6 Human Needs - 6: Contribution

6. Contribution

The need for contribution stems from our desire to make a difference in the world and to feel our lives have meaning beyond our existence. Recognizing this need within ourselves ignites a sense of purpose and fulfillment, as contributing positively to the lives of others or the community brings a profound sense of satisfaction.

In relationships, understanding and acting on the need to contribute enhances mutual respect and appreciation, as partners support each other’s efforts to give back and make an impact. It fosters a deeper connection through shared values and goals, enriching the relationship with a sense of purpose and collective achievement.

Transcript

I was on my way here and had one of those moments that the closer I got the higher the time was getting.

It was kind of this like inverse relationship which LA traffic is known for.

So happy that it all kind of just worked out.

My name is Seth Monk.

Nice to meet you guys for those of you that we haven't met yet.

You've caught us,

Caught me at the end of a series that I've been teaching here and it's the series on the six human needs.

So today is actually the last day of that series.

The six human needs for those that haven't been here are certainty,

Uncertainty,

Significance,

Connection,

Growth,

And contribution.

Certainty,

Uncertainty,

Significance,

Connection,

Growth,

Contribution.

If you drill down into your life,

If you drill down into a lot of the things that charge you up emotionally,

Whether the things that make you feel really happy or the things that make you really pissed off,

You'll generally find something about these needs beneath the surface.

Oftentimes our goals in life are connected to these needs.

Oftentimes the things in life that we're demonizing or resisting or pushing away is connected to those things giving us the opposite of what our need was.

So it's like if you wanted to feel significant but there was somebody in your life that made you feel like you don't matter,

Then you say that person's a horrible person or I hate that person.

But what you really want to say is my need for significance wasn't being met.

It's a very different thing.

It's reclaiming that projection back to your own need.

So today as we get to the very last of these needs,

We're going to talk about contribution.

So contribution is the sense that you are giving something of value to this world,

To your family,

To your community.

Some people talk about it in terms of like leaving a legacy behind them.

But it's the feeling that your presence here matters,

That you created an impact through your being somehow.

That there was a point to all of this for you.

There was a reason that you were a force of good or I don't know,

Depending on which kind of force you want to be.

I watched Despicable Me and then the guy is happy to be a force for bad.

He's like,

Made a car accident or something.

But to see that you're contributing,

That you're creating more of the kind of a world that you want to see,

That you want to be in.

In the spiritual community,

A lot of people talk about past lives,

Right?

In my past life I was whatever.

By the way,

No one ever says in my past life I was just like a normal dude,

You know?

Everyone was like Cleopatra or something,

Which I think is like strange,

Right?

Significance.

Some people find their significance through that stuff too.

But what I don't hear people often talking about is future lives.

What about,

If you believe in that kind of thing,

What about the next life?

Or what about even just more simply the life that we're leaving for our children and our grandchildren and seven generations?

What about those ancestors of ours that we'll never even meet?

But what kind of a world are we leaving for them?

How are we contributing?

Do we feel good about the direction that all this is going or not?

And if not,

What are we doing to help assist it to move in the direction that we would prefer?

To add our momentum,

To add our vibration into the mix.

If you take a cup,

I have a kombucha bottle,

You have a kombucha bottle.

You know,

If one drop of kombucha gets warmer,

The whole bottle gets a little warmer.

If five drops get a little warmer,

The whole bottle gets a little more warmer.

If a hundred drops of this got warmer,

It'd get even warmer,

Right?

But even one,

Even if one single drop got warmer,

The whole bottle would get that much warmer.

So your impact,

Your work,

Your way of being,

The healing work you're doing,

The growth you're doing,

It is incrementally still raising the bar.

You are still leveling up humanity just through your being,

Just through your presence,

Through your direction and momentum.

There's also something called the ripple effect.

You have no idea,

You have no idea how you will affect those things around you.

And that's also why I used to be a Buddhist monk,

And we talk about karma,

Which is cause and effect.

It's to understand that everything you do has an effect.

Some things we do from a really beautiful place,

And some things we do from a place of feeling wounded,

And oftentimes those effects actually ripple out in the same sort of energy patterns.

One thing people do,

For instance,

Is they tell rumors.

Rumors is a way to get significance for yourself,

Right?

It's framed as I'm contributing some important information,

But actually people gossip and tell rumors because they want to feel significant,

Right?

