So this may end up becoming a YouTube video down the road, I've been thinking through some emotional turmoil in my life that happened this year.  To give you a recap of what lead me to this situation, the catalyst is back last year technically.  (Side note all the images used in the paragraph are from iStock.com.)

I started a Retrospective video capturing the journey of me as a Type 4 and navigating the relationship I had with my Special Person as a cumulative peice, whereas, I originally had talked about it in chunks with a video here and a video there.  It's a peice I'm still proud of and I wanted to make initally as a way to hold that peice of time in a capsule for centuries to come.  I also worked at it here and there while I made the actual videos on my channel for weekly uploads.   I claimed it as a magnum opus peice for me like Amadeus is to Mozart.  It didn't get much traction.  

I ended up also redoing it from my initial upload in May, hence why it's a 2.0 in my Title.  I redid it because it the initial AI renders used in the original peice had looked eerily like the realistic person.  Which I was okay with it but I ended up sided with re-editing it to keep the uncanny valleyness but protect her identity with creating an AI avatar to be the stand in for my Special Person.  The 2.0 came out in the first week of June, the original was online since the middle of May. 

Then what had happened was I had a day off and I ended up visiting the park and I had spent some time visting where I usually go, checking up on everything because I don't know when to stay away or when to leave things be.  I had talked to a co-worker about my job change and contemplating that transition and I shared how I've talked about it on my channel before Job Transitions playlist on my channel.   The co-worker looked up my channel and clicked on the recent video, the Retrospective. 

A week later I got let go, they said "it's best we part ways", didn't outright claim it was tied to my Social Media but I saw it coming.  I was watching the analytics go crazy seeing it shared on Facebook Messenger, via texts, where it was watched on and what devices had saw it.  It basically climbed to 70 views and it stayed there ever since then.  It is something that I expected to happen and I wouldn't undo it if it meant I stayed there this year.  I still was going to make the Retrospective anyway and it was the luck of the draw that they clicked on that recent upload, the Retrospective. 

That's the backstory, bringing it to the current state of affairs.  I've been feeling rather sad, bitter, angry, even resentful towards that workplace.  Now I get why they did what they did and it was just a company looking at getting rid of liabilities and I get that.  No harm, no foul.  They are looking out for Number One is all.  But I feel just like I'm discarded.  I feel like I got tossed away like a used up, bloody, saturated tampon during a woman's menstrual cycle.  They say to have wished me well but I can doubt it personally.

And I've been stalking their business account on Facebook mainly, I like to keep tabs on everything still.  I have a hard time avoiding the whole compartmentalizing concept.  I've done that with most of my old workplaces that I've spent a good chunk of time invested in and even with my YouTube Channel  I can't stop thinking about content and the grind.  Every so often I look at the content tied to the park or I think about the memories I had there and I just get bummed out.

I'm not sure if it's depression or just melancholy, or if I'm a Four just feeling what a Type Four feels on a daily basis.  I reflect on what is happening there, what I did last year around this time.  The people I met there, experiences I had, and food I ate and feel like I'm now a shadow of who I once was.  It keeps me up at night, well, I also work third shift right now, but I lay there and reflect and I wonder what happened to me. 

That maybe I'm a wash up.  That I'm beyond redemption just to live in the remnant of what once was for my life.  Glory days have long gone by and I'm stuck to the shadows.  Maybe I should just end it all and be done, I have no reason to live.  No one will notice and no one will care that I'm gone from there.  I'm replacable.   

But it also was a Seasonal job, unless you got really lucky to work there through the whole year as a permanent job there, for about 3-5 months of the year I wouldn't have been working there, probably collecting unemployment or working a secondary job.  If I didn't have the overnight job lined up back in June and I kept working at the park,  I would have been lowkey kind of panicking and pushing my YouTube channel hard during the summer to push towards monetization and  getting a paycheck each month via AdSense.  Or I'd be looking for a job with the plan on working back there again next year and trying to navigate that dilemna again next year around March or April.

I realize I'm probably overdramatic and realistically I didn't stop the world from spinning there.  They are doing just fine and me and the boss there are on speaking terms.  I don't think they hold any malice towards me from over there,  I just never got external closure.  I had closure from myself and myself with the YouTube video and I decided if I could've undone it, I would not have unposted or unmade that video.  That video is more important to me than my job there.  That video is definitive for other Enneagram Types navigating the same dilemna with the Sexual Subtype dominant.  It is intended to be a peice of learning material and that is far more timeless than earning and keeping a job at a park where I made less than my current wage now, despite it being a pretty fun job.

I also think back to this being like a Babadook for me.  The Babadook being a symbol for grief and how to navigate it.  In the 2014 film, the Babadook lives in the basement, it never truly goes away.  It stays with the mom and she makes peace with it.  Is this what I have to do?  Do Iw want to accept that it happened or deny the reality and move away from it?  I have a choice to make.  I have to pick a side, and stay on that side.  Is it Depression?  Melancholy?

According to ChatGPT, this is more likely just me being melancholic and feeling the Type Four emotions on a grand scale.  If I was depressed I wouldn't have much of an interest in anything at all and I do feel the wide scale of emotions I'm accustomed to.   I can feel happy, sad, angry, excited.  I'm excited a video I published got viewed about 1k times although they aren't "Engaged Views" it still is exciting to see it climb.   I never had a video in my Catalogue even jump to those numbers before. 

Also if you do need to seek help for having suicidal thoughts or feelings of hopelessness.  Do not be like me and ignore them.  They are valid emotions and need to be treated seriously.  There are numbers like 988 to call in a time of crisis, you can talk to a trusted friend, family member, or even psychologist/psychiatrist.  Those feelings are not meant to be bottled up inside for a long while like I have done.   They are valid and equally important to talk about and understand. 

Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you do want to support me on my growth as a Creator, you can actually donate to me on this website, the auto prompts are: $5, $10, and $20.  You can also select other amounts on there as well.   Each monetary donation helps me grow on here, to help support my channel and the people who help run it, which currently are just me and Lisa. 

It is also able to put the fees associated with the channel and cost for maintaining videos.  Such as Splice, the video editing software I use ($20 a month approx), VidIQ, which I use to help my channel grow and edits made on my channel ($25 a month for a paid membership).  I also use iStock, which I have for using still photos and I have a yearly subscription that pays monthly.  I also have a subscription to ChatGPT which I used for a lot of brainstorming content ideas, ($22 a month) and creating images when the iStock selection doesn't hold my attention.  I also  use VidIQs AI coach primarily for the YouTube Channel itself and the ideas tied to the channel aspect. 

I work full time so the money costs are covered anyway.  But if I also want to make the channel and the effort I put into work here monetizable for if someone does have the interest in helping support me and my choices.  Thank you for reading this all the way down and I hope that you enjoy the perspective this brings.                          

So this was inpsired by me thinking about journaling.  As an Enneagram 4 I am heavily in my emotions and inside my own head and heart a lot.  Having a strong 5 wing also just multiplies it on itself.  I also was thinking about my journal I have available and how the world may look at journaling in itself.  Around a conservative 8% of the world, and as many as 1 in 6 journal to a degree.  I journaled since I was a kid, stopped for a long time due to a traumatic story where my journal was shown to people without my knowledge and it made me stop it entirely for years.  I actively have journaled I think now since 2019.  

I find journaling to be refreshing to myself and it is essential for me to use to process my emotions and thoughts rolling in my head.  Eventually I'd use it to also reflect on memories and happy moments of my life via journaling.  I also have used videos to a similar degree as well.  Yet I want to talk more about the benefits of journaling and how the Enneagram Types may engage in it.

Image Rendered by Google Gemini.

1. Why to Journal

Most people would journal to either document their life or events.  I can see Type 3s as the one to largely document the things they did or to talk about their goals.  Type 7s may also journal about the super exciting things happening in their work or life.   An example is a Type 7 may write for days about all the excitement they had at an amusement park.  3s may write for periods at length about their career aspirations.  I'm a Type 4 and I write about my feelings, my thoughts, things in my head, events of my day, or things of that nature.  Enneagram 6s may write about their fears and worries.  What may happen and go wrong.  On the contrary,  I think Enneagram 5s may end up actually discussing their emotions as they process it.  Fives are the Types who tend to be detached and would rather think through their emotions versus feeling it.  They may enjoy just journaling for that reason alone. 

