This is the third in a series of articles about our emotional needs. The first two articles looked at what our essential emotional needs are, and the importance of understanding that if those needs aren’t met in balance, we cannot be emotionally healthy. This article looks at how we can quickly and simply measure our own needs with an emotional needs audit, perhaps to see where we might need to make some changes.

As the previous two articles said, nature has programmed us with basic emotional needs which are there to connect us to the external world, particularly to other people, and to survive in it. From the moment we are born to our very last breath, these needs seek their fulfillment through the way we interact with the environment. Consequently, when these needs are not met in the world, nature ensures we suffer considerable distress — stress, anxiety, anger, depression, addiction etc. — and our expression of distress, in whatever form it takes, impacts on the people around us.

People whose emotional needs are met in a balanced way do not suffer mental health problems. In short, it is by meeting our physical and emotional needs that we survive and develop as individuals and a species.

Your personal Emotional Needs Audit

This article looks at a simple yet powerful questionnaire where you can actually measure and score this – your personal Emotional Needs Audit.

The Emotional Needs Audit Project was designed in the UK, to find out how well innate emotional needs are being met right across society — the essential factor in determining stress levels and mental health. They aim to create an average ’emotional temperature chart’ (or a ‘happiness/unhappiness’ scale) of a large population.

If you would like to add your own answers to the overall results, click here (no names/addresses collected, it’s totally anonymous and confidential):

http://www.enaproject.org/

If you would like a free copy of the questionnaire to print out yourself, click here:

http://www.hgi.org.uk/sites/default/files/hgi/Emotional-Needs-Audit-2006.pdf

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/13619321211270407 This is a link to an scientific journal article about the validity and reliability of the ENA.

http://www.hgi.org.uk/resources/delve-our-extensive-library/resources-and-techniques/emotional-needs-scale This excellent article goes into more detail about the Emotional Needs Audit

Need some advice and support?

If you would like to discuss any of the  issues raised in this article further, or perhaps look at ways that you can start to get your own emotional needs met in a balanced way, call Alison Winfield, Mindfully Well Counselling Cork on 087 9934541.

See also: Emotional Needs,  How can I stay Emotionally Healthy