Have you heard of the six psychological human needs? These are the needs that surface after food and shelter are checked off your list:

• Significance
• Contribution
• Growth
• Love
• Certainty
• Uncertainty

In this show with Michael Kohan, aka Mukunda Chandra das, I dive into which human needs I’m dominated by. I tell all in hopes that you’ll have a better idea of the positive and negative needs and drives that are influencing your behaviors.

I rap with Michael Kohan about Getting Your Psychological Needs Met with Positive Outcomes:

• How understanding your human needs can help you live in integrity and with positivity
• The difference between drives and needs and how they affect each other
• The importance of knowing others’ needs and how this can help you understand friends and loved ones’ motivations on a deeper level

What you’ll get out of tuning in:    

• Identify two dominant needs you have
• Learn which are the core needs or drives of the people you live with
• Find out why people take on spiritual names…and what to do when you or they do

Links:

• Michael’s Site
• Yogahealer Have a Conversation

Show Highlights:

• 4:00 — Michael outlines the four ashrams, what’s typical of each stage, and how they coincide with different names people take on throughout life.
• 7:50 — The six human needs are our driving forces for all our basic functions: why we get up in the morning, how we behave, how we connect and interact with the world around us, and how we make our lifestyle choices. Each need complements the others.
• 15:00 — Sometimes people have needs to feel the six human needs, and sometimes they have drives to feel the human needs. When our needs mature and evolve, they become drives.
• 22:10 — There are natural dyads in the needs that can seem like conflicts or a competition. It’s important for us to find balance with our needs, which we can do when we understand them and find unique ways to fulfill them.
• 25:20 — Our dominant needs change at different stages of our lives.
• 34:20 — Michael discusses “weapons of mass distraction” and how they relate to self-improvement and fulfillment via the six psychological needs.

Favorite Quotes:

• “If you take on a spiritual name, it calls you to a higher sense than your worldly name.” –Cate Stillman

• “Two human needs will be your driving force.” –Michael Kohan

• “When you understand it, then you can know how to live more harmoniously.” –Michael Kohan

• “When you understand what you need and what the people in your life need, you’re able to live more productively.” –Michael Kohan

• “How can I fulfill this human need in a positive way? How do I fulfill it in a way that makes the world better?” –Michael Kohan

• “Isn’t that what the whole point of being a spiritually minded person is? It’s to become integrated.” –Michael Kohan

BIO:

Michael Kohan, or Mukunda Chandra das (affectionately known as Mukunda), is dedicated to helping his clients and students balance all aspects of their lives — their emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical well-being. Mukunda is a Certified Health Coach, a Certified Life Coach, a 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, and a Certified Vedic Thai Yoga Bodywork Practitioner who works with others to guide them to restore balance in their lives via healthier, more-conscious lifestyle choices. True harmony is achieved through developing balanced cooperation between mind, body, and soul.

Living in this world can be tough at times, but when we learn simple spiritual tools for healing and maintenance, life can be much easier. Mukunda’s goal is to help clients and students discover the skills that’ll help them move forward in all areas of their lives. Mukunda feels that his purpose is to serve others through his teachings by encouraging students and clients to become steadfast in their own practices while integrating spiritual and mindful living into their day-to-day lives.

Mukunda met his spiritual mentor, Guru H.H. Radhanatha Swami, and after several years of formal study under his Guru — which included systematic reading of spiritual texts, dedicated practice of mantra meditation, rising early for morning services, and regulating his cooking and diet — Mukunda received formal initiation into his spiritual lineage in 2013.