I'm Perfectly Divine Podcast

It seems strange, but there are people who are threatened by your existence. Of course, it isn't actually you who is the threat — it's what you represent to them. They believe you have something they cannot have, something you don't deserve, or that you took something from them. And so they resent you for it. The only semblance of power they feel, after having given it away, is to try to put you down through criticism. This is Part 2 of our series on alchemizing the critic.

Join me to discover:

• What potent psychological mix is driving the resentful critic's inner world
• How you unknowingly become a symbol in someone else's psychology
• The surprising spiritual law that explains why the resentful critic stays stuck — and what it would take for them to break free
• Five concrete ways to respond when someone is using you as their emotional punching bag — from opening difficult conversations to knowing when to walk away
• Why receiving a critic's insult differently can completely disarm them — without a single argument
• How your harshest critics may secretly be forging something powerful within you

The resentful critic can feel deeply personal, but this episode invites you to see that their narrative was never really about you. Understanding the psychology underneath the resentment doesn't just protect your energy — it opens the door to a kind of self-knowledge that no critic can take away. When you stop needing their approval or their understanding, you step into something far more powerful: your own sovereignty.

Remember, alchemizing feelings is not the same as overcoming them. Alchemy means you are able to access the essential nature of an energy and integrate its healthy frequency as a part of you. Rather than fighting your emotions, the insight they carry becomes woven into your subconscious — and ultimately, into who you are.

Emotional Empowerment is the core training I have shared with thousands of people around the world — from corporations and therapists to individuals who were ready for a more empowered way to understand and work with their difficult feelings.

So if you want support alchemizing your emotions at a core level, now is the ideal time!  Until June 21, 2026 receive 50% off Emotional Empowerment Training by using code SOLSTICE.  

Learn more at my corporate training site: https://iiee.training/course/

Critical people can feel like some of the most draining relationships to navigate. They have a knack for picking at the smallest things, and suddenly you find yourself filled with self-doubt — either shrinking in shame or defensive and angry at being so misunderstood. But what if there's another way to address the criticism you're facing?

This week, we're diving deep into the psychology behind the constant critic, what is really driving their behavior, and what you can do to completely change the way you respond.

Join me to discover:

• The psychology of the constant critic — and what will likely surprise you
• The connection between perfectionism, people-pleasing, and the need to make you wrong
• How you become a projection of someone else's shame — and what to do with that awareness
• Specific language to set compassionate but firm boundaries without escalating the conflict
• How to recognize when you're being gaslit by someone who "only means well"
• What it truly means to alchemize criticism — and why it's so much more freeing than being right

Whether you are on the receiving end of criticism or the one dishing it out and can't seem to stop, this episode is for you — because honestly, it's exhausting for both parties. But approaching the situation consciously can become one of the most powerful invitations to deepen your self-trust. When you stop needing to win or defend, something shifts at a deeper level. You begin to speak your truth rather than fight for it, simply because it's yours to own. And that is where your real freedom lives.

Do you ever experience the gap between knowing better and feeling better? Your mind knows exactly what is going on and what needs to happen to shift — yet the very tool you rely on suddenly stops delivering the result you expected.

This is exactly what I experienced this week when I felt pressure but couldn't seem to let go. My mind knew what to do. I applied my usual go-to tools. But my heart had another plan entirely. Join me as I open up my journal to share where I was and the insights that unfolded — insights that may support you too, including:

• Why feeling stuck after significant inner work is actually a sign of growth — not failure
• The surprising reason your go-to spiritual tools sometimes stop working and what it's really asking of you
• What a tiny blue dragonfly revealed about trust, expression, and divine timing
• The quicksand principle — and why fighting your way out of a hard emotional state makes it so much worse
• How shame and ego quietly attach themselves to positive states, not just negative ones

One of the greatest lies of our transformational journey is that we are somehow supposed to eventually overcome being human. And within that lie lives a missed opportunity — to discover the deeper layers and expressions of the Divine waiting to be revealed within you. This kind of revelation doesn't always arrive with angels singing or the brilliance of an aha moment. It lives in the messiness that has been perfectly designed to bring forward your next vulnerable, real connection to yourself. Because it is precisely these moments that keep us leaning into the love and compassion of what it truly means to be alive, human and perfectly, imperfectly divine.

Have you ever wondered why inner work seems never-ending, or why certain feelings keep cycling back no matter what you do? It's likely because you are experiencing your emotions evolving beyond your human understanding to a deeper spiritual recognition that will set you free. What you feel was never meant to be suppressed or something you have to fix within yourself. Instead, your feelings are doorways to a deeper truth, love, and power that your mind alone simply cannot access.

