Perry Gruber

November 8, 2022May 5, 2023

What to Know About How Americans Feel About Trans People

Pew, a large, international opinion researcher, recently polled Americans on their views of Transgender People and the rise of “transgenderism” in the country. The poll didn’t look at American’s views on people who are attracted to transgender people.

In any case, here’s what you need to know from that research: Not a fucking thing!

Why on earth do we need to know what other people think about us? WE DON’T. We don’t need to know anything about what others think about us! And here’s the great news about that: The less we care, the more of what we want we will get. Including that perfect love many of us want.

It’s not our business

When transgender and trans-attracted people care about what others think about them, they unwittingly put the kibosh on everything they want. Nothing we want will come to us if we care about what others think. Doing so makes us feel like shit. And when we feel like shit we’re not a match to what we want.

Caring what other people think about us usually generates negative emotion in us. That’s intentional. Why is it intentional? Because the negative emotion tells us what we’re doing isn’t what we should be doing. Caring about what others think about ANYTHING we’re doing, or anything we want, makes us a match to their stories instead of our own.

And if those people think we shouldn’t exist, or they think we’re going to hell or whatever, then those negative stories instantly become ours. Unless we seek other’s approval – and I don’t know why anyone would want that – adopting other people’s negative stories serves us not one whit. When we do do that, we feel like shit. Feeling like shit tells us something important. It says “what you’re thinking about is going to get you more of what you’re thinking about. So knock that off!”

Besides, what can you do about what others think about us? Nothing at all. So it’s better to focus on our own business and let other people have their opinions.

What other people think about us is none of our business. It’s way better living life focused on ourselves, going for what we want and getting that.

How do we do that?

By telling better and better stories about ourselves. Telling better and better stories about the world around us. And choosing empowering stories about what we want instead of unwittingly adopting ones we don’t want.

Keeping focus pure

Why do we even care what others think anyway? Think about that. I mean, I get it. When little, parents indoctrinated us into thinking we needed to please others over pleasing ourselves. Teachers and education in general did that too.

But we’re not little anymore. We’re all grown. And so it’s time to start deliberately charting our course towards the life we came to live.

That means living our life our way. Not living the way society or parents or Christians or Americans think we should live. Their stories are their business.

It’s way more important that we care about why we care about what other people think of transgender and trans-attracted people than what their opinions are. That’s because the story behind why we care misguides us. It’s time to do something about that story. Start by giving up caring.

If we keep our focus pure, meaning, we tell stories only about what we want and not about what we don’t, things we want come to us fast. They don’t come instantly though. That’s because most of us have been telling stories opposed to what we want. Especially about love.

But over time, pure focus will replace that old momentum. Then, things wanted will start flowing in so fast, it will amaze.

It’s meant to be

That’s already happening. We all are allowing so many things we want, I’m surprised so many transgender and trans-attracted aren’t seeing that. Then, again, I’m not surprised. Because awareness is a powerful thing. If I’m not aware that all I’m wanting flows to me constantly, then I can’t see it flowing constantly. Not seeing that, I get cranky or impatient, which slows things down more.

If I develop a chronic criticism about myself, about life, about transgender women or about being trans-attracted, then life becomes depressing.

Thankfully, my life flows with all kinds of abundance. Which is why I’m sharing this and other posts I share.

LIFE CAN BE FUN. AND IT SHOULD BE. Because that’s the way it’s intended.

That includes every transgender person and every trans-attracted person getting all they want in love. We needn’t struggle with that or anything else. But we do struggle when we tell stories contrary to the story “life can be fun”. Or when we worry about what others think about us.

Everything we want is flowing to us. But if we’re now aware, if we can’t see it, then it appears as though that’s not happening, even though it is. (Photo by Fuuj on Unsplash)

Let life love you

Caring about what others think about trans-attracted and transgender people doesn’t serve us. All it does is put us on a trajectory that includes more crappy feeling experiences.

Aren’t you tired of feeling crappy? How long do you need to feel crappy before doing something constructive about it?

