We're the Pet Shop Boys

How the Pet Shop Boys Have Made My Life Better

First, A Short History

I've been hooked on the music of Pet Shop Boys since the first time I heard their song "West End Girls" in 1985, but die hard petheads like me are few and far between, at least in the United States. In Europe, the duo have been a huge success for almost forty years. They have had 44 top-40 hits in England and many other European countries. Their success in the United States has mainly been in dance clubs. On the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart, they are the fifth most successful musical artiest of all time, only behind Madonna, Janet Jackson, Rihanna, and Beyoncé.

For the last 39 years, the Pet Shop Boys have been making anthemic dance music that wryly scrutinizes culture, politics, personal relationships, and the nature of pop itself. On stage, they've created their own universe where theatre meets pop - pushing the boundaries of what a live show can achieve.

All humans have psychic energy, whether they know it or, whether they use it to their advantage or not. Many people waste their psychic energy by misusing it. There are many ways in which we can misuse our psychic energy, including over-thinking, being indecisive, second guessing ourselves, worrying about or predicting negative outcomes that have not happened, being unnecessarily fearful, blaming others or ourselves inaccurately, overreacting, allowing others to unduly influence our emotional state, telling untrue stories to ourselves or others, and failing to fully appreciate the present moment. Remember that our psychic energy flows to wherever we place our attention, and we have control over whether it flows to things that will help us or things that will hurt us.

Psychic energy is sometimes described as either positive or negative, good or bad. I am often told I have good energy. This is not an accident. I choose to carry around this kind of energy. It makes my life easier and allows me to enjoy life better. My energy is good energy because it's positive energy, which I get from my optimistic outlook on life. My positive energy makes me generous, kind, empathetic, and enthusiastic about life. I'm a pie-eyed optimist who always sees the silver lining, and I'm happy about that. I know people who are just the opposite, and I often see their negativity and pessimism derail their happiness and take them down a dark path through life where it seems everyone is against them and they can never get ahead.

People with positive energy tend to be loving, happy, compassionate, kind, and supportive, and other people intuitively feel safe, happy, and relaxed around them, while people with negative energy tend to be judgmental, unhappy, complaining, and insulting, and other people intuitively feel insecure, unhappy, and tense around them (Kreuger, 2009). Positive energy makes life easier, more enjoyable, and less stressful, and I believe it can improve a person's life by attracting positivity to them. Negative energy makes life more difficult, less enjoyable, and more stressful, and it can have a detrimental effect on all aspects of a person's life. I am a naturally optimistic person, but there are days when it is not easy to hold onto my positive attitude. Sometimes it seems like negative energy is everywhere, draining me of my positivity and forcing me into the dark hole of pessimism. I've learned to be proactive about how I deal with negative energy. Instead of allowing myself to be led down that path, I do things that tend to yield positive outcomes, which usually allows me to avoid the negativity altogether.

I do the things that make me happy. As long as the things that make me happy don't infringe upon the happiness of others, I do them as much as I want. We are often compelled, by social obligation, to do things we don't want to do, such as hang out with someone we don't like so we can hang out with some we do like. That is not the road to happiness. When I spend my free time doing the things I enjoy, I have more positive energy when doing those things. And the more time I spend doing them, the more positive energy I have, even when not doing them.

I tune into my intuition. Intuition is a powerful force. Coming from deep within us, it gives us the ability to sense something we've had no firsthand experience with, giving us knowledge we never actually learned, often with pinpoint accuracy. Many people second guess their intuition, disconnecting themselves from the greatest power humans have. When fully connected to our intuition, we receive signals in many different situations, for many different reasons. When we are disconnected from it, the signals slow to a trickle or stop altogether. Whether it's a gut feeling about something or the thought that something just isn't right, I always pay attention to my intuition.

I choose to see the good in people. Everyone has good in them, but some people are so negative, all we can see is their bad attitude. When we encounter someone like this, we make a choice, whether consciously or unconsciously, about how we will react to them. Instead of allowing their negativity to bring me down, I look for the good in them, and try to use my positive energy to bring them up. I had a particularly negative coworker once who never said anything positive about anything, ever. He was a good person who had many admirable qualities, but almost every conversation with him brought me down. To combat this, I tried to end every conversation with him in a positive way by complimenting him, expressing genuine empathy, or some other way to communicate that I valued him as a coworker. I'm not sure if he ever even noticed my efforts, but it always made me feel good for doing it, which is better than allowing his negativity to bring me down.

I surround myself with positive people. Life is hard sometimes. We don't always get what we want or even what we need, and there never seems to be a shortage of people telling us we will not succeed. The people I choose to allow into my life inspire me to be a better person, motivate me to achieve my goals, and celebrate with me when I achieve those goals. By surrounding myself with positive people, good times come more easily and more often and unnecessary drama simply doesn't happen.

I let go of negative emotions. Wallowing in self-pity is never pretty. What's worse is when I wallow in shame, anger, or any other negative emotion. Emotions are, by their very nature, fleeting. They come and go quickly unless we hold onto them, wallow in them. I do whatever I need to do to release the negative emotions that hold me back and prevent me from moving forward after a negative life event. The sooner I do this, the sooner I am able to be happy again.

I always look for the positive. If we do something that ends up being a failure, we can choose to view it positively or negatively. Yes, it was a failure, but we learned something new and valuable. This kind of knowledge is priceless. I try to always keep my focus on the future I want, one based on love, happiness, and abundance. I keep a positive outlook at all times, and I believe it attracts positive things to my life.

I remain present. The present moment is just one moment in a lifetime contiuum of moments, but it is the most important of all moments. The moments in the past have already happened and cannot be changed. Future moments haven't happened yet and can certainly be made to be what we want them to be. The only time we can act in a way to bring about postive outcomes is in the present moment, right now. I keep myself and my thoughts grounded so that I am free of mental distractions, and this gives me the ability to focus on what is happening around me and recognize signals from my intuitive inner voice.

Psychic energy impacts our enjoyment in life in such a fundamental way that some people view it as the sole indicator of one's happiness. Generally speaking, people with good energy tend to have more pleasant experiences than those with bad energy. That is not to say that their experiences are actually more pleasant or better in any way. It is how positive people perceive their experiences that makes them seem more pleasant. We all interpret our experiences through our own worldview. Our psychic energy influences what we think and how we feel about the things we experience. This is why two people, one with positive energy and one with negative energy, can experience the exact same situation yet have two completely different perceptions of it. Of course, this is not true of every situation, but it is true of many of the situations we experience on a daily basis.

A personal philosophy includes all the thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes a person holds about life and everything life involves. Everyone has a personal philosophy, whether they know it or not, whether they've formally defined it or not. Just like our psychic energy, we carry our personal philosophy with us everywhere we go, and we use it to assign meaning to everything we encounter. Our personal philosophy defines who we are and what we stand for. It gives life meaning and purpose, and it is a fundamental element of happiness. Without a personal philosophy, we might spend all our time preoccupied with distractions, never considering if they are important or if they add value to our life. This lack of purpose can only lead to a lack of fulfillment. With a personal philosophy, we live with purpose and create intentions that serve as a roadmap for life. Our personal philosophy changes as we have new experiences that challenge our beliefs and make us reconsider how we view the world. Throughout our lives, we incorporate new knowledge, new beliefs, and new information, slowly developing a personal philosophy influenced by multiple belief systems, philosophies, and spiritual disciplines. Core beliefs are the thoughts and assumptions held by a person about himself, other people, and the physical world (Jacobsen, 2013). These deep seated beliefs often stay in the unconscious part of the mind, but they affect our lives on such a fundamental level, literally with everything we experience. Core beliefs are the foundation of our personal philosophy. Here are a few of my core beliefs.

There is a higher power in the universe: Although I am not sure about the exact nature of this higher power, I am certain it is nothing like Christianity's God. My belief in a higher power began with the realization that there are forces in the universe that are greater than I am, such as nature and the universe itself. When I examined these forces, I noticed they are very powerful forces that often act to restore balance. On a very basic level, my higher power is a force that seeks to keep the universe balanced.

The energy I give is the energy I get: As a positive person, I emanate positivity wherever I go. As I interact with others, they repond to my positivity, either adding it to their own positivity or allowing it to lift their negativity. One way or another, my positive energy impacts the people with whom I interact. Generally speaking. like attracts like, so negative energy attracts negative energy and positive energy attracts positive energy.

Every man must judge himself first: There's no shortage of judgement in this world. Everywhere I turn these days, it seems like someone's judging me. All these judgemental fuckers who are too chicken shit to judge themselves spend all their time casting judgement on someone else. What a waste of time. Casting judgement on others serves no legitmate purpose. Nobody's gonna change just because some stupid fuck is judging him. But when we judge ourselves, that's when change happens.

You can't fight fate: Sometimes it seems no matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, I can't seem to avoid the inevitable. Although I don't believe in fate in the strictest sense of the word, I do believe somethings are unavoidable, and it is wise to understand when to fight and when not to fight.

Growth depends on knowledge: Learning is one of the few things humans do throughout their lives. My growth as an individual and our growth as a society depends entirely upon what we learn, and everything we learn comes from other people, either directly or indirectly. By approaching every encounter with another human as an opportunity to learn, life's answers come to us more easily. I firmly believe there are no stupid people. We all possess knowledge that other people do not. That puts every individual in the position of being the teacher.

Life has a distinct purpose: I still haven't figure out mine, but I firmly believe I was not put on this planet at random.

Eyes don't lie: Eyes are the windows to the soul. They will tell you everything you want to know about a person if you know how to listen to them. My mom always said, "Never trust anyone who wears sunglasses in the house." Looking back on it, I think she was referring to being able to look someone in the eyes and know they are high on something, but it is still great advice. Many people cannot look another person in the eye when they are being dishonest. This body language can be very informative if you are aware of its usefulness.

Works Cited

Hall, Kathleen. (2006). A Life in Balance: Nourishing the Four Roots of True Happiness. New York City, NY: AMACOM.

Hall, Calvin S., Nordby, Vernon J. (1999). A Primer of Jungian Psychology New York City, NY: Meridian.

Huxley, J. (1944). On living in a revolution. London, England: Chatto & Windus.

Jacobsen, S. (2013). Identifying and Analysing Your Personal Beliefs. Harley Therapy Counselling Blog. Retrieved from https://www.harleytherapy.co.uk/counselling/core-beliefs-cbt.htm

Krueger, J. I. (2009). A little science on positive energy. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/one-among-many/200908/little-science-positive-energy

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