I actually heard a really,

A really bad rumor about butter,

But I don't want to spread it.

This whole class is just a build-up to that joke.

So being aware of the contribution,

Being aware of what we're giving,

And the motivation for why we're giving it,

What do we want to see more of in this world?

It's really,

It's up to us,

And you never know.

You never know how the littlest act,

The littlest smile you give someone,

Or a wave,

Or a little good deed,

Or just even withholding reacting onto somebody,

Can completely change the course of humanity,

Like for real.

Me and my friends back in high school,

We had this kind of like a funny personal joke between us.

There was like five of us,

And we had this like joke,

This ongoing joke,

And I went to the monastery.

I was gone for 10 years.

I came back home.

I met a girl from my hometown,

Like five years younger than me.

We started dating,

And then one day she made the joke to me,

And I was like,

How do you know that joke?

And she's like,

Are you serious?

Like everyone in the high school,

People would be walking down the halls and like writing it on notebooks.

I was like,

That was between me and my five friends five years before you were even in the school,

And it just blew my mind that this thing that I had no idea just suddenly created this massive impact,

This whole ripple behind me,

This unintended legacy,

I guess you could call it.

So taking that time and taking that moment to ask yourself,

You know,

How do I want to contribute forwards into the future?

How do I want to contribute into the world that I want to see,

That I want to leave behind,

That I wish I was in,

Right?

It's not yet here in some ways,

So how can I start being it and creating it so that it will be?

So that is the theme of tonight's class,

And I invite you all to get comfortable.

I'm going to go on a little journey.

These chairs,

They kind of pull forward to pull back.

You can lay down or you can sit.

It's up to you.

If at any point the person next to you starts snoring,

You have permission to elbow them or at least tap them.

As you start to get comfy,

Start to get relaxed,

I invite you to close your eyes and take some deep breaths.

This,

At the end of the day,

Is the time for you to receive.

Let's begin by taking a couple deep breaths in through the nose,

All the way down into the belly and out through the mouth.

And as we breathe and relax,

We begin to soften.

Softening the mind,

Softening the body,

Softening the boundaries and borders and barriers between self and not-self,

Between form and space,

Between thought and emptiness,

Between feelings and quiet.

As you breathe and relax,

I invite you to take a moment and gently bring your awareness to your heart.

Contribution comes from the heart,

Comes from care,

Passion,

Love,

Altruism,

The wish to do good.

As you breathe,

You can imagine that you are breathing in and out through the heart.

As you breathe in,

Imagining that you expand and you're giving your gifts out to the world.

As you breathe out,

Imagine that you are receiving,

As the chest gently collapses,

That you are receiving the gifts of the world.

Receiving as the chest gently collapses,

That you are receiving the gifts of the world.

Breathing in,

Expanding,

Sharing your gifts to the world.

Breathing out,

The gifts of the world are coming in towards you.

Effortlessly exchanging the inside for the outside with the breath.

I invite you to relax,

To connect with the space,

Around you,

The space above you.

Noticing you can connect to the space,

Well past the ceiling of this room.

If you allow yourself,

You can connect up into outer space.

You can breathe in the stars,

Allowing yourself to connect,

To soften into space.

Connecting to the vibration frequency of oneness.

Of unification.

As we breathe in,

Space becomes the body.

As we breathe out,

The body becomes the space.

Connecting to the vibration,

To the vision,

To the destiny of humanity.

What would it be like,

If this world were a safe place for everyone?

If people share what they had freely?

If everybody was contributing their gifts,

Their love?

Planting fruit trees on the sidewalks for all to enjoy.

Cleaning water.

Exchanging services and laughter.

Everyone connecting freely,

Happily,

Joyfully,

Lovingly,

With everyone they met.

What would a world of contribution look like?

What would it feel like?

What would it feel like?

Creating the vision,

The vibration,

Right here and now.

Of a shared world.

Of a caring world.

Of a loving world.

What is the gift that you would contribute?

Is it a skill,

Service?

Is it your presence,

Smile?

If you were to give from your heart to this world,

What would you offer?

Who would you be doing it with?

And where would you be?

What does your happy,

Healthy,

Calm,

Joyful,

Contributing self look like?

As you're giving from your heart.

What is it that you are here to do?

Your heart knows.

Completely relaxing,

Completely letting go.

Reviews

Amazing course about human needs . Much love and gratitude for sharing your wisdom ❤️🙏🕊️