Levels of Trivalent Living
By Kwaku LC Woods, M.D. R.N.
Prometheus of Ohio Inc.
[email protected]
How are you living? An innocent enough question, often asked without sincerity or real interest in the answer. Frequently used as a greeting between friends and meant to refer in general to the everyday events in ones life-“how’s it going, what’s happening” or just plain old “Whaaz Zuuuup”. That is NOT what we will discuss here!
Instead I will ask specifically about the manner and method that you are using to experience the most precious gift you have ever received, Life itself.
I am not going to discuss morals, diet, exercise, relationships, employment, finances, family or religion. Although all of these are important, I would like to approach a more meaningful area and that is the mechanism for living life itself.
drwoodsbarak As any who have read my works will know, I teach from a platform that is called “The Trivalent Understanding”. Trivalent because all beings are composed of three parts-a physical body, a psycho-emotional entity called ‘a mind’, and a spiritual force. So we’re all three powered or trivalent. Add to that the fact that knowing is emotional/spiritual and requires a feeling, while understanding is intellectual and requires thinking. All people know they are trivalent but very few understand what that means and how that can be useful as they live their lives.
Because of this basic lack of understanding most people don’t realize they have at their command many abilities and powers they have yet to imagine. I write now to give some insights into those abilities.
Once again, “how are you living?” Most people would answer with some reference to thoughts regarding their physical being-their health or lack there-of, their financial situation, a recently acquired possession or success in some venture or relationship. They are generally following the culturally prescribed route for answering the question by focusing their answer to only the physical nature of their being. As such they are concerned and aware primarily with what their physical valence tells them and so most of their ‘living’ is confined to that venue.
Concerned primarily with satisfying the needs of the body, a life lived mostly on a physical level is about eating, sleeping, drinking, sexual pleasure and other physical comforts as well as the means to provide them. Now don’t get it twisted, all of the above are nice and to a great extent necessary but if they are your main concerns regarding “how you are living” your life will be shallow, superficial and most importantly- impotent and without power.
This level of living corresponds to the basic needs level of the psychologist Maslov’s hierarchy of need. We all must have these needs met to some degree before higher order needs can be addressed, the point is that meeting physical needs should never be an end unto itself. Meeting the requirements of our bodies should serve only as the required price paid in order to be able to address needs of the mind and spirit.
Some people would answer any question about their living with their thought and feelings about…their thoughts and feelings. “Girl, I was feeling like somebody was dissing me the other day when I thought back on the meeting we had at work”. “I was thinking that the feelings I had about you were wrong and I apologize”, I’m really thinking hard about that situation-you feel me, dog?”
Thinking about thoughts and feelings represent the second power of life and represent a higher level of activity and ability. Do you understand that a normal human being can not even think about thinking until they are in their mid-teen years? It’s a developed ability that is a part of all humans but developed fully in very few. It represents an ability to project yourself outside of the mechanisms of your mind and examine the results of your mind’s actions. This ability like all abilities are governed by simple but strict rules, the primary rule for all abilities is; the more you use them the better they get- and the more you can do with them.
Using your second power is usually a given in most adult members of our society. How else would you be able to plan, evaluate, compare, associate or any number of mental/emotional functions that are necessary in our world. We must use those same abilities to form relationships-both interpersonally and in business. Sadly, women are best at using their minds, it isn’t the fact that anatomically a woman’s brain has more connections per nerve cell than a man’s,(though that is true), it has more to do with the fact that females more often use a mental/emotional tool called consensual validation to make sure their mind stays on tract. That simply involves explaining what your feel and think to another person and seeing if they validate or agree with you. Males simply don’t do this well or often and as a result their minds are most often those that show the greatest tendency towards deviant or isolated thinking patterns.
If your mind is practiced and sharp through exercises and consensual validation, you may want to extend your being into its most mysterious and little known realm. That is the part of you that is spirit.
Now hold on, I’m not talking about religion, God, or mysticism; I’m referring to that part of you that imagines, believes, protects, inspires, initiates, recognizes, suggest, convinces, enthuses, convicts, informs, transforms, heals, sustains, strengthens, creates, and acts as a template for the will. Yeah….that spirit.
The above is only a partial list of the functions and abilities of the human spirit. What is undeniable is that, as far as we know, ALL human spirits have these abilities. In varying amounts and to individual degrees, but all spirits have these abilities and the capability to harness any of these powers to do their bidding. “How… do I hear someone in the back of the room ask?” Well I have already told you of the rules regarding abilities of the mind; they equally apply to both the body and the spirit. To use ability well, you practice that ability; to use and understand that ability well you must teach it.
In many former articles and books I have discussed the instructions at Prometheus of Ohio Inc., as they apply to exercises for the Mind/Body/Spirit. At this point I will simply add that one of the aims of teaching the Trivalent Understanding is to allow people to be able to not only understand their Trivalency but be able to live their lives in the fullness and integrated use of all of their potential. Knowing, understanding, and utilizing the abilities of your Mind/Body/Spirit is like living in 3D or more like living your life fully awakened to who and what you are, a Trivalent Being.
Again I ask you to consider, “How Ya Livin?” Trivalently, I trust.
Kwaku L.C. Woods RN, M.D.