an unmet need

It turns out I have way too high a bar for actually posting, so here’s a small anecdote from today.

I was with a friend and we were in transition between two activities. I noticed I felt like I needed something before we started the next activity, but wasn’t immediately sure what it was, so I said “I HAVE AN UNMET NEED.” Friend laughed, I spent 30 seconds figuring out what my unmet need was (I was cold) and how to fix it (make tea). Doing this process out loud was surprisingly helpful. Maybe because it made me more likely to figure out what the need was and meet it, by making it known that I was in the middle of a thought process so I didn’t feel pressured to either figure it out quickly or drop it, and had more working memory that I could focus on figuring out what my need was rather than thinking about the social situation (an expectation that we were moving to a new activity). Sharing the experience with my friend also felt like it was good for our relationship, so it was great all around. I feel proud about this.

I really value being in environments where I can say things like this and want there to be more of those types of environments.