Here are just a few of the profound shifts waiting for you inside this episode:

• Why the "high vibes only" approach is likely working against you — and what to practice instead
• The surprising connection between your tears and your ego's grip loosening
• How to have "ears that hear and eyes that see" beyond the third dimension
• The three stages of emotional evolution
• The crucial difference between processing your feelings and allowing them to set you free

So much confusion exists around our inner world, which is why so many of us struggle to trust what we feel. Most of the time this occurs because we are only looking through the lens of our human experience — which of course matters deeply. It's just not the complete picture. There’s an opportunity to integrate the spiritual dimension into our emotional evolution that brings us to the ease, grace, compassion, and joy our hearts seek.  Join me to learn more.

If you would like support on how to shift out of the ego using emotional states to define or limit you, please check out my Eyes Wide Open program, which is 50% off through May 31, 2026 when you use coupon code SAVEHALF. https://michellebersell.com/eyes-wide-open/

There is a miracle that has resided within you from the beginning, which was designed to support you in reclaiming your truth. Simultaneously,  there have always been people and systems in place to undermine you from claiming it.  So much so that when we actually have the courage to face our truth, it has been often deliberately misconstrued as weakness. Yet when you don’t buy into that narrative and instead allow this miracle to work through you, through all the challenges that come with gaining self-gnosis, you are rewarded with even greater love, self-trust, and ease. But because this kind of power is difficult to control, it's vital to become aware of the ways authoritarian systems work to keep you from trusting yourself.

What you'll walk away thinking about:

• Why the ancient skill of Gnosis is your greatest defense against systems designed to keep you asleep
• What my heated argument with ChatGPT revealed about hidden bias in AI and why it should deeply concern us all
• An example of how easily technology is already changing the way we think, speak, and trust ourselves
• The subtle language patterns showing up everywhere that are indicators how we may already be giving our power away

If you have fallen for some of these insidious ways that technology is shaping us — like I have — honor yourself for recognizing it. Your inner wisdom, your lived experience, and your heart's knowing are your most irreplaceable tools of discernment, and they are vital to your sovereignty. We have a built-in system guarding us, alerting us, and asking us to refuse to lose ourselves under the guise of making our lives easier. You were born as a unique expression of the Divine — with your voice and your truth — to expand upon love and to help one another trust the miracle that love truly is. And please, after you listen, share this episode so others may also wake up to the deceptive ways we are already being shaped.

Resources:

Tom Bilyeu: https://www.instagram.com/p/DXJzpSFlQyY/?igsh=OGpqN3BmejE2Ymdt

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/far-will-ai-go-defend-survival-rcna209609

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYH179bRY95/?igsh=MTZqNGwyaWRpeDYxbw==

Join me and over 14 million others in the movement to delete ChatGPT!

There’s a story that has been woven into our society that comes with a deep and horrific cost.  This is the story of a woman’s nature and regardless of your gender, this impacts us all.  Because the stories we believe about how we are innately created, impacts how we treat ourselves and allow ourselves to be treated. 

This is a call to recognize the ways we, as women, have been made to believe that you are fundamentally broken, that your heart cannot be trusted, and that worthiness must be earned. Long before we could question it, many of us absorbed a story about ourselves from our relationships, to our choices of what we feel we are worthy of, and the way we respond to our own mistakes.

In this episode, you'll discover:

• Why shame may not be an accident and who benefits when you don't trust yourself
• The ancient meaning of "sin" that was lost long before any of us were born
• How the distrust of your own heart quietly trains you to hand your power away
• The hidden connection between self-doubt and susceptibility to control
• How the Gospel of Mary is our guide to both remembering and embodying our inherent worth

If you have ever felt inherently broken or wounded, this episode is your reminder as to why that is inherently false.  What Mary Magdalene wanted us all to know is that your goodness isn't something to earn. Your inherent goodness is something to remember. And your big, beautiful heart that so many of us were taught to distrust is the very thing that's been waiting to guide you back to your truth of the love you always are and have been.

What kind of spiritual person wouldn't want to consider themselves good? The concept of "good" is an interesting one, because in our minds, if we aren't good, we must be bad. And spiritual people work very hard not to be bad — at least not intentionally.

