You are tapped into the listening ears podcast with your host, me, Vernae Bezear. This i s episode 1 3 o f my p odcast, and it's called from breakdown to breakthrough. Founder of analytical psychology. Carl Yung said, I am n ot what happened to me. I a m what I c hoose to become. Let tha t re sonate for a moment. I a m no t what happened to me. I a m wh at I c h o ose to be c ome. I s p oke last week about listening to oneself and the importance of listening from a neutral place. Or as I put it listening from nothing. When we do, we, we begin to understand things about ourselves that we may not have ever known or seen. And once we do see it, we can't unsee it. But in the same token, it is so vital to see the things that are unseen. These events, as I call the m, c ome to us as dreams, reflections conversations, occurrences in nature. And in pe ople eve ry da y, w e are receiving information and me ssages of wha t we should be doing or how we should be doing it or why we're doing it. And it's up to us to be open to it, right? It's up to us to accept or reject whatever comes our wa y. But to remember that we are not defined by it. We can't define ourselves by any of it. We are not what happened to us. We are what we choose to become every day. Every single day a nd moment affords us the possibility of changing, evolving, pivoting to whatever we decide. Every single decision comes with some type of outcome. You can choose to have an event person, tragedy, mistake, dream define, define who you are and label who you are. But only you can say that only, only you can choose that you, you define w ho y ou a re.

And once You choose not to be defined by whatever anyone says or anything you do, once you choose not to be defined anymore, you become free! You become free of guilt, shame. You become free of inadequacy or lack. You begin to become abundant, abundant in every single thing you say you do you feel or believe you are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to become.

Before I sat down to, to this episode out, I was vibing out to Sade. Her song. Love is stronger than pride. She says, I won't pretend that I intend to stop living. I won't pretend that I'm good at forgiving. Before I decided to do today's episode, I was humming that song. And as I come to the end of this episode, episode 13, I realized that love is stronger than pride. And I choose love. I choose. I choose me. And I wanted for so long to give up on me. And I wanted for so long to define myself by choices I made or things I didn't say or things I said or events that happened to me or choices or people I met. I chose for so long to be defined by all of it. But it isn't true. Love is stronger than pride. And I love me. I love my existence. I Love the life that I've created for myself. And I sing to myself. I do really, really love you. Love is stronger and pride. I do really, really love you. Yeah. And I do not intend to stop living, learning, loving, and listening. Thank you. Thank you for listening and supporting my podcast. Thank You for joining me on this absolute cathartic and For Me, mind blowing journey. Thank You for allowing me to share. Thank you for not being judgemental or critical. Thank You for the private messages and the texts of love and support. And Just Thank you. Continue to listen to one another, but especially yourself and understand that you are not what happened to you. You are only what you choose to become, be brave, bold, and free. And this is season one and done. I'll see you in season two. Bye.