      2. Journaling for Reflection

Sometimes journaling is a good way to immortalize our choices, emotions, goals, and even our dreams so we can reflect on at a later time, be it days, weeks, months, even years from now.   While it is comforting for us to be able to look back on the moments of our journal entries in our past.  It can be a bit embarassing to be frank.  An example is in some of my journal entries I was "super thirsty" for women in my life that I'm attracted too.  I had also wrote some of the depressing moments and happy moments in my life as well.  Outside of myself, the other types on the Enneagrm Circle may also use journaling for a similar purpose.  6s may look at their journal to remember choices they made where the choice helped them overcome and the to trust themselves with their choices going forward. (Usually Type 6s are doubtful of themselves and wrestle with also self-trrust.)  7s may use their journal to remember the exciting days and escape into their fantasy world.  3s may reflect on how successful they were or are because of what they did in the past.

Image Rendered by Google Gemini.

    3.  Journaling to Process

I see journaling also as an avenue to self-process through events or changes.  I've journaled to think of plans in terms of moving or my plans on my channel or ideas for content on my related Social Media sites.  Type 6s probably would more readily journal to process things through.  They are natural troubleshooters and are always prepping for the worst case scenarios.  5s would likely use their journal practices to process emotions in a private sense as they tend to be very anti-emotional in the moment and would rather stay away to process the emotional underpinnings of things happening in life with their jobs, families, or events they attended, like Concerts or Fairs.   Type 3s would process things primarily with work, likely strategies or things they want to overcome.  1s would process their ideals or things they should do.  9s would probably journal their tensions with conflict and pursuit of harmony around them.

The big take away is I find journaling to be therapeutic, meaningful, productive, and even beneficial to use to see my growth, my struggles, my journey.  I find immense pleasure in just journaling and letting my mind wander.  You can journal in any way that makes sense to you.  Anyone can journal in whichever way you'd choose to select.  If you don't have a journal I have an available journal for sale, https://enneagramwithbrandon.com/products/journal-diary it's only like $24 before applicable taxes and shipping.  I make a bit of a profit off each sale of those journals, nothing super crazy.   You can also choose any journal that best suits your needs though and you don't need to go through me alone.  (If you do though it'd be great and I'd appreciate it.) 

Screenshot grabbed via my laptop.

Thank you for reading this blogpost and I hope that you guys consider exploring the website further, my Designer/Artist, Lisa has helped rennovate the websites layout and did what I can only dream of ontop of working my full time job and making my YouTube videos, helped make my blogposts visually appear on the page as you scroll down.        

#journaling #therapeutic #enneagramtypes

             Hello friends, this month I have finally gotten a new partner in my career online, a human artist!  She's based in the United States and for sake of respecting her privacy I'll just refer to her as "Lisa", the name she goes by online on some platforms.  I found her from Instagram via a Mutual
Friend on my personal Instagram Account.  I reached out to her a while ago and a long time later she reached out to me.  She actually reached out to me when I was doing some shopping at Spirit Halloween for costumes to use in my Halloween series.

 A Gemini generated photo depicting a woman in her mid 20s.

            She is a young lady and works to support herself and her family and her rates are reasonable when compared to the work she has produced.  I have always wanted to have an actual human artist to do my work since I know that online it seems more and more recently with the usage of AI online and polarizing issues like Data Centers, AI Deepfakes, if AI steals from human art and the fact that AI is trained from human creators, at least on YouTube.

This image is an example of Deepfake of the lovely Emma Watson who is mostly famous for playing Hermione Granger.  Emma Watson has never done photo shoots as risque as this and if you look closely you can see the skin pigmentation is a bit off between the head and the body.

           I like AI personally.  I have used it for the workflow on my channel and even utilized it for helping support and improve my channel, Enneagram Talk.  When I started my channel,  I had used the app ChatGPT to create images and even help with rudimentary research on the Enneagram and just as a sounding board to bounce ideas off of.  I pay for ChatGPT Pro.  I liked that it could create images almost instantly withoout giving me any chance of risking copyright on my channel or using someone elses work and putting myself at risk.  I still use ChatGPT for images at times and am impressed that it has the potential to create realistic scenes.  It does at times scare me at how eerily similar it can render images that imitate realism. 