Drinking, smoking weed, or wallowing in complaints about life aren’t “constructive”. By constructive I mean changing your stories. Then being on the lookout for the change your changes stories create. Then celebrating that, thus building momentum in the direction of what you want. Once momentum happens, what you want will come. Including love you think is impossible.

Turn your attention to things you care about. Then tell positive stories about those things. What should you care about?

How great it is that I’m transgender or trans-attracted.
That it’s wonderful being alive at this time when so many others like me exist out loud. Seriously, have you seen this new thing called Instagram?
Care about how fantastic it is that medical technology can do what it does for some transgender people.
It’s also amazing that more men and women are coming out as trans-attracted, thereby making the dating field more plentiful for us all.

Find your positivity. Love life and watch life love you back. Give up caring what others think. Then everything you want will flow.

Don’t know how to love life? Let me show you.

November 1, 2022September 12, 2022

Good Luck Finding Love If You Don’t Love Yourself

The trick to finding the love you want, whether trans or trans-attracted, is first loving yourself. Doing that is easier said than done though.

That’s because so many of us loathe ourselves. That loathing happens sometimes even when we think we accept who we are. In other words, it’s easy fooling one’s self into believing they love themselves when, really, they don’t.

Figuring this out as a trans-attracted man is simple. Clues show up readily. Hiding our trans-attraction or feeling shame about it is a clue. Too embarrassed to be seen out with a transgender woman? That person doesn’t love themself. Afraid of co-workers or friends finding out? That’s another clue.

Transgender women have easy-to-see clues too. But such people are less willing to acknowledge the obvious. Refusing to be seen as trans? There’s a clue. Trying to pass or go stealth? That’s a clue too. Hating your penis? There’s another.

If someone reading this is transgender, “hating your penis” could be triggering. Let’s flesh that out.

Just because someone prefers and seeks out a different bottom configuration doesn’t mean they must HATE or feel revulsion over what’s currently there. Hate and revulsion both are strong emotions. When a transgender person hates their body, and for the time being, the penis is part of the body, it’s likely other parts – shoulders, hand size – meet with similar ire.

It’s why many transgender women adorn their bodies with tattoos. Tatoos are like make up for such people. They conceal aspects the tattoo bearer can’t accept.

Lack of acceptance is lack of self love. Unless we love ALL that we are, love eludes us. Or, the kind of love that shows up, reflects our own lack of acceptance of what and who we are.

Finding the easy path to love

We all can find ourselves in love with ourselves. And, it can happen fast and easy. Acceptance is the first step.

Self acceptance means realizing one wants to change parts of who we are, but not being reviled by that thing we want changed. It’s being ok with it being there….for now. Acceptance begins the path to loving ourselves.

In acceptance we’re comfortable in our own company. We don’t need another there for that moment to be ok. Sometimes we might feel negative about some aspect of ourselves, but we quickly talk ourselves out of those negative stories. We use negative feelings as indicators for immediate action, then use them to our advantage to practice self acceptance.

Self love means genuinely loving and enjoying one’s own company as we are. In self love, another’s company is a nice-to-have. Not a must-have. Even among cis people, however, self love is rare.

A higher level is UNCONDITIONAL self-love. That means loving every aspect of one’s self with no conditions dislodging us from that state. That means accepting one has a penis and enjoying it being there, even while knowing one day it may not be. It means accepting one is trans and finding all aspects of that existence enjoyable, freeing and empowering. It means accepting and not caring that people think we’re gay for finding transgender women attractive. And it means knowing our trans-attraction is wholesome, good and appreciation-worthy no matter what others say.

Unconditional self-love can be a stretch for most people. For some, just plain self-love can try our self-image. For most, attaining acceptance is easier.

It feels impossible to love parts of us we don’t love or even hate. But it’s easier loving those parts of us than we think. (Photo by De’Andre Bush on Unsplash)

Why loving self must come first

The problem with trying to find love in a relationship is, if we either stand in lack of self acceptance (at least) or lack of self-love, the odds are very high the people we meet will be in similar places. And relationships between two such people are recipes for problems.

That’s because two people unwilling to accept or love themselves will make their relationship and their partner responsible for their problems. They’ll also make that person responsible for how they feel. Both parties therefore show up needy, whiny and negative. They pick on the other person regularly and anger easily. Such people complain a lot. And, because they blame others for their problems, they feel no agency in making themselves happy.

No wonder so many people think a relationship will make them happy. Most people don’t accept who and what they are. Let alone love who and what they are. The other problem is…IT’S NOT THE PURPOSE OF A RELATIONSHIP TO MAKE YOU HAPPY.

Relationships aren’t meant to make anyone happy. Our happiness is OUR JOB. Ideally, relationships comprise two WHOLE people. They create a relationship from which something larger than either person brings as individuals or as a couple.

Two people coming together who don’t accept or love themselves can’t build something larger than who they are. That’s because neither is brings a whole, authentic person to the relationship. So instead of two whole people making something bigger, you have two incomplete people squabbling and creating all kinds of drama.

Which is why so few relationships last. And why so few trans or trans-attracted people find lasting love. Or love period.

The easiest place to find love

The key to finding love is to find it first in ourselves. Do that first and we can’t help but eventually find love “out there”. When we love ourself, we become matches to the love we seek. Seeking love when we don’t love ourselves just attracts more of what we’re being.

That’s no fun.

It’s amazing so many of us live not loving ourselves. As transgender and trans-attracted people, we sometimes live in dissatisfaction, then blame the world for how we feel. Transgender people even blame being trans on someone other than themselves. But no one else made them trans. That’s a choice they made before coming into the world. Why they made that choice is a topic for another post.

The same holds for trans-attracted people. No one “makes” a person trans-attracted. That also is a choice self-made.

I know it feels impossible to accept that we own creating ourselves. None of us are accidents. We are not some random thing that went wrong. Realizing we choose our status (and everything else about our lives) offers huge rewards. The main ones being a sense of extreme empowerment, satisfaction and eventual impervious joy.

Love we have for ourselves means everything. Especially when it comes to getting the love we want in relationship. (Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash)

It doesn’t have to suck

Transgender women often find a smattering of that when, through surgeries, their body eventually closely matches who they know themselves to be. But as we know, some of those same trans people, even after surgeries, still don’t feel whole. Let alone feeling self acceptance, self love or unconditional love for self.

Any state of non-self-acceptance sucks. That’s because we all came here for the pleasure and joy of expressing our unbounded love to the world, then get that in return. Getting that in return first requires the ability to express it. That expression comes from accepting, loving then unconditionally loving all that we are.

Everyone can get there. And the road to that can be immensely gratifying. Fooling ourselves that we accept who we are when we actually don’t is easy. But life will always show what’s really going on behind our eyeballs, evidenced in the kinds of people and relationships we create.

Struggling with any of that or got a question? I can help.

October 25, 2022September 9, 2022

Why Work Hard To Find Love?

Transgender and trans-attracted people seem to worship a false idol. It’s called hard work. Look around. So many of us are working so hard (and spending a lot of money) to find love. When instead, love can come easy. But it comes easily only if we take it easy and let it happen.

I’m not surprised so many struggle and spend a lot of money trying to find love. We’re on all kinds of dating sites. We go to bars, spend money on drinks trying to look cool. Then go home alone.

It’s the same approach we take to life in general. We spend, on average half or more of our waking lives working. Some dedicate far more of their waking hours to working hard. (For the record, because I follow my own advice, I now only work 8 hours a week and cover all my living expenses.)

Americans in particular are known for their workaholism. A client of mine on vacation in Spain talked with someone, a Spanish citizen, who described her opulent and leisure lifestyle. In doing so, she said “Americans live to work. We Spaniards work to live.“

There’s no honor in being transgender or trans-attracted and venerating working hard as the path to a relationship. If we knew more about how life works, our struggle at getting a relationship would dramatically decrease. We’d instantly find ourselves in a loving relationship. Then, everything else we want would easily flow from that.

Indeed, the easy life carries far more productivity potential. That’s because when one takes it easy, following both intuition and passion instead of doing what others expect of them, remarkable things happen. And they happen because them happening expresses nature’s grace for everyone, including transgender and trans-attracted people.

Runaway success is natural

Take a look at the paradox described by “working hard“. Many people work very hard in their lives and barely get anywhere. The working poor are a great example. But so are many of the middle class. Many people in the middle class struggle mightily working hard and just barely cover their needs and wants. Or they get far enough to amass material pleasures. But since many middle class people finance such things, they end up working even harder to pay off credit cards, mortgages and car loan debt.

Others enjoy a smattering of success evidenced by promotions, vanity titles or a real supervisory role. But those “successes“ usually lead to more work as well.

And when it comes to runaway success, an even greater paradox exists. Some of the most successful put in hardly any work at all and find success near immediately, while others work very hard in the same field and get comparatively nowhere.

Take the case of Sir Lewis Hamilton, the first Formula One driver who happens to be a person of color. He is described as a race car “prodigy“. From a very early age, his parents recognized his instinctual attraction to racing. Everyone saw it. So everyone supported him as he rose far beyond others. Others working equally hard and some working even harder.

Racing prodigy Sir Lewis Hamilton owes his racing prowess to something more than hard work. Indeed, people marvel at his avant-garde approach to his sport, which included forays into music, fashion and enjoying life instead of working hard like others in the sport. (Photo By Morio)

Hamilton does behind the steering wheel what others rarely or never do. Indeed, his “hard work“ was more about further developing his natural gifts, his passions, not struggling to achieve “success” or accomplish anything.

Something else must be happening

I was just about to write “not to diminish the effort Hamilton put into becoming a skillful driver”. But my desire to write that evidences my own indoctrination into our collective distortion; the distortion that “hard work” is the key to success. If it were the key to success, if it were instrumental in things going the way we want, why are so many hard working people not successful?

Which leads me to the following. Something else must be happening that allows some people to succeed with little effort and others, despite lots of effort, hardly ever get anywhere. This is the case for something larger having more influence on one’s success than how much effort or action one dedicates toward that goal. See where this is going?

So why is it some people who work so hard achieve comparatively little? I assert the answer has nothing to do with their hard work. Instead, it has far more to do with stories people tell.

Stories we hold create a resonance, or lack thereof, with whatever it is we decide is “success”. One’s image of oneself, what one believes is possible, and what one chooses to do from those perspectives shapes everything. That’s why transgender and trans-attracted people first must love themselves before trying to find love from another.

Action of any kind, especially in relationships, means comparatively little.

The easy life for all

That resonance giving rise to inevitable success feels a certain way. And that feeling indicates a gradually emerging life that, initially, feels better than what it feels like when working hard towards a goal. It feels like freedom, adventure, positive expectation and empowerment on a consistent basis.

Most people experience such feelings infrequently or not at all. Such experiences explain why so many struggle or live mediocre lives or lives of compromise. They’re not resonating with success they claim they want. Especially transgender and trans-attracted people when it comes to finding a partner.

We’re too busy trying to get there, copying what others do: wading through online dating profiles, for example. We won’t slow down and get in touch with that which will bring our lover to us. We don’t believe such a thing possible. So the relationship we want eludes us.

We all enjoy free will. All That Is wants us focusing our time and action living the easy life. That’s because doing so adds to or fulfills that which we each as transgender or trans-attracted people came to fulfill. And in that fulfillment, All That Is becomes more.

People who struggle contribute to more too. But how many of those people – were they in their right mind instead of the mind that has them struggling to find love – how many of those people would trade what they have for the easy life? I would argue such people, in their right mind, would make that trade.

The easy life creates a path filled with joy ease and fun. It’s a life wherein transgender and trans-attracted people can leave the struggle behind. (My artwork)

That’s because everyone knew that’s the life they would live before coming into the world. That easy life available to everyone of us, trans or trans-attracted.

Nature wants us happy

Instead, so many of us choose struggle. We all have free will, as I’ve said. We are all also eternal. So eventually, each of us, as individuals, learn to give up the hard life for the easy one. For many, that takes several lifetimes.