But here's the thing: when the ego gets attached to anything, including being good, it can mean doing what others will approve of rather than fully following our truth. And that's where things get sticky, because the ego will do its darnedest to keep that hidden from us. It will tell us that our neutrality is good because it keeps the peace — and it won't let us recognize the harm that neutrality is actually causing.

Key Takeaways:

• Why the ego's most dangerous move isn't cruelty — it's comfort
• How "good people" unknowingly become complicit
• Why staying silent about Mary Magdalene's erasure is anything but neutral
• How political identity, religious labels, and even the word "spiritual" can become ego armor in disguise
• Why imperfect action is a vital part of your spiritual journey, especially in this moment in history

This episode is so vital to listen to because when you catch the ego in its last trick, you are truly free to follow your heart. And your heart — the one that has been willing to recognize when something may still be standing between you and deeper love — is exactly the heart that is needed right now. Not because you are always going to get it right, but because you are willing to keep showing up with love, respect, and compassion for yourself and others when you've missed the mark.  This is exactly why you and your voice are needed right now, more than ever!

In this powerful follow-up to Part 1, we go deeper into one of history's most overlooked stories — how power has quietly shaped the spiritual traditions billions of people hold sacred. Through my own faith journey, I came to recognize that what most of us were taught is only part of the picture, and that the missing pieces change everything. If you've ever sensed a tension between the faith you were raised in and the truth you feel in your heart, this episode will give language to something you may have known for a long time.

What you'll walk away with:

• The radical early movement that predated Christianity as we know it — and why it had to be silenced
• The woman at the center of it all whose story has been hiding in plain sight for 2,000 years
• Ancient texts that were left out of the Bible — and what they say that power didn't want you to hear
• Why "waiting for heaven" may be the oldest form of control — and what inner awakening actually looks like
• The through-line between ancient Rome and the political moment we are living in right now
• Why examining your faith requires deep courage

This episode isn't about tearing anything down — it's about getting the whole picture. Whether you are spiritual, religious, or simply someone asking harder questions about who controls the stories we live by, this conversation will leave you thinking differently. And more importantly, I hope it leaves you trusting yourself a little more.

For a long time, I hid behind something that felt virtuous — the belief that being spiritual meant I didn't have to engage with the chaos of the world around me. In this episode I get honest about the three ways that belief left me genuinely naive, and how the moment I stopped trying to keep myself safe inside that identity was the moment everything shifted. Because being spiritual was never meant to be a refuge from the world. It was meant to give you the clarity, the courage, and the compassion to show up for it — imperfectly, honestly, and with your whole heart.

Here's what we explore together:

• Why the Divine isn't responsible for the state of our world — and who actually is
• The uncomfortable truth about both sides of our political system that most people aren't willing to say out loud
• How the most dangerous people in history aren't entirely bad — and exactly why that matters right now
• What happens when we become so attached to a label — spiritual, Democrat, Republican, Christian — that we stop seeking truth and start defending a team
• The historical parallel that kept me up at night — and why I believe we cannot afford to look away from it any longer

This isn't a comfortable episode. It wasn't comfortable to record. But I believe this moment is asking something of us that goes far beyond politics or religion — it is asking us to finally do life differently than we have. To stop waiting for someone else to fix what is broken and remember that the love we came here to be is exactly what this world needs from us now.

Power-over dynamics are showing up everywhere right now — in our world, in our personal relationships, and in our workplaces. This is no accident. What we are collectively being invited to see is that what we've long been taught to call "winning" is actually a lose-lose proposition in disguise. This week, you're invited to deepen your understanding of what's really happening beneath the surface of conflict so you can stop playing a game that was never designed for anyone to truly win.

What you'll walk away thinking about:

• Why "winning" an argument might actually be a sign of something unaddressed going on inside a person
• The surprising reason disengaging is a power move, not a weakness
• What karma is actually trying to tell you — and why your coping mechanisms might be keeping you stuck
• The critical difference between fighting for yourself and standing in your truth
• What powering over others reveals about the inner limitations of the person doing it
• Ways to actively utilize healthy boundaries now within the world that reflects your values

What's most vital to remember as you listen is this: you are never without power. Not ever. How you choose to engage — with others and with the larger energy of life around you — is actively setting the stage for greater truth, love, and peace to emerge. You are here, at this precise moment in time, because you carry within you the capacity to be a living source of a new way of being. The world doesn't just need that from you — it's counting on it.

Those sharing active ways to have your voice heard can be found on Instagram here:

Jessica Craven @jesscraven101

Liz Oyer @lawyer_oyer