  A thumbnail generated by VidIQs AI software for my recent Livestream  with my book, Beneath Stillwaters Bodies Lie which I did a live reading of. 

           In 2026, I have escalated to using Grok for videos and in particular wouldn't mind using it for B-Roll footage.  I at that point didn't know that I could get b-roll footage from VidIQ until recently as of posting this blog.  I had also found out last year, in 2025, that iStock is a website used to give people Stock Images and Videos for people to use provided they have a Subscription price.  They also proudly declare that they do not tolerate AI generated content on the platform as they want to support human photographers and designers and artists.

         I have used a mix of AI and Stock Images and used AI to help my workflow.  I added the VidIQ Extension Browser to my laptop and use it for my Channel.  They can generate thumbnails, score my videos, and are basically largely AI powered. VidIQ also offers Human Coaching for your channel that you can pay around $100 for they also offer an AI Coach.  But I have always wanted to have a human artist in my corner since Day One, I just never knew where to go or who to find that is reliable.

       Image above is from my Artist, you can get commissioned work from her at sales@egamedesigns.com

         "Lisa" is an actual human, a young woman, passionate about her work and wants to share that with others.  When we started talking in the parking lot via Instagram Direct Messages, she had offered when I said I make videos that she can work on my channel with commissioned artwork.  I've been working on running towards improving my Channel this year and am working towards monetization.  Granted now that the goals have changed dramatically post February of 2027, I wanted to push the website I have to essentially be my "moneymaker" until my Channel takes off. 

         I think AI is a phenomenal tool and as much as the world hates to admit it, AI has been improving our society and will likely stay in the midst of it.  I would rather use AI to basically outsource the small workload so I can focus on the things I really want to work on, editing videos for examples.  I'd also like to have a human team behind me too at times because creatively, there is a second peice of humanity involved.  I think we as a world need to learn to balance human work and AI work.  Especially since the world is more and more online and constant changes occuring in the world around us. 

        There is one thing that will constantly separate Humanity from AI.  If I tell a person and AI to create an logo for my channel and describe what my channel does.  AI can only respond with what I put into it.  Human artists put in themselves and actually can take in more outside of itself than the what I put into it.  While we may end up working with AI be it through Google Gemini which readily answers immediately after typing something into search, ChatGPT if they are toying around with AI, to Ask Studio on YouTube which does give data back to the user.  Both can also be wrong in their outputs but one is wrong because the backbone is what is available online, a human artist can get it wrong because the perspectives were different points of view.

          I appreciate the time you have spent reading this blogpost and I hope that you make an effort to wrestle with AI and Human Artists for yourself and that you can create an impact in the world around us.                

Image Courtesy of @DigiBott on Instagram

So for those who are not in the YouTube Creation realm, they offer an opportunity to become a YouTube Partner.  Basically it means they will make you a partner with YouTube and they will monetize your channel and will give you a cut of the money they make on Ads from your channel.  As of writing this now, it takes: 1,000 Subscribers and 4,000 Hours of Watch Time.  It takes just 500 Subscribers and 3,000 Hours of Watch Time to be able to share merchandise on your channel, and do Super Thanks and Super Chats when you go live on your YouTube Channel.  The Hours of Watch Time is calculated in a 365 day cycle.

In February of 2027, just 173ish days away from this current blogpost being public; while the latter tier is still the same to get  Adsense, which is the money earned via Ads on the channel.  It will officially jump to over 8,000 Hours of Watch Time.  It also doubled from a whooping 10,000,000 Engaged Views from Short form Content to over 20,000,000 Engaged Views.  Engaged Views are described as what the YouTube Platform says that are watching Shorts for longer than just a couple seconds.  The Shorts is also calculated in 90 days of 3 months essentially.

What this means for my channel is I've got a longer climb to make.  I'm sitting at just 31 Subscribers and a total Watch Time of just 128 hours and 50 minutes in the last 365 days on my channel.  I'm not super into Shorts personally but I am currently working with it.  I can't end up getting Ad Revenue from Shorts unless I keep those Engaged Views up under the new terms of monetization.