But for a select few, it can happen in this lifetime. By “select few“ I don’t mean to imply that someone else, like some god, chooses the lucky ones. The select few select themselves. They are those who do something about stories they tell, about their lives, about themselves and about the love they want.

And when those people do that, their life becomes the easy life. In time, they leave struggle behind.

Many struggles we transgender and trans-attracted people have stem from thinking we must do it all to get what we want. Thinking that way, we usually end up feeling discouraged and bitter. We complain about life, men, transgender women. We even complain about who we are.

I suggest we give up all of that. Do that and a whole new world opens up. One in which everything we want happens easily.

Like any false idol, working hard to get love results in emptiness and a poor substitute for fulfillment. I suggest we give that idol up. Of course, I can help with that.

October 18, 2022October 19, 2022

When Suicide Is The Best Way To A Better Way

I once contemplated suicide. This was long before I discovered my transamory. In high school, I dated one of the prettiest, most popular girls. One day, she quit dating me. Her parents didn’t approve apparently. Drawings I made of her and I engaged in sexual acts, which her parents found, didn’t help my case…

So much did her parents disapprove that they dropped the bomb, in person…on my mom. They showed up at my home one day and, in no uncertain terms, told mom I wouldn’t see their daughter any more.

My adolescent heart broke. Not knowing what I know now, I thought my youthful world ended right there. What was the point of living without her?

Obviously, I didn’t take my life. It was a momentary blip. The next day, the experience past, I moved on. So did my ex, apparently.

That’s why I understand the dismal place people find themselves where suicide seems logical. Whether trans, trans-attracted, cis or hetero it doesn’t matter. Getting to the place where suicide makes sense sucks. But it needn’t suck. Nor need it be fatal.

Instead, it can be the best launching pad to a better life.

Emotions as divining rods

Suicidal thoughts feel scary. Especially when they sneak up on you. But do they though? Are people contemplating suicide happy one moment, then, voila!, they want to die?

Of course not. Suicidal thoughts usually come to ordinary folk after a long period of gradual, increasingly negative thoughts. As such, suicidal thoughts resemble any other thought and its associated momentum.

Thoughts trigger emotions. Nothing else does that. Anyone can figure this out by watching where their emotions come from. The common refrain that “X made me” sad, or angry or jealous is a lie we tell ourselves constantly. No one makes someone else feel anything. How someone feels depends on thoughts that person thinks about what they’re thinking about. That’s the only source of emotions.

Emotions are crucial. They help tell us many important things about every choice we’re making. Some of the most powerful thoughts humans think happen underneath our awareness. It’s not that they’re “unconscious”. It’s just that the thinker is oblivious to how they’re choosing to think about what they’re thinking about. Emotions, therefore, act as an immediate feedback mechanism for our thought-choices. Not just those we choose “unconsciously”, but ones we consciously choose too.

Emotions also tell a person what’s coming in the future. Yes, they’re a kind of divining rod, accurately and constantly predicting the future before the future comes.

But since most people don’t know this, they end up feeling chronically anxious, worried, doubtful, insecure and depressed. Then they’re frightened when suicidal thoughts show up. Thoughts they could avoid completely had they used their emotions, humans’ natural divining rod, appropriately.

Most people don’t understand emotions’ purpose. So they can’t fully benefit from their emotions. (Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash)

Negative thoughts start it

Negative thoughts, and their associated emotions, essentially tell the thinker “stop how you’re thinking or you won’t like what comes next!”

Suicidal thoughts do the same, but at volume 10. They say “Dude! Wake the fuck up! You’re heading somewhere you’re not going to like!” That’s why thoughts about killing one’s self feel so awful. If someone thinking about suicide looks back across their “thinking” history, they will find a succession of increasingly negative conclusions about life, themselves or some situation. They’ve been thinking thoughts on a variety of subjects that are grossly inaccurate. And they’ve felt increasingly awful-feeling emotions along the way.

So suicidal thoughts usually indicate a strong momentum of negative thinking (long held beliefs) leading to feeling unworthy, powerless, hopeless and depression; all emotions signaling immediate action is needed.

