#130: Encounters With The Divine Across Multiple Pivots with Judy Whitcraft

Well, good morning everybody, and I did not know that story. This is the first time I've heard that story too. And so, wow, my little ego mind is going, Good. Okay, I'll get rid of my ego mind now and come back to you knowing that the only thing that was working through me and is always working through me is the divine energy, whatever anybody wants to call it— universal energy, God, Spirit, whatever it is. It's all the same for me, and it was working through me. And the things that you were reading, I never considered them poetry because I'm not a poet. I'm not a writer. I was just writing affirmative prayers that spoke to me, but I did it in a practical way. I don't use a lot of flowery words. Like you say, it touched your soul because there were words that made sense to you. So whenever I write or do any affirmative prayer, it's that way. It's really about the person and what they're living. And basically everybody has the same thing they want. is to— what you teach is to love your life. That's all anybody wants. They just look at it different ways.

Indeed.

So thank you.

You know, thank you. I mean, the words— I hear this a lot, and I've said it many times in my life, that we hear just what we're meant to hear at the time that we're meant to hear it. So those words, like you said, they were just really perfect for me in those moments. But, but I've over the years just come to admire so deeply how rich all those affirmations are and how different they are. There are themes, there are commonalities, there's Things that you could see how they, they relate to one another, but they're all so independently beautiful. It's like if you went into a field of flowers. I'm really gonna— like, your ego, if it was wherever, whatever size it was when we began, Judy, we're about to double it. Okay. Let's double it. 2 exits, right? 3 exits. It's like walking through a field of flowers, and at a glance, they're all similarly beautiful, but upon deeper examination, if you look at each one of those flowers, they're all unique. They're all incredibly beautiful in their own way and not just carbon copies of each other. And that's those affirmations that you wrote for so, so long. You know what? You're a pivoter. Just in sending us some information preparing for the interview today, I read a bit about you. I'd love for you to share, if you could, a bit of your history, because you've had a, in many ways, I would say, sort of a conventional business background. entrepreneurial background. And so I want to understand, or at least I would love for our viewers and listeners to know, you know, what led you through your life as a person that ultimately ended up being inspired to share those affirmations. So take us back as far as you want. You can take us back to birth if you like. Okay.

Well, actually, that's a good place to start because at birth I was adopted and I was adopted before I was born. Whatever comes out, we want. Back in 1944, it was done through the doctor and an attorney. It was no big fancy thing. And the lady had gotten pregnant with me by accident and could not wait, nobody to know, and get rid of me. So I came into this world with her energy of, hurry up, we got to get rid of her, hurry up, we got to get rid of her. And some people don't understand that when they come into the world, they already have whatever energy that they'd absorbed from their surroundings while they're in utero. And I actually work with people all the time with that, and it's super interesting because they remember. And so I've worked on that a lot to clear that energy. But then I'm given to these parents that are like angel parents— wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people that really taught me that I was special, that I was loved, and gave me— my mother gave me all that she didn't have when she was a kid. You know, that kind of thing, which has its own set of problems, you know, but it's way better than most anybody else I know. And I ended up being an only child, which is another, you know, little thing in there. But the thing they taught me was that everybody's always nice to me. That's what I learned as a child. And they never looked at anybody else in a way to look down upon them. They would help people, they would help the family, and they didn't make a big deal about it. And we had enough money to get by, more than enough money to get by, but we by no means were wealthy. But I always learned that there was enough. If we were missing something, my dad would make something happen and it'd be okay. And basically, I never knew about it anyway. But I always had this concept of we're all one. And I'm not sure why that's so. Maybe because I was an only child and very protected, but I've always liked everybody, and everybody was always nice to me. Even if they didn't like me, they were nice to me. So that's a gift. I mean, that's just a gift to grow up knowing that, that there's enough and everybody's always nice to me.

Yes, indeed. A lot of people grow up and they don't feel that at all.

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And, uh, of course, I had to go to college. My mother would make sure you're going to college. There was never any doubt that I was going to college. And I graduated from Kansas University back in the '60s.