Yet, I have this website.  I have some fans on my YouTube and I did share about it not as vocally prior to this now.  I have an option to just make donations if you decide to donate to me and my channel and what I do, both on here and on YouTube and other Social Media sites like Facebook and Instagram.  I have set up this website to get ready for when I can have merchandise on my channel right under the video.  I also started YouTube because I am passionate about the Enneagram.

I know that I've got a long way ahead of me for online aspects at least.  I also am in a world of real life change happening outside the internet.   From searching at living at a new place, working just one job, overnights at a major retail chain, versus for the longest time working multiple jobs.  I am chosing to make my second job my social media activity and the videos on YouTube until I at least no longer work overnights so I can find a balance between sleep schedules. 

My initial goal this year, during the summer specifically, was working towards monetization on YouTube; and prior to the news on changing the plans I now have to work longer at it.  My reasoning is that the overnight job was closing up around Juneteenth and I had only that seasonal job lined up.  I planned on working as much as I could as a YouTuber outside of the seasonal job and I knew that would hold me over until the end of the Calendar year if I played my cards right and the YouTube channel could reasonably give me some money from my Catalogue if I got into the program.  Life had other plans, if you check out this link, it'll give you the whole backstory to my change of plans. 

I'm not deterred as I still will make content, I just had a Reality Check on what the Monetization Goals and for my channel means.  I'd need to keep  the 4k Watch Hours post being monetized to stay with the Partnership program.  But I also know that most YouTubers don't earn money alone from their ad revenue, they have merch they sell, sponsorships and brand affiliates that bring in money for the Creator.  That being said, supporting just via Donation with this page would be stellar if you want to.  Donations can help keep me going like financially.  I can put the donations back into the channel growth via Gear or Technology, the costumes I use in the videos like during the Holidays or Skits, or even new Enneagram Books for the Channel.  

     This is a vulnerable blogpost and meant for transparency really.  I'm not trying to start anything.  I'm not sure if this will be a video in my future so I figured I'd make a blogpost.  For those who stumble upon this on it's own; I am a YouTuber.  I've made YouTube videos since February of 2025.  

     I'm a small YouTuber, with about 28 Subscribers at this point in my career on there.  I made a video I was passionate about for my own desire to show how my Sexual Instinct is impacted by my Special Person in my life.  In particular, it's a compilation video I made from a bunch of my smaller videos over the time I made on my channel.

   I always knew that I had a risk with my videos, in particular because I talk about people, intentionally in a vague sense and I try to not put them on the point where they are doxxed.  I've never given names, never listened ages.  I've often said I work with them but I never named the workplaces I've worked at.  The funny thing is that my workplace had noticed my channel, they were fully aware of my channel's existence.  They also noticed it when I uploaded my compilation video.  I actually had reuploaded it when I added more onto it, the original video was uploaded on May 15th.  I uploaded the Revision video on June 5th.

     On June 6th my co-workers had seen the recent uploaded and it went viral.  I had gained over 60 views on that video alone it was shared and seen by I assumed my higher ups.  In less than a week I had that call from HR they wanted to see me.  Now I know that when HR call it usually means bad news.  I suspected that it was because of the video, my analytics were showing moves and I knew the one co-worker had saw the video.  I was called in for an "Investigation" reason.

     They had wanted to know what I did on that Saturday before. They gave some long inquisitive reasoning.  They never actually told me outright that the video was why I was in that room.  They had gone through a series of questions as to why I was there.  They had insinuated that there was some underlying reason to it.  They had not actually explicitly told me my video was the reason, I had said about how the YouTube channel had got into a discussion at work, and  I explained about what my channel basically is.  I gave them the option to explicitly tell me the video was the reason why.  They never took it.  The next day I got let go, they said, "It's best if we parted ways". 

    About a month later I figured I'd finally talk about it.  In that week I was monitoring, I was relaying with the VidIQs Coach about my video and if I was likely to be terminated for my video.  What my options were.  Would they try to push me to unlist the video or delete it to keep my job there.  What do I personally want to do about my video.  I had a choice to make. 