People generally panic or they double down when such thoughts happen because they don’t know how they happened or where they come from. So they don’t know what to do when they show up (that’s powerlessness), which exacerbates their feeling out of control (that’s helplessness). That triggers more fear and powerlessness and lack of control. See how that momentum builds up?

But such thoughts can be reversed with very little effort.

A client who had suicidal ideation found near-complete relief from such thoughts after one session.

What happens after the act

A hopeless or depressed person who kills themselves ends up where everyone else who dies ends up. They return to where they came, a place I call “nonphysical”. There, they remember everything they forgot when they became human. They remember they are an eternal being. Their awareness expands back into the Broader Perspective that guided them while in a physical body. They realize there’s far more to what they are than life on earth.

They also return to the pure positive, joyful energy being that is their natural state. In that state they also realize something else. They get that their exit from the life trajectory they chose was premature. They also see that, like a bad dream, experiences they feared were of their own making. A path they created that, had they kept walking, would have improved.

Human life experience offers so much rich and satisfying opportunity. It literally changes the being experiencing it in profound ways. It does the same for everyone involved.

The experience offers such profound opportunity, a being standing in nonphysical finds it irresistible. That’s why so many humans and other living creatures incarnate.

Post-suicide, these realizations deeply move the person. They remember the profound reason they chose human existence. That reason compels them so completely, they find themselves drawn right back into another body to resume the process they began. The process leading to profound transformation and elevation.

This doesn’t happen against their will. The happening happens because the being, the eternal being, knows what this experience offers. And it wants that.

Life offers profound transformation and elevation. (Photo by Liam Pozz on Unsplash)

A temporary fix at best

So suicide offers at best a temporary respite from a chronic series of interpretations that ran counter to what really happened. Instead of seeing their life unfolding in a beautiful, perfect, divinely-timed unfolding designed by them, they saw it as an awful experience over which they had no control.

Such distorted interpretations usually don’t lead to suicide. Otherwise far more people would kill themselves than do. Suicide happens less frequently because, most of the time, human consciousness, guided by its Broader Perspective enjoys an underlying propensity towards “good”. Inner guidance steps in well before the train gets near careening off its track.

Transgender people who commit suicide are no exception. Pain they experience before the act is self-generated. Taking one’s life releases the person from pain. But not from the joyful path they took on. Suicide represents a short detour before returning to finish what they started.

In the midst of suicidal thoughts, killing one’s self seems like a good idea. But it only prolongs the inevitable. (Photo by Kristina Tripkovic on Unsplash)

Suicidal thinking’s great potential

Killing one’s self looks bad and wrong and scary. But it’s none of these things. At worse, it’s a temporary detour. At best, it offers a reset for the eternal individual. A chance to recover that awesome awareness state from which the human journey began.

Ultimately, all paths lead to fulfilled desire and expansion of All That Is. No one need experience emotions leading to suicide. Such thoughts usually resolve themselves with just a little attention paid to creating other thoughts aligned with one’s Broader Perspective.

People thinking about killing themselves possess tremendous energy. Such people can transform then channel that energy towards their desires. In other words, a person contemplating suicide enjoys tremendous potential.

I help people learn to channel that energy. I show them how to improve their story telling. After that anything becomes possible. That’s what life holds for everyone. Unlimited possibilities available to all. That’s what makes life so worth living.

I think anyone would enjoy that. Why wouldn’t they? Because most people don’t realize how good life can be. I love helping folks realize life’s goodness.

Thinking about committing suicide? Get help by dialing 988 in the US.

October 11, 2022August 29, 2022

When A Trans-Attracted Guy Teaches Me Something Great

Sometimes I’ll learn something great from clients. They come looking for relief from shame and embarrassment about being Trans-attracted. Or transgender women will come to me looking for freedom from a steady stream dating experiences that suck.

All clients, whether trans or trans-attracted seek something they know they’ll feel better if they get it. I’m focused on creating lives – for myself and others – that include everything wanted flowing effortlessly. I know this is possible. So clients who stick with me eventually get that, because that’s the story I’m committed to. They eventually relax into their trans-attraction, or their status as a transgender person. Then they get the wonderful life that is naturally theirs.

