harmony.
We need peace and love, man. (💚Green needs - Part 6/8)
peace | rest | equity | sensitivity | connectivity
As great as 🧡Orange is for the stuff it can get us, it also can turn people into productivity engines and achievement slot machines. That’s where 💚Green comes in, to welcome you to a peaceful space, where you can chill out and just be yourself.
The Green lens is sensitive to everyone’s needs, and Green societies hold the values of caring for the marginalized, and doing their part for the global good.1
Green HARMONY needs are about peace and equity. This involves zooming out and considering how everyone can live peacefully and with a “justice” that looks more like everyone getting their needs met than everyone being held to the same standard (💙Blue).
Justice is a human need. I can even see it as a personal need for myself, because I am connected to everyone else. Their suffering is, in part, my suffering — injustice for them is, in part, injustice for me.
Thus empathy is an important Green need (both giving it and receiving it), along with sensitivity to others and their needs, for harmony is found in living together with tolerance and consideration for all people.
This also provides a sense of connectivity, by which I feel connected to (and harmonious with) people who are very different than me, and even those who live on the other side of the globe.
While 💜Purple community is comfortable family, and 💙Blue community is secure social groups, 💚Green community is harmony across cultures and ecosystems. Are you plugged-into community at each of these levels?2
Finally, 🧡Orange and 💚Green also symbolize the work-rest dichotomy. Humans require a pendulum swing between 🧡work and 💚rest to allow both of these needs to be fulfilled.
Green Check-Up Questions
You may want to give a 1-10 score for each of these.
Are you living in a safe and harmonious environment?
Are you able to live openly and authentically without judgement?
Do you have time for rest, emotional processing, and enjoying friendships?
Do you feel fully accepted within a community which listens, gives space, and supports you emotionally?
Are you connected with with people all over the world?
Do you experience spiritual, communal, and existential wholeness?
Are you living in a just and equitable world?
Next article in series (7/8): 💛self-actualization.
If you’re lost, we’re diving into the sorts of human needs associated with Green in the Spiral Dynamics framework.
Note: Another way to think about it is that at the 💜Purple level, everyone pretty much knows everyone else… at the 💙Blue level, you don’t know everyone, but you can look around the room and know you’re all connected and oriented in the same direction… a feeling of “comradery” (like in the army) or “fellowship” (like in a church). This also includes a sense of “pride” or “patriotism” for your own team/group. At the 💚Green level, you’re connected with people who are proximally quite far away, living in other cultures, speaking other languages, and of other social classes. These connections build a web of connectivity by which you feel at home on a global scale.