      I also had thought about my video and my why I made it.  I made it for the world to see.  I made it to demonstrate how my dominant instinct is affected by the people in my life.  I also had started that video back in October of 2025.  I didn't actively push it until May this year when I was like, 'Oh I'm slacking, I need to get this out now.'  So I did.  Then more information came to me and I wanted to give the video closure so I added more onto it.  I also knew that my video is a risk, I knew talking about my Special Person over a year ago was a risk.  

     The video is a risk I was willing to make and that I made.  I also had realized that even if this job termination had happened back because of another video had been the controversial take, or the May compilation was seen and was blew up like the 2.0 did.  I still would've made the video.  I believe it is worth the risk to take.  My Special Person is the sole inspiration for that growth for myself.  She is an angel, a guiding light for me.  They had encouraged me to chase my current job I'm at now because I was torn between trying to get a full time job when the seasonal jobn would go out.  Or I turn it down to do the seasonal job part time to push on with that and to really push and steer my YouTube channel towards monetization and actually bring in money. 

    I encourage you guys, although granted probably not everyone is a YouTuber and gets in controversy on Social Media.  That chasing what you're passionate about is worth it.  It's worth the risks we face.  I live with no regrets knowing that my seasonal job had ended the way it did.  I wished it ended on a better note and on my terms not theirs.  But the reality is HR is HR and they aren't your friend.  They are at most a friendly adversary.  But there are good people in HR.  They weren't even the main issue in the story.  The decision is the main story itself.

     And also to be fair the YouTube aspect of this is relevant because my story is out there.  If they ever go back to look on it, the video is still up.  I'm not hurting or crying over it.  I do not regret what happened and I hope that you take away that it's important to not act and then regret your decisions.  Whether it is making a YouTube video or accidentally getting Spicy Ketchup and you don't like spicy stuff like that and putting it on your Hot Dogs.   Take care readers and be good out there.   

Now I know how this sounds.  Are you serious?  Pokemon a kids game has a connection to the Enneagram?!  You're reaching now.  Hear me out first.  In this post I will connect how things found in PoKeMoN Games going forward from Generation 3 to now is a great analysis in the lens of the Enneagram.  (For those unaware, Generation 3 is the introduction of the Hoenn Region and included the games Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, FireRed and LeafGreen.)

Image Courtesy of Gaming Industry News (gameindustry.com)

I know not everyone is heavily interested in PoKeMoN so I'll briefly describe how the games work overall.  I'm only going to discuss the main line PoKeMoN games to keep continuity.  The basic plot of PoKeMoN games, starting from the originals Red and Blue is: you start the game as a new PoKeMoN trainer, who's a kid roughly 10-12 years old.  The Regions Professor gives you 1 of 3 possible PoKeMoN, usually referred to as a Starter PoKeMoN.  You are tasked with filling out a PoKeDex, an encyclopedia documenting the PoKeMoN in the game and collect information on all of them in the game.  To grow your  PokeMoN across the game you end up battling other mons and trainers.  Your goal is to become the Regions Champion, the highest accomplishment in the games.  You also end up having to fight against the Villains in order to protect and save the Region.  

PoKeMoN has recently celebrated their 30th Anniversary when Red and Blue version had released in Japan in 1996.  In their celebration they ended up releasing FireRed and LeafGreen to the Nintendo Switch, most of the new generation of fans growing up have likely never actually played those games on the original software, which was the Game Boy.  When  Nintendo ended up releasing the Nintendo DSi back in 2009 across the world, they had ended up getting rid of the Game Boy slot on the bottom portion of the handheld. 

Unless fans had a GameBoy Advance, GameBoy SP, or any other devices in the Game Boy line, there was no way to play those games without running it via and emulator and trying to play it on the phone; that or ending up going on selling sites like Ebay, Amazon, or other sites and spending a pretty chunk on both to actually play the games legally.  In February 2026 they had added FireRed and LeafGreen to the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 for a little more than $21 USD, with fans receiving the news with mixed results.  I purchased LeafGreen.

