do about it”)
Resolution	A need to address unmet issues in life and before death; to forgiven oneself or others; to reminisce or review one’s life
Beauty	A need for the aesthetics of nature, music, and the arts

Sometimes the best way to discover something is to look at what it isn’t. So here below is the same list with their opposites.

If you have a lot on the right-hand column, chances are you need to get your spiritual needs met more often.

Meaning-making	vs	Meaninglessness: You feel life is pointless, meaningless, and without purpose
Transcendence	vs	Disconnection: You feel separate from something bigger than yourself; you lack self-awareness or Self-understanding; you feel lonely and friendless
Love/Belonging	vs	Social Isolation: you don’t feel you belong to a people, a family, or a group; similar to disconnection, but with the caveat that your personhood is lacking a role in the world with those that know you.
Values	vs	Unclear and Lack of Boundaries: somewhere you are feeling like your personal values are not being lived into or not being honored. You may feel a sense of unclarity or anger as you have lost a sense of control.
Ethics/Morality	vs	Moral Distress and Moral Dilemma:  you lack a sense of moral clarity or moral courage to act out of your ethics
Resolution	vs	Unresolved: a general sense that stories or relationships in your life are left hanging. You feel a persistent gap between what happened and what will is.
Beauty	vs	Dullness: you’ve lost a connection with nature and experience life at a low resolution.

You can tell that there are some similarities and over-lap between them. To help you remember them and how they relate to each other, you may notice some themes.

Each of the themes (Peace, Connection, Vitality) run throughout all 7 needs. For instance, take Peace. If you can make meaning out of life, find resolution and live according to your morals, you can find a sense of rest with your life. Peace also runs throughout the others too.

For instance, being at peace with your spiritual center (Universe, Higher Power, Ideal Self, “G-d”) also gives a great deal of connection.

Feeling like you’re life has some resolve, some story that comes together with those you love also gives a great deal of peace with life and connection with your Self.

Feeling each of these needs met provides an overall vitality and zest to life.

What’s the difference between Spiritual Needs and Emotional Needs?

There remains considerable overlap between spiritual and emotional needs because they share a common domain: the human soul. Without hair-splitting, however, we can say there is a difference.

The primary difference between our spiritual and emotional needs is that the spiritual addresses our need for the sacred, for connection to that which transcends us (see chart above).

Our emotional needs, on the other hand, include our thoughts and emotions as they pertain to psychological well-being.

Truth be told, we shouldn’t sever these two far apart or else we could be spiritually healthy but psychologically stunted or vice versa.

Every person has universal emotional needs. Sometimes it’s best just to see some examples below. Perhaps my favorite author on this is David Richo in his book, “How to be an Adult in Relationships.” He talks about the 5 aspects of love for psychological well-being.

• Attention: Engaged focus with others, attunement with our thoughts, feelings, needs, and wishes.
• Acceptance: being received respectfully with all of our feelings, personal traits, and desires.
• Appreciation: Being admired, prized and respected for our unique gifts.
• Affection: Closeness both on the emotional and physical level (physical holding).
• Allowing: Permitting the full range of emotions and the space to exist without judgment.

What I prefer to ask is, “how do our emotional and spiritual needs relate?” And for that, we need each of these Five A’s to enhance our spiritual needs.

But there’s also something incomplete about life without the Magnificient 7 Spiritual Needs. For instance, with our emotional need for “appreciation,” the focus is primarily upon what we need others to see about ourselves.

Whereas in Transcendence and Beauty, our needs are about moving our eye-sight off ourselves onto something more grand, more majestic than our finite selves.

 “No one ever looked at the Grand Canyon and said, ‘Look how wonderful I am!'”

by John Piper

But we can also note that without allowance (of our emotions), we can be stunted psychologically. How many religious/spiritual people do you know can meditate, do yoga, and quote a text with a smug moral superiority and yet can’t acknowledge when they’re angry with their partner. 

The difference between the two allows each other to hold us accountable to growth and maturity. Spiritual needs are strong in directed us outward and emotional needs acknowledge our limitations. 

Our spiritual needs remind us of our propensity for the heavens while our emotional needs remind us of our bent toward the ground.

Do these needs only apply to “Religious/Spiritual” people?

The 7 needs above are universals. As I researched this, the models I looked were for people of various ages, situations, cultures, and non-religious alike.

I think I can say with confidence that these needs are universal because disease and death have a way of bringing out our Ultimate Concerns.

In one study, a diagnosis of cancer led to feelings of fear, anxiety, depression, and despair, and can cause doubt in performing future plans. [ref] Review Meaning, spirituality, and wellness in cancer survivors. Vachon ML Semin Oncol Nurs. 2008 Aug; 24(3):218-25.[/ref]

Of course, once your self-esteem and your worldview are endangered even your personal relationships suffer because you lack confidence and your previous coping strategies just don’t work like they used to.

Life has a way of teaching us its value through the treat of its absence.  

Transcendence might be a sticky term for the non-spiritual. But for their research purposes it looked like transcendence was meant by not necessarily a divine being (vertical transcendence) but also the local family and social network (horizontal transcendence).

Essentially any connection that is larger than your present Self is a transcendent thing. I’d like to say sometimes it’s our Ideal Self.

Spiritual Atheists tend to connect more with that, but let me know in the comments below.

What are some ways I can meet my Spiritual Needs?

I like lists…can you tell? Below is a list of activities you might want to try when trying to meet your 7 Magnificent Spiritual Needs.

Meaning-Making	Meaning-making therapy; joining a book club; reading sacred/religious texts; finding a sense of humor in the difficult times; volunteering time towards a cause you believe in
Transcendence	Connecting with others around the sacred; joining a faith community; connecting with your higher power in prayer or your IDeal Self in a Vision board exercise (bargain with your future self – what sacrifices can you make today to “transcend” your Self-tomorrow).
Love/Belonging	Connecting with a spiritual community on a regular basis; practicing hospitality with others – inviting a stranger to become a friend; Increase the number of close friends in your life by doing a friendship audit.
Values	When was the last time you took control of the things you can? start noticing what the smallest task is that you have control over and give it your best.
Ethics; Morality	I did this a few years a few years ago: create an ethics journal that details your morals and whether you followed through with them.
Resolution	Is there anyone you need to call or forgive for the past?
Beauty	visit nature; go outside; take a walk in silence and solitude; visit a place you’ve never been before.

Meeting our Spiritual needs is a way of personal growth. It’s personal growth by going outside of ourselves: up in transcendence, down in humility, forward in hope, and backward in reflection.

May you find your spirit today.

Related Questions

What are the Spiritual Needs of a child?

Children are no different than these 7 needs, however, they do differ in their spiritual expression from adults. In fact, as I talk with Selah (my 5-year-old daughter), imagination, terror, curiosity, adventure, these are highly helpful modes of experience for her.

I would suggest that when cultivating a child’s spirituality we have more to learn than to offer. In many ways, they need modeling of childlike wonder even in our older age.

What are some spiritual self-care examples?

I work in the healthcare industry where you can never meet all the needs that people bring. So, my co-workers and I take time to refresh ourselves with mindfulness meditations, tea and conversation with each other to debrief, and journaling. I’ve also conducted stretching, breathing, and Tai Chi during the break. When you can take a moment for yourself and then reflect on the work you’ve done you find more compassion, gratitude, and freshness for the days to come.