The process through which that happens often teaches me things too. That’s one reason I love this practice. It’s a non-ending series of expansionary moments adding up to the Charmed Life I write about.

Case in point: A recent experience with a trans-attracted client who quit his practice. Not only did his quitting teach me something, it proves the power inherent in telling stories.

Paying the price of struggle

Many people think “stories create your reality” or “manifesting” depends on focusing on what we want. Focus on what you want, goes the general lesson, and what you want will manifest. And while that is true, usually what’s happening is we focus on something other than what we want. Then we get that. And then we say “this manifesting business doesn’t work”. It’s why so many don’t believe “stories create your reality” works. It’s working. But the reality people get runs counter to what they want. And that’s because they’re not focusing on what they want.

What happened with this client demonstrates this with supreme perfection. I wrote about his departure in a Positively Focused blog post last week. In that post I shared how he chose a life of struggle and hard work as though those things were badges of honor.

However, a life of hard work and sacrifice isn’t worthy of a badge of honor. Well, it is to other humans. Other people will look at your struggle and hard work and tell you you’re doing an honorable thing. This includes the transgender community. Look around you. If you’re a transgender woman, I wager that your friends support your dating struggle. That’s because they struggle too. So your struggle and their struggle appear “normal”, the price you must pay to get what you want.

BUT YOU NEEDN’T PAY THAT PRICE. In paying that price, you help others feel better about their struggle. Meanwhile you don’t get what you want. Or, if you do, you feel crappy about the process of getting there and likely settle for something less than what you want or give up completely. Your example will, again, help others doing the same feel better about what they’re doing. Which produces the same results you produce.

Living a life of ease

But you’re not here to help others feel better about what they’re doing. You and I and everyone else came here for the fun of life. Not struggle. Transgender and trans-attracted people especially, came to live lives of unique, beautiful, expressive examples of human evolution!

We transgender and trans-attracted people exist to live our lives as the gods we are. We’re here to create unique lives consistent with that which thrills us. And, frankly, I don’t know anyone thrilled about living lives of struggle, sacrifice and pain born of working hard. Nor am I aware of anyone thrilled with a life wherein they don’t get what they want.

Lives lived as the gods we are lead to fun, joy and freedom. The path of struggle, hard work and sacrifice CAN lead there. But often, it doesn’t. (My artwork)

But nearly everyone lives lives almost exclusively filled with that. And the reason people feel anxiety about their lives, or depression, is, at the core of what they are, they know a better path is available.

So few take that path because they get caught up in stories lived by others which lead them astray. Meanwhile, a life of ease, joy and fun awaits those who choose the other way.

We’re all free to choose

It bears repeating. The honorable life is one lived consistent with what and who we are as gods in human form. That’s why the masses and society in general idolize those who “walk to the beat of their own drum”, who are authentic pioneers creating something brand new or earth shattering. Rarely do such people follow society’s general life prescription.

Living that way, as powerful creators we all are, means casting off bogus stories so we live lives wherein everything we want happens effortlessly. Our life can include all manner of great things, including awesome love with that perfect match, where all our needs are met. Humans are the only beings on this planet mostly not living this way. Meanwhile, everything else in nature enjoys the joy I’m describing. I described this in my previous post on Positively Focused.

So many humans choose struggle instead. Then venerate struggle as somehow honorable. I show people how to live lives of joy. Not struggle. So my clients’ lives become the Charmed Life I write about. Not every client ultimately chooses that though. And I must be ok with their choice.

Which brings me back to the client who recently left the pratice. This client chose to follow society’s stories of struggle and sacrifice. Their choosing taught me something awesome.

The power of powerful stories

I saw tremendous potential in this client. He quickly grasped the fundamentals. As a result, our conversations often included profound insights and realizations about how great life is. We also reveled over experiences he created up to that point. Experiences proving undoubtedly that the practice works. Some such manifestations he created he originally thought impossible.

For example, he once believed no transgender women lived in his community. As he changed his stories, though, he came to see them often. It’s not that the women weren’t there. They were. But his stories blinded him to their presence. Once he changed his stories, they started showing up everywhere.

Another, more powerful transformation involved something he did in the past. That act brought him so much shame and self-loathing, he considered ending his life on several occasions. A simple process of changing his stories about that act totally transformed his perspective about the act. Over time, he gave up suicidal thoughts. Then he saw how that act offered excellent future opportunity to transform other people’s lives.

So this client produced quite a number of experiences proving to him “stories create your reality” works. I saw even more powerful realizations ahead of him, were he to continue the practice.

My Powerful stories…

Yet, I also saw in him a potential for “darkness”. By darkness I mean a tendency, a strong potential, that others’ bogus stories about life would sweep him up and carry him away from his emerging Charmed Life.

I likened him to Anakin Skywalker, father of the famous Star Wars Jedi, Luke Skywalker. Anakin became the Star Wars villain Darth Vader after giving into the Dark Side of the Force. Anakin’s mentor, Obi Wan Kenobi saw great potential in Anakin. But what Obi Wan and his fellow Jedi Masters also saw was potential for the Dark Side. In the same way, I saw great potential in my client. And a chance he wouldn’t fulfill that potential.

A wax sculpture at the Madame Tussauds Star Wars exhibit in London depicting Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker from the prequel trilogy. The client who recently ended his membership reminded me of the power of this Star Wars character possessed. And a similar potential for succumbing to the Dark Side. (Photo By big-ashb)

Self-fulfilling prophesy

I often shared this perspective with that client. I hoped doing so would encourage his leaning into the light of his Charmed Life. In doing so I forgot how effective I am as a creator. I forgot I create my reality — including how others show up — through what I focus on. Not what I want.

The more sessions we enjoyed, the more encouraged I got about his potential. But the more potential I saw, the stronger my thoughts about him “turning” got. Since I identify strongly with Jedi stories, I recognize a lot of momentum exists in me about those stories. What I didn’t realize was how powerfully they’d create the client I ended up with.

Later in our session evolution, I sensed a “disturbance” in his way of being. He started coming to sessions less prepared. He started offering pespectives reflecting doubt and suspicion. And he started questioning my path. He became a version of Anakin Skywalker. Right before my eyes! He even turned to the hard-work encouraging book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People!

One day he strongly disputed the validity of the personal reality unfolding in my life. Of course, he knew his stories about my unfolding reality was irrelevant. And he knew such doubts would create realities for him that would eventually have him leave the practice. But that didn’t stop his momentum. A momentum amplified by my own focus.

Neither he nor I was surprised when he said he wanted to end his practice. He punctuated his departure with belligerent statements, feeling offended and again disparaging my path. Remarkably, these are similar behaviors Anakin showed toward his mentor Obi Wan. At one point Anakin even tried killing his mentor before becoming Darth Vader.

You get what you focus on

After that interaction, I realized I got what I focused on. I got a promising client who chose turning away.

Of course I did not want this outcome. But looking back on stories I focused on the most about this client, I must admit they mainly were about him turning away from the practice. So his choice is no surprise in retrospect. After all, I am a powerful creator. I create EVERYTHING in my reality. That includes versions of those with whom I interact. And that includes clients with whom I work.

I’m no exception to universal laws. Just like anyone else, I create what I focus on, not what I want. Focus is key. So if I want what I want, I must focus on that. In this case, I focused on something other than what I wanted.

And I got that.

I feel like Obi Wan Kenobi. Losing his promising apprentice, Anakin, rocked Obi Wan to the core. Unlike Obi Wan, however, I know everything always works out. So I’m not going into self-imposed exile like he did. I’m not going to quit my practice or quit helping others. The client who left will be fine. And I learned something awesome. It’s an experience I’ll remember, always.

I love how this outcome came out of what many would consider a not-so-good experience. Seeing the positive side of it and amplifying that story must mean the future will bring even more and better opportunities. Ones in which I enjoy clients who stick around. Clients who fulfill their potential as proud and powerful trans-attracted and transgender people.

This experience made me a better creator; a better spiritual teacher as well. And for that, instead of feeling sad or sucky, I’m deeply appreciative.