PR Judy | Doing Multiple Pivots

 

We all have different callings in this world. All we need is to tap into the divine energy within us to take us there. Journeying across multiple pivots in her life that has taken her to inspire countless others by doing so is Judy Whitcraft. After teaching elementary school for five years, Judy pivoted into opening her own tumbling and dance studio that has a legacy of over 1,000 children. She then became a licensed prayer practitioner for seventeen years, wrote in a distribution list called “Namaste” for eighteen years, and later went on to become an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner. Pouring out inspiring wisdom about doing multiple pivots, Judy talks about God, letting go of guilt, and getting to a better life.

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Encounters With The Divine Across Multiple Pivots with Judy Whitcraft

We took a little break. I feel so great to be back, especially to reemerge and get back to doing what I love and to be with somebody that I’ve been in admiration of for a long time. Let’s go back to my big pivot that I wrote the book about was my days as a lawyer and not feeling great about my life, and deciding, “I don’t know how long I can continue to do this without turning into a permanently miserable human being.” I was searching. I didn’t know what guidance or where to get it from. I didn’t know if I’m supposed to go hire a psychologist, lie on the couch or go to Bali or Fiji and meditate. I didn’t know what to do. Somehow, I ran across this email and it had a beautiful name, namaste. Randi, I and the kids were living in New Jersey.

I didn’t think I even had a concept of what namaste was. I had done yoga. I was a meditator. I was a hardcore city kid. This was a new word for me. I open up this email and there was what I’ll call an affirmation. Maybe that wasn’t the technical term for what it was. It felt like a poem and it was this beautiful collection of words. It touched me in ways that I couldn’t even articulate at that time, but I would say it was reaching me in a place I would call my soul. It was certainly in my heart. I had my heart open as I was reading it, but it was touching even a deeper place than that. I wanted to see these emails so I subscribed. Back then I was like, “I subscribed to something. I’m a member.”

I was getting these emails delivered and I don’t remember if they were daily or weekly, but I was getting these affirmations. The person who was behind this and was creating, I suppose even downloading what it was that I was reading is a woman by the name of Judy Whitcraft. I’ve been a fan of hers. Those affirmations with things that we shared with our kids. Our oldest daughter, Chelsea, was the one that felt the same way as I did. She was the one reading those. We were sharing them with each other and with other family members, even members of our community when we started to do the work that we’re doing. I feel incredibly blessed, lucky, and fortunate to have Judy on the show and to be able to share what I feel about you. Welcome to the show, Judy.

I did not know that story. This is the first time I’ve known that story too. I’ll get rid of my ego-mind and come back to you knowing that the only thing that was always working through me is the divine energy. Whatever anybody wants to call it universal energy, God or spirit. It’s all the same for me and it was working through me. The things that you were reading, I never considered them poetry because I’m not a poet. I’m not a writer. I was writing affirmative prayers that spoke to me but I did it in a practical way. I don’t use a lot of flowery words. It touched your soul because there were words that made sense to you. Whenever I write or do any affirmative prayer, it’s about the person and what they’re living. Everybody has the same thing they want. What you teach is to love your life. That’s all anybody wants. They look at it in different ways.

I hear this a lot and I’ve said it many times. We hear what we’re meant to hear at the time that we’re meant to hear it. Those words were perfect for me in those moments. Over the years, I come to admire so deeply how rich all those affirmations are and how different they are. There are themes and there are commonalities. There are things that you could see how they relate to one another, but they’re also independently beautiful. Whatever size it was where we began, we’re about the double it. It’s like walking through a field of flowers and at a glance they’re all similarly beautiful.

Upon deeper examination, if you look at each one of those flowers, they’re all unique and incredibly beautiful in their own way. Not just carbon copies of each other and those are the affirmations that you wrote for so long. You’re a pivoter in sending us some information. I read a bit about you. I’d love for you to share a bit of your history because in many ways a conventional business and entrepreneurial background. I would love for our audience to know what led you through your life as a person that ultimately ended up being inspired to share those affirmations. Take us back as far as you want. You can take us back to birth if you’d like.

That’s a good place to start because at birth 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. The lady had gotten pregnant with me, my accident and it could not wait for nobody to know and get rid of me. I came into this world with her energy of “Hurry up. We’ve got to get rid of her.” Some people don’t understand that when they come into the world, they already have whatever energy that they absorbed from their surroundings while they’re in utero. I actually work with people all the time with that and it’s super interesting because they remember. I’ve worked on that a lot to clear that energy. I’m given to these parents that are like angels. Wonderful people that taught me that I was special, that I was loved and my mother gave me all that she didn’t have when she was a kid, which has its own set of problems. It’s way better than most anybody else I know.

I ended up being an only child, which is another little thing in there. The thing they taught me was that everybody is always nice to me. That’s what I learned as a child. 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. We had more than enough money to get by, but by no means wealthy. I always learned that there was enough. If we were missing something, my dad will make something happen and it’d be okay. I never knew about it anyway, but I always had this concept of we’re all one. I’m not sure why that’s so maybe because I was an only child and very protected. I’ve always liked everybody. Even if they didn’t like me, they were nice to me. That’s a gift to grow up knowing that. There’s enough and everybody’s always nice to me.

A lot of people grow up and they don’t feel that at all.

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. I graduated from Kansas University back in the ‘60s.

Everybody want the same things - to love their life. We all just look at it in different ways. Share on X

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

It was right before the crazy time. I graduated right about time. All the riots in the streets and Vietnam exploded and before drugs exploded. I was never around that and I’m grateful. I didn’t have to make choices then like that. I was a school teacher for five years and decided that the public school system was not creative enough for me. I had gotten married by then and we wanted to have kids. We moved farther out and after my first son was born, the women in my neighborhood had found out that I had this training, tumbling and dance. They said, “Why don’t you have all the little kids in the neighborhood come down and you can teach all the little girls to do cartwheels?”

I said okay. It was the biggest pivot of my life and it wasn’t my idea. That’s before I believed in any divine source. I was out there thinking I had to do it all by myself. If anybody talked to me about God, get away from me. That’s stupid, but the good thing is God didn’t care. The tumbling studio in my home is attached to the south side of my home in these huge garages for 43 years. I probably had tens of thousands of kids and parents. They came through in those 43 years. That became my identity. That became the family I never had growing up being an only child. They’re still my family. The divine said, “Here you go, try this.”

You’re running a business, an entrepreneur, a mom and a wife. You’ve got both a few things going on in your life. I think a lot of people, it’s not an unusual thing. It’s not terribly novel or new thing, but back then it was. There was another email I remember coming called Notes from the Universe. Yours came in and namaste. What’s the origin story for your affirmation email?

When I was turning 50-years-old, I realized that I didn’t know everything and it wasn’t working. The studio was working fine, but my relationships were not. My chiropractor said, “I want you to come to this landmark education introduction.” I said, “I need help.” From what he said I wish it’s going to help me. I got into that and it opened my mind to spirituality. Even the landmark form is not about spirituality. They don’t ever talk about it. It opened my mind that I didn’t know everything. That led to set up for a spiritual living, which is non-denominational, Ernest Holmes teaching, The Science of Mind. I could wrap my mind around that because that was scientific and I loved it. I couldn’t get enough of it because I knew it was my answer. They teach affirmative prayer. I started taking classes immediately and they taught me to do the five-step affirmative prayer. I started writing them every night. I sent them to my friends and they send it to their friends. Another thing is that it wasn’t even my idea.

There’s a theme that is appearing.

It helped move things along faster once I believed that the divine was helping me and started communicating with that energetic power that’s always been there.

Did things spin up and got better the moment you realize that the universe was working in your favor? You start writing these for your friends and they start sharing them with their friends. What happens from there?

At first, I was writing them every day and sending them out every day. I did that for years, but it was because I needed it. I was sending it out and getting good responses. That felt good but that’s not why I was doing it. I felt 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. 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. It only helped me by doing that. You reading it and saying I like it and getting other people to say to that they like it. It wasn’t like a Facebook like thing. That kept me going because it’s like, “People still like this and I still like doing it.” There came a time that I thought that seven days a week is a lot and this is after years. I decided, “I’m not going to do weekends.” That went along for several more years, five times a week. At one point in time I said, “I need to do this once a week.”

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. Nobody ever told me that. I went to one day a week and I’d send it out on Monday night. I did that for another ten years. One night I said, “I’m not going to do it.” I take breaks before being out of town on vacation, but just for a week. The next week I said, “I’m not going to do it either.” The third week I said, “I think I’m done. I’m complete.” That’s all there was to it. There was no plan ahead at all. I wrote a note to everybody that said, “This is what happened. I decided I’m done. Thank you for wanting these to come your email for all these years.” I got several people back saying thank you including you. That’s when I discovered you. I don’t know who these people are out there and I looked you up and found a TED Talk that you’d done. I’m like, “He likes me.” It was good feedback that I’ve helped people. People did like it.

PR Judy | Doing Multiple Pivots

The Science of Mind

I don’t know if it’s an irony, mystery or one of these about life that is enigmatic. We have such a bigger influence on others than we imagined. Maybe that’s a good thing that our egos aren’t able to encompass the full width and breadth of our influence. Sometimes our influence can be pretty negative too. I won’t say that about you. I know my own life. I’ve heard people, I’ve done things and I would think the ripple effect of that. I wouldn’t feel great about it if I knew the full depths of it. On the other side as well, and I hope that the other side is quite a bit bigger. 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 asked me, “Why is it that you love your life?” I know that was a great question because not everybody asks me that. If you’re like, “I love my life.” Not everybody is going to stand up and go, “Why do you love your life?” Even though I wish people would do that and I was so happy you did that. You didn’t say it that way, it was like curious because it reminds me of something that I want to be reminded of, which is my connection to spirit and my creator. If it’s okay, I want to talk God with you because I never talk about God with anybody other than a few very close friends.

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. Once we pass out of these physical bodies, I have my own ideas of what happens then. I don’t know because I haven’t been there yet. God for me is the universal energy of goodness and there are spiritual laws that balance all this. This isn’t me saying it because I know. It is because this is what I’ve been taught through The Science of Mind. This is what I believe because it makes sense to me that if this was all energy, the energy is going to balance. 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. 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, cause and effect. 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.

Law of Attraction, all those things.

When inspired to write what must be thousands, I can’t even imagine. Statistically speaking, do you have any idea how many affirmations you’ve 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. I still have quite a few people keep saying, “Are you going to do a book?” I’m going, “Why?” The only reason I can think of why is for a legacy from my two granddaughters. They both know this stuff too.

I would love to see you do a book. I’ll make a referral to somebody that if you have any interest, you can talk too about this.

God is the universal energy of goodness. Share on X

I don’t have any interest in it. It sounds like a lot of work to me.

You’ve already done all the work. That’s the beauty of it. We have our favorites.

I will meditate on it.

Chelsea, our oldest daughter and I were talking about this. We have affirmations of yours that we’ve got in books and places where we printed it but not every one of them. We put them on a wall or on a Post-it thing or stuck it in a book. We all have our favorites. I would say that among your fans because you are a complete and total rock star. If ever anybody deserves rock-star status, it is you. I would say that for the people that did follow for years, even decades, they’ve probably got their top ten or something along those lines.

You’re probably right. I know some people have said, “I’ve got a folder of my favorites.”

Do you have a favorite?

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

You were writing those affirmations as a reminder for yourself to stay on that path, being able to release things and let go of things as well. Shame and guilt are terrible things to hang on to. They’re very heavy energy.

Michael Beckwith said, “Guilt always leads to punishment.” When you think about it, you’re guilty in court, you go to prison. When you put guilt on yourself, you’re going to punish yourself. You’re going to put yourself in your own prison. It’s such an easy concept. Once they understand that they can wrap their mind around, “Maybe I’ll release this guilt and shame.” Whereas before they felt guilty that they couldn’t release it, “I did do that.” Yes, but that was long ago and it’s still messing your life up. You’ve already said you’re sorry. Do you do that anymore? “No, I wouldn’t do that again.” We need to release the guilt and that’s what I do is work with people to do that. I’m not putting in a plug for myself on your show because I have plenty of people to work with. I’m saying it because people need to know this stuff. Until they do, they’ll hold onto it and they don’t know. They don’t do it differently. They try hard.

I don’t want to call it a secret because I know there’s no easy road to these kinds of things. It’s vigilance. It is a daily work that we have to do. Either we’re putting our hands in the soil and tilling and pulling the weeds in our minds each day or we’re not. I don’t know that there’s an easy answer, but is there something that you found after all this time of working with people and the work you’ve done on yourself that is a bit of a hack? A way for people to release or let go of things that might make it easier than it is for them at the moment?

PR Judy | Doing Multiple Pivots

Doