The Preserver

Everyone has conflicting basic needs that enable us to grow and live together.

Enforcement: We grow and develop our abilities, otherwise we would remain an infant. Safety: We pay attention to dangers and protect our health, otherwise we would die early.

Recognition: If necessary, we scream so that our parents provide us with what we need. Belonging: We cannot survive alone in this world, so we make sure we have good contacts.

Rationality: We learn structures and relationships so that we can orient ourselves in the world. Empathy: For a harmonious coexistence, we empathize with possible effects.

People differ in the importance that these needs have for them.

**For the preserver, safety has the highest priority.

There are six forces that wrestle in our unconscious about what is best for us in which situation. In our fantasy world they take on designer form, so we can imagine strong gods in an inner team, sitting together at a large table and discussing with each other.

In this round, the preserver is presided over by safety, symbolized by the color ‘green’.

It is flanked by the orientation needs for knowledge (black - rationality) and empathy (white - emotionality), because if you want to be secure, you have to orientate yourself holistically,

The need for empathy requires closeness, which is provided by belonging (yellow). Rationality, on the other hand, likes to be alone in order to concentrate on the important things. This also fits very well with the need for recognition (blue), which prefers sensing others from an objective, critical distance.

On the opposite side, enforcement (red) has its place and confronts safety so that the preserver remains active and takes care of his life.

**A preserver wants to preserve everything that ensures health and comfort in life.

In the inner team it could look like this:

• Black researches, analyzes the situations and the ongoing change processes.

• White feels the possible consequences and uses his imagination to develop ideas that focus on sustainability.

• Blue compares alternatives and their risks.

• Yellow takes care of communication.

• Red wants to take action in certain situations and fight for everything important if necessary.

These ‘deities’ in our soul not only have very different goals, but also use different sensory channels.

Green safety wants to be able to grasp and comprehend something.

Black cognition wants to look at the situation from different perspectives. It primarily uses motor skills. White empathy wants to empathize. It prefers to close its eyes to feel whether everything is to its liking. Blue recognition is on the lookout for the best possible solution, which it tends to find in its self-talk. The yellow belonging listens to partners and friends to check in with them. The red need for assertiveness goes through the world with open eyes. It has visions and wants to be able to see opportunities early on.

All personality traits address the conscious mind with dreams, thoughts and feelings. The opposing voices and moods can confuse us as long as we have not aligned these opposites within us towards common goals and paths.

The inner team needs good organization with a reliable distribution of tasks. This is what our ‘self’ works on, an inner entity that strives for harmony and for meaningful and healthy self-development.

We are looking for a future scenario that satisfies all six opposing basic needs and fits the personality of the preserver. The better we succeed in integrating all emotional aspects, i.e. all opposing basic needs, into a project, the more energy we feel for this task.   …