That was a radical time to be going to college too.

You know, it was right before the crazy time. I graduated right about the time all the riots in the streets and Vietnam exploded and all that. So Before drugs exploded. I was never around that. And I'm grateful, you know, I didn't have to make choices then like that.

Right.

But then I was a schoolteacher for 5 years and decided that the public school system was not creative enough for me.

I love it.

And I'd gotten married by then, and we wanted to have kids. And so we moved to this farther out. And after my first son was born, The women in my neighborhood had found out that I had this training in tumbling and dance, and they said, well, why don't you just have all the little kids in the neighborhood come down and you can teach all the little girls to do cartwheels? And I said, okay. Was not even my idea. The biggest pivot of my life, and it wasn't my idea.

Wow. And

that's before I believed in any divine source. I was out there thinking I had to do it all by myself.

Right.

And if anybody talked to me about God, get away from me, that's stupid. But the good thing is God didn't care.

We're here anyway.

You're going along fine. And the thing that was never my idea, that I had the perfect house for, and the neighbors knew this, I had a tumbling studio in my home Attached to the south side of my home in these huge garages for 43 years. 43 years.

43 years.

And I mean, I literally had thousands of kids, probably tens of thousands of kids and parents that came through in those 43 years. And that became my identity. That became the family I never had growing up, being an only child. And to this day, they're still my family. So, that was my big pivot point that the divine said, here you go, try this.

So, you're running a business, you're an entrepreneur, you're a mom, you're a wife. You've got a few things going on in your life. Where does this affirmation email come from? Because I think a lot of people are, at this point, it's not an unusual thing, it's not a terribly novel or new thing, but back then it really was. There was another email I remember coming called Notes from the Universe or something like that. Right, come in, tut, you know, and then yours came in and namaste. So where did that— what's the origin story for your affirmation emails?

When I was turning 50 years old, I realized that I didn't know everything and it wasn't working, what I was saying. The studio was working fine, but my relationships were not, were not. So I actually— my chiropractor said, hey, I want you to come to this Landmark Education introduction. And I said, okay, I need help. From what he said, it was, you know, going to help me. And I got into that, and it opened my mind to spirituality. Even though Landmark, the Landmark Forum, is not about spirituality, they don't ever talk about it, it opened my mind that I didn't know everything.

Yes.

That led to finding Center for Spiritual Living, which is Nondenominational. It's the Ernest Holmes teaching Science of Mind. Well, I could wrap my mind around that because that was scientific, and I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. I couldn't get enough of it because I knew it was my answer. And so they teach affirmative prayer. And so when they started taking classes immediately and they taught me to do the 5-step affirmative prayer, and I started writing them every night and I'd send them to my friends. And then they'd send it to their friends and see another thing that wasn't even my idea. It wasn't my idea. It organically—

There's a theme here, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

A theme is appearing.

And it finally, you know, it helped move things along faster once I actually believed that the divine was helping me. I mean, it started communicating with that energetic power that's always been there.

Wait a second. I was scratching my head now for a second. Things actually sped up and got better the moment you realized that the universe was working in your favor. Yeah, what a concept! They

ought to write a book about that or something, huh?

Shocking. I've— there are people driving off the road now. Listen, just pull over, stop your car. Yeah, earth-shattering stuff.

Yeah.

So you start writing these for your friends and they start sharing them with their friends, and then what happens from there?

Yeah, well, at first I was writing them every day and sending them out every day. And I did that for years, but it was because I needed it.

Yeah.

I was sending it out and getting good responses, and that felt good, but that's not why I was doing it. I did it because I needed to be reminded and keep my mind focused on what I wanted to learn. If you're teaching it, then you're going to get it. And if you're writing these every day and other people are expecting it, Then you have to keep doing it. Or you don't have to, but I wanted to. So, it only helped me by doing that. So, you reading it and saying, I like it, and then getting other people to say, you know, whatever, that they like it. It wasn't like a Facebook like it thing, but yeah. So, that kept me going, 'cause it's like, okay, people still like this, and I still like doing it.

