Core Needs: Understanding the Needs
Every person has fundamental emotional needs that, when met, foster strong, healthy relationships. These core needs—comfort, acceptance, affection, appreciation, approval, attention, respect, encouragement, security, and support—are essential for connection and well-being.
Below are their definitions:
Comfort – To soothe, console, or reassure. Responding to a hurting person with words, feelings, and touch.
Acceptance – Favorable reception. Receiving and loving another person willingly and unconditionally, especially when their behavior has been imperfect.
Affection – A tender feeling toward another. Expressing care and closeness through physical touch.
Appreciation – An expression of gratitude. Expressing thanks and praise for what another has accomplished or completed.
Approval – Formal permission or sanction. Building up or affirming another, affirming both the fact and the importance of another. A blessing.
Attention – Awareness. Consciousness. Conveying appropriate interest, concern, and care; taking thought of another; entering another’s “world.”
Respect – The state of being regarded or esteemed. Valuing and regarding another highly, treating another with goodwill.
Encouragement – The act of giving hope and support to someone. Urging another to persist and persevere toward a goal; stimulating love and good deeds.
Security – Well-founded confidence. Relationship harmony; freedom from fear or threat of harm.
Support – To uphold by aid or assistance; coming alongside and gently helping with a problem or struggle.
Meet the Need.
Verse:
“Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:11
Tip:
Take a moment today to intentionally meet one of these core needs in someone’s life. A kind word, a listening ear, or a simple expression of gratitude can make a lasting impact.