As I played it, I ended up making some connections to the game and the Enneagram itself.  PoKeMoN consists of Types, at the now current generations to my knowledge there is around 17 types: Fire, Water, Ground, Ice, Grass, Electric, Ghost, Bug, Flying, Psychic, Steel, Dragon, Fairy, Rock, Poison, Normal, and Dark.  Um, Brandon there's 9 Enneagram Types.  If you break it down by the Subtypes you get 27.  I know, but that's not the point.  Each Type has limitations, weaknesses or disadvantages, advantages or strength, and also can be multple Types.  No Type is inherently better than any other Type.  PoKeMoN trainers can win battles by using Items, Strategies, and Movesets in an effort to win the battle.  

Um wait, if PoKeMoN are the Enneagram Types, then what is the Trainer?  You play as the Trainer who controls how the battle happens Brandon.  I am aware and that is what had held me up for a bit.  I asked ChatGPT what it would say trainers are, it gave me 3 options: The Conscious Self, Life Circumstances/Enviroments, or Self-Awareness.  While each option has merit, I think if we imagine the trainer as Self-Awareness it helps us get a more precise metaphor in the bigger picture. 

We, the fans, are the trainers.  We started as new fans, unaware of how PokeMoN works in battles, ignoring moves that don't deal damage in favor of hitting pokemon for damage and the bigger number the bettter.  If  I have a Charizard and come across a Rte 1 encounter, Flamethrower is overkill but child-self had made a good decision with that.  As we grow up, we learn that sometimes dealing damage isn't the best approach when we can use strategies, items and different moves to fight the opponent.  Now a lot of people are interested in seeing how 1 PoKeMoN may fight against the entire game, or can a singular type fight and survive through the game.  Remember me saying no Type is better than another?

PoKeMoN are Enneagram Types but how else are they different?  In the games, we see Statistics, Abilities, Movesets for each PokeMoN.  You can catch two of the same PoKeMoN, such as Pidgey on Route 1, and none of the PoKeMoN are exactly identical.  Think of those as the hidden aspects of the Enneagram Types.  Statistics are like the Types Tendencies, Abilities are like Instincts in the Enneagram.  Movesets are how the Enneagram Types choose to Cope, i.e. their Coping Strategies.

Statistics are what most trainers look at and that is what we look at too usually for Type Tendencies.  Type Tendencies are how we usually look to people on the outside, think of how the Enneagram Types are portrayed in the Literature and Media.  I'm a 4, I tend to be Melancholic, Creative, Withdrawn.  Statistics also are how every PokeMoN is perceived, i.e. Jolteon, an Electric type has been known as a very Speedy PoKeMoN versus Gyarados, a Water/Flying Type, has a high attack stat and Blissey is known as a "Tank" meaning that they can take a lot of damage from both Physical/Special Attacks.

Abilities are also how each PoKeMoN present in battle or in the actual world in PoKeMoN.  An example of how the Abilities look is Psyduck.  Psyduck has 3 abilities, Damp, Cloud Nine, or the Hidden Ability Swift Swim.  Swift Swim Psyduck is faster when the weather effect is raining.  So it's faster than the average Psyduck.  Damp Psyduck can fight against moves that lead to self-explode and their ability prevents them from occuring versus the Swift Swim Psyduck would be vulnerable to getting attacked by those moves.  A Cloud Nine Psyduck also ends up getting the weather effects negated.  A notable example is that in Generation 4, in Pearl, Diamond, and Platinum the Route to Snowpoint City has constant Hail.  A Cloud Nine Psyduck negates the affects of that effect so instead of Psyduck taking Damage if it had a different ability, it is going to be only affected by the moves used in the battle itself.

And finally Movesets are coping strategies.  In battles, the moves are how we fight against other PoKeMoN.  Some moves are offensive, some are defensive, some deal damage, others do not.  Some moves are multi-turn.  Some moves don't directly affect the opponent immediately.  In terms of the coping strategies we employ, we deal with life in a similar situation.  Unlike real life that each Enneagram Type can use any strategies, in PoKeMoN movesets are selective.  Ekans, a Poison type, can not use the move Fly, a Flying Type.  

I've talked long enough though, there is so much I could add into this.  l'll probably end up breaking this blogpost down into smaller peices so I could talk more versus doing a book length blog at this rate.  Thanks for looking at this and I hope you join me for more.  I may also down the road transform this blog into a video for my YouTube Channel, Enneagram Talk with Brandon.  The Enneagrm is a great tool at personality profiling and understanding more about yourself.