Yeah.

Then there came a time that I thought, you know, 7 days a week is a lot. And this is after years. And I decided, okay, I'm not going to do weekends. And that went along for several more years, 5 times a week. And then at one point in time, I said, you know, I just need to do this once a week. And by that time, there were so many things like this coming at people that they did have a lot of choices. They probably didn't even want me in their inbox every day. I don't know. Nobody ever told me that. But so I went to one day a week. And I'd send it out on Monday night. And I did that for another 10 years. And then one night I said, I'm not going to do it tonight. And I'd taken breaks before, you know, being out of town on vacation or something, but just usually just for a week. And then the next week I said, hmm, I'm not going to do it tonight either. And then the third week I said, hmm, I think I'm done. I think I'm complete.

Yes.

And that's all there was to it. There was no plan ahead, no plan ahead at all. And that was 6 months ago or something like that. And then I wrote a note to everybody that said, you know, this is what happened. I decided I'm

done. I am complete.

Thank you for, you know, wanting these to come in the mail for all, you know, on your email for all these years. And I got several people back saying thank you, and including you. And that's When I discovered you.

Yes.

I don't know who these people are out there. And I looked you up on and found a TED Talk or something that you'd done. And I'm like, holy moly, he likes me, you know? And so it was good feedback at that time that I'd helped people.

Yeah.

You know, that people, people did like it.

Wow. The pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different and something new. But the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And it's the reason why my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilient leader The best way to take this assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. Yeah, I think it's one of these— I don't know if it's an irony or a mystery or One of these just things about life that is enigmatic, but we have such a bigger influence on others than we imagine.

Oh yeah.

And maybe that's a good thing, that our, our egos aren't able to encompass the full width and breadth of our influence, because sometimes our influence can be pretty negative too. I mean, I won't say that about you. I know my own life. I mean, I've hurt people and I've done things, and I, I would think the ripple effect of that I wouldn't, wouldn't feel great about if I knew the full depth of it, and on the other side as well. And I hope that the other side is quite a bit bigger. I mean, I know I've been, like you say, working on myself and working on learning and sharing what I remind myself about. My morning rituals are all about reminding myself, you know, before we hit the record button, we were having a little technical challenges earlier. You asked me, you know, why is it that you love your life? And I thought that was a really great question because not everybody asks me that. If you're like the I love my life guy, you know, not everybody's going to say Stand up and go, hey, why do you love your life, buddy? You know, even though I really wish people would do that. And I was so happy you did that. And you didn't say it that way. You were just like curious. But I'm like, well, because it reminds me of something that I want to be reminded of, which is my connection to spirit. It's my connection to my creator, to God. Wow. And I do want to, if it's okay for just a couple of moments here, I want to talk God with you because I never talk God with anybody other than A few very close friends, I suppose. And even then—

I don't believe God is an old man up in the sky doing judgment and doing a checklist to see if you get into heaven or hell. As far as I'm concerned, there is a heaven and hell, but it's right here on earth and we get to choose.

Oh my goodness.

Once we pass out of these physical bodies, I have my own ideas of what happens then, but I don't know because I haven't been there yet, you know. But

well,

yeah, so God for me is just the universal energy of goodness.

Mm-hmm.

And there are spiritual laws that balance all this. And this isn't me, me saying it because I know it. It's because this is what I've been taught through Science of Mind. And this is what I believe because it makes sense to me that if this is all energy, the energy is going to balance. And if we are angry, we're going to get anger back. If we are living in fear, we're going to get more to fear. If we live in love, we're going to get love back. Now, that's the balance of the universe, but it's not God doing it. It's the energy of who we are as it works through us, making it so. Law of cause and effect. Simple. What you give out, you get back. We've learned that since we've been kids. It's a universal law.

It's like gravity. You can't—

Yeah, like gravity. Yeah. Law of attraction. All those things.

Yes. So, well, you were inspired to write what must be thousands at this point. I can't even imagine. You have— you know, that's a question I have for you. It just dropped in my head. Statistically speaking, do you have any idea how many affirmations you have disseminated in the world?

No.

I'm curious. Are you a little bit curious?

I kept them all on my computer and then I got rid of a lot of the old ones, but I still have quite a few. People keep saying, are you going to do a book? And I'm going, why? And the only reason I could think of why is for a legacy for my 2 granddaughters so they can— they both know this stuff too, you know?

Oh my goodness. I would love to see you do a book, Judy. In fact, I'll make a referral to somebody that if you have any interest, you can talk to about this.

But— Okay. We'll talk about that later. I haven't had any interest in it. It just sounds like a lot of work to me.

Oh, I think you've already done all the work. I think that's the beauty of it, is that we have our favorites.

I will meditate on it.

Chelsea, our oldest daughter, and I were talking about this just the other day. We're like, we have affirmations of yours that we've got in books and places where we printed it. Not every one of them we printed, but we printed them and put them on the wall or on a Post-it thing. Stuck it in a book, is it, you know? And so we all have our favorites. I would say that among your, your community, which I think is just— I'll just use the word fans because you are a complete and total rock star. And if ever anybody deserved rock star status, it is you, Judy. Okay. And that's the truth. So I would say that there's probably, for the people that did follow for years or who knows, even decades, They probably got their, their top 10 or something along those lines.

Yeah, you're probably right. Yeah. And people have said, I've got a folder of my favorites and that kind of thing. So yeah, you're probably right.

Do you have a favorite? Is that— I mean, it's probably a crazy question to ask you, but—

My favorites would be anything about releasing guilt, releasing shame, releasing resentment, because it doesn't do us any good. And just things about letting go, because surrender is a big deal, and I'm very resistant to surrender. So I've worked on that a whole lot, being able to trust, and it's all going to be okay, and, you know, stay in the moment and all that. I tend to be a little bouncy, so I don't stay in the moment present all the time, seems.

Yeah. So what do you do today? I'm asking you a very personal question. So you were writing those affirmations as a reminder for yourself. To stay on the— that path, like you're saying, being able to release things and let go of things as well. And shame and guilt are terrible things to hang on to. They're very heavy energy.

Michael Beckwith said guilt always leads to punishment. And when you think about it, you're guilty in court, you go to prison.

Yes.

When you put guilt on yourself, you're going to punish yourself. You're going to put yourself in your own prison. And when people understand that, I mean, it's such an easy concept, such an easy concept. And once they understand that, they can wrap their mind around, oh, maybe I'll release this guilt and shame. Whereas before, they felt guilty that they couldn't release it. Oh, but I really did do that. Yeah, but that was long ago and is still messing your life up now. You've already said you're sorry. Do you do that anymore? Well, no, I wouldn't do that again. Well, then we need to release the guilt. And that's what I do these days is work with people to do that. And I'm not putting in a plug for myself on your show because I have plenty of people to work with. I'm just saying it because people need to know this kind of stuff. And they don't. And until they do, they'll hold on to it and they don't know, so they don't do it different. They try hard. Bless their hearts.

Yeah. Is there a— I don't want to call it a secret because I know there's no easy— at least I'm going to speak just from my own experience— there's no easy road to these kinds of things. It's a vigilance. It's a day-by-day, daily work that we have to do. And either we're putting our hands in the soil and tilling and doing the pulling the weeds each day, the weeds in our minds and all these things, or we're not. So I don't know that there's an easy answer. But is there something that, that you've found after all this time of working with people and the work you've done on yourself that is a bit of a hack, is a way for people to release or let go of things that might just make it easier than it is for them at the moment? Because I'm sure a lot of people who are listening to this have done work on themselves. There's probably people who've gone through Landmark and been to Forum and been to all these things, and yet they're still holding on to some resentment from when they were 13 years old or when they were 28 and they hurt somebody or— So, Judy, I'm putting you on the spot now. Let's pretend that everybody that's watching this, everybody that's listening to this, is right now sitting there in front of you and is your client, and they're holding on to something that feels pretty icky. And like you said, Michael Beckwith said punishment or guilt leads to punishment. So they've got this guilt. What do you tell them, Judy?

The guilt that they have now did not start in 2019. It started way back when. Maybe, like mine, a lot of mine started in utero, or, you know, kindergarten, first grade. How do you hold them accountable? They were doing definitely the best they could. They didn't know. Even if it was something that was really bad, like you cheated in your marriage, or you killed somebody, you know, sometimes it doesn't do any good to hold on to that guilt. Because you're not that now. And I always say, would you do that now? And they say, well, no. Well, then why are you still holding on to it? You have to go back and help those younger selves. And it's not like self-love. It's not that. It's love for that younger self. Because you ask people, well, how do you feel about how you, you know, what you did as a teenager? Or what they did to you as a teenager and how you reacted or whatever. How do you feel about how they were bullying you? They know it like that. They feel it like that. That's not in 2019. That's 40 years ago in high school. You have to go back and help that high schooler. You have to go back and help that 1-year-old, 2-year-old, 3-year-old. That 3-year-old that was an only child till that new baby came in, and all of a sudden, mom is not having all this attention on you, and you're wondering what happened. Even though nothing really happened. And the new baby is wondering why their big sister always hated them. You know, you have all this stuff going on, these dynamics that we don't understand growing up, not even as adults. So my magic thing is to go back and help those younger selves. But if you want to hack, as you said, in the moment, what to do is you appreciate everything. And that's what you say. And I'm not saying it because you say love your life no matter what. I'm saying it because that's the truth. That's not an advertisement for you. That's just an advertisement for their lives.

You got me here. I gotta tell you, I've done this a few times and I have not been— it's so moving to see the energy. Seriously, the energy that you've got for what you do and how you— this is why you've helped so many people, Judy, because you embody it. You're living it. It's in you, the cells of your being. Yeah, probably like you said, those cells were formed long before you made your emergence into the, into the world. Yeah, I feel incredibly grateful in this moment for you, and I wanted you to know that. That's why I wanted you to come on the show. You're welcome.

That's all I want these days. That's all I want. Like, you do the same thing. You just want everybody to have a hack. to a better life. And if you stay in blaming and complaining and playing the victim and all that, you're not going to get there. But the people that are there, they're probably not paying any attention to us anyway.

No kidding, right?

Yeah.

Our own little drama. We have so many— yeah, we make our drama so important in so many ways.

And Dr. Christopher Michaels, who's a Center for Spiritual Living— my teacher from, you know, the beginning, 20 years ago, and is funny. He would always stand up on the platform, and when he'd talk about people that played the victim, he called them the walking wounded. And he'd say, you know, they're not awake, they're not aware, they don't know. They know something's the matter, but they just They're stuck there. They're not ready to wake up. And if you try to wake up the walking wounded, you're just gonna piss them off.

And it could get dangerous too. We've all seen that, right? We've all seen that trying to—

What you can do, you can be the example, but don't go, oh, I can really help you, you really need help. No, if they're not ready to wake up, they're just gonna defend themselves. But if they're ready, then Okay, here I am. What do you want to know?

Absolutely.

If they give me an opening and ask me like you did, okay, what do you want to know?

What do you want to know? Oh my goodness. Wow. Just priceless. Judy, your website. Will you say what your website is?

It's just my name, judywhitcraft.com.

Beautiful.

That's simple.

Will you spell it for everybody, please?

J-U-D-Y W-H-I-T C-R-A-F-T. And some people are going, did she say witchcraft? And it's not witchcraft, but people think that. Then they remember my name. It's like, I didn't pick that one either. Good job, God. You know?

Good job, God. I think this is going to be my new mantra today. Good job, God. Oh, that's killer. Oh, it's just beautiful. Judy, I have so enjoyed this conversation more than I can tell you. And I—

Anytime, Adam. Anytime.

You know what? I'm looking forward to the next chapter and the next installment and everything that's going on. And you've been— I just realized as I'm talking to you what a mentor you've been. And I want to publicly acknowledge and express my appreciation to you for that, for being such a beautiful mentor. I really hope you're enjoying this episode. Of the Change Proof podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy of Change Proof, it's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help to utilize the book even more effectively to create practices and rituals and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. So folks, the full show notes will have information about Judy and what she's up to, and of course her websites if you want to check that out yourself, please feel free to do so. And please leave comments. Let us know if you've been following along these decades of beautiful affirmations. And if you've got a favorite, please share. I would love to see some of your favorites. That would be terrific. And as we close out today's show, I just— I want to remind myself, and Judy and I were talking about this earlier, it's so important that we have our own reminders. And part of how we serve the world, as in reminding ourselves how to live good lives, how to live productive, happy, healthy lives. And so this is the reminder. We wait. First of all, we're going to wake up. That's the first thing I want to do is wake up. And I'll piggyback what you said earlier, Judy, that I believe that part of our role here is just to wake up a little more tomorrow than we are today. If we could do that, if all of us could just do that, then we'll all hit our own little tipping point. We don't have to be those walking wounded. To some extent, I think we all are a little bit. We've all got our wounds, and we do best with what we've got. So the question is, are you going to wake up tomorrow? Judy, I'm going to ask you that question I always ask my guests. Are you going to wake up tomorrow?

Yes, I'm going to wake up tomorrow, and it'll be the best I can be for that moment. And I know I can do something about it if I wanted a higher vibration. And I know what to do. And sometimes I do that, and sometimes I don't. And I just have to surrender and let it be okay either way what I choose for that moment. But I love saying in the morning when I wake up, I wonder what miracles are coming today? Because it starts the morning with the question. I wonder what miracles are coming today? And no matter if you believe any of them are coming or not, just saying it will cut the energy of going down the rabbit hole and give you a chance to go for those miracles. I wonder what miracles are coming today.

Yeah, you know, it's beautiful. You, you brought up Michael Beckwith, and Reverend Michael was, was a guest on this show a few months ago. We had a wonderful conversation. I love him. He's a terrific man, and he has a waking question as well. So there's a lot of Really interesting synergies that just happened. And his question, if I got it right, if I remember it correctly, is, what's my assignment today? He asks— that's his question to God. What's my assignment? Share with me what's my assignment. So that question, first question that we ask ourselves— and the curious thing about questions, I don't know if you buy this or not, but my view of it is it has a relationship like cause and effect. You can't ask a question and not get an answer.

Right.

I never know what the timing is to the answer, when we're going to get the answer, but I just don't believe you ask a question and don't get an answer. So when you ask a question like, wow, I wonder what miracles are coming today? Holy smokes, you're going to get an answer to that question. It's just a question. Yeah. And Michael's question, what's my assignment today? And my question, à la the TED Talk, is the question of, what if I decided to love my life no matter what? No matter what, what would it look like? What could it feel like if I just decided? I'm going to love my life right now, no matter what. So I'm waking up and putting my feet on the floor. The coffee's not made yet, or I'm running late, or I've got all these stress things going on in my life at this moment, whatever it is. But if you took that 10 seconds to pause and just ask that question, and it doesn't have to be that question. I proposed, that was my proposal. Well, what if I decide to love my life no matter what? Now, here's another question. What miracles are coming today? It's just like 10 seconds. That's all it takes, right, Judy?

Exactly. Exactly. It becomes a habit. You don't even have to remember it anymore. It just becomes a habit. And then, you know, once it becomes a habit, that it's your go-to thought, you got it. You're ready to fly.

I love it. Good job, God. Way cool. Judy, I have so enjoyed this, and you're, you're just amazing. Thank you for being a guest on the show. I've enjoyed it too.

Thanks for asking.

Way cool. Everybody, I love what we did today. Hope you love it as well. Let us know your thoughts either way. We'd love the feedback and, well, we'll see you soon. Ciao for now, everyone.

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