Mashlow pyramid applet to workplace wellbeing

Why does comfort produce so much suffering?

Despite historically unprecedented levels of technological progress and material comfort, modern society finds itself in a massive mental and spiritual crisis.

Depression, anxiety, addictions, and suicide rates are soaring. Fear, loneliness, and lack of meaning define the general malaise of our era. Externally we appear to be thriving, but internally many are collapsing.

Materially we are doing better than ever, yet psychologically and spiritually we are struggling more than ever. Why?

What does this contrast reveal about our deeper human needs, and how should we be living?

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs offers a scientific framework to understand the problem.

Maslow’s pyramid reveals the architecture of human need

In 1943, psychologist Abraham Maslow introduced a model describing five levels of human need, from physical survival to the highest spiritual and existential potentials.

The structure of the pyramid answers a key question: *What are we truly seeking?*

At the base: food, water, safety.

Above them: love, belonging, esteem.

At the top: self-actualization, meaning, creativity, truth.

Once our lower needs are met, attention should shift to the higher ones. But today, in the West, physical needs are largely met and yet very few climb upward. Why?

Because modern society teaches us to value the superficial: status, recognition, pleasure, comfort. These replace the pursuit of purpose and self-realization.

The spiritual abandonment of the modern era

Our culture is rooted in materialistic beliefs. It emphasizes the visible and the tangible, ignoring the inner life.

Maslow shows that spiritual needs are not luxuries. They are essential for meaning, fulfillment, and psychological wellbeing.

Comfort, convenience, and pleasure do not and cannot satisfy our highest needs. The modern dopamine economy encourages indulgence, not introspection. When higher needs go unmet, they reappear as depression, anxiety, or addiction.

Consumerism amplifies this dynamic. Institutions are designed to exploit lower needs for profit, not to help people self-actualize.

Why pursue meaning when cheap pleasures are available instantly?

Maslow’s answer is simple: because meaning is a human need.

Self-actualization is a need, not a privilege

If you are not expressing your potential, creativity, values, or sense of meaning, you are not meeting your essential human needs.

Self-actualization is not elitist. It is inherent to every human psyche.

Many feel lost because society neglects these higher needs. They are not required for physical survival, but they are vital for mental, emotional, and spiritual health.

Modern suffering stems from ignoring our spiritual nature.

The misunderstanding of the spiritual

“Spiritual” does not necessarily mean mystical. It refers to the immaterial aspects of human experience: meaning, purpose, values, authenticity.

You cannot touch them, but you can deeply feel their absence.

Just as hunger signals unmet physical needs, depression, anxiety, and addiction often signal unmet higher needs.

The current mental health crisis is largely an existential imbalance. Material solutions alone do not address spiritual problems.

Our materialist limitations

Materialism treats human beings as only physical creatures. It assumes consciousness and meaning are side effects of brain chemistry.

This worldview is an assumption, not a proven fact. It narrows our understanding of reality and ourselves.

To evolve, we need to rediscover the immaterial dimensions of life.

What can companies do to improve workplace wellbeing?

Maslow makes it clear: employee wellbeing cannot be reduced to salaries or insurance. Those meet only the lowest needs.

Organizations must address the higher needs that determine fulfillment and mental health.

• 1. Recognize that wellbeing includes the immaterial

Workplace wellbeing includes meaning, purpose, personal growth, and authentic connection. Companies that address only material needs see anxiety, burnout, and turnover rise.

• 2. Integrate introspective practices

Yoga and mindfulness are not trends. They are tools for meeting higher needs.

Yoga reconnects people with their bodies and inner world.

Mindfulness cultivates attention, presence, and emotional regulation.

Serious programs create the conditions for employees to meet their spiritual and psychological needs.

• 3. Create spaces for reflection and personal growth

Wellbeing requires time and space to stop. Quiet rooms. Meeting-free zones. Occasional retreats.

Without space for introspection, higher needs remain unmet.

. 4. Develop leaders who embody these values

Culture cannot change if leaders remain in survival mode. Leadership must model balance, presence, and inner work.

What leaders embody becomes the norm.

• 5. Measure wellbeing beyond productivity

Productivity does not equal wellbeing.

Companies must ask:

• Does your work feel meaningful?

• Are you growing as a person?

• Is there space for creativity?

• Do you feel connected beyond the transactional?

These questions reveal whether higher needs are being met.

iNSIDE offers mindfulness, coaching, and yoga programs designed to meet the higher needs that corporate environments ignore. Real workplace wellbeing cannot be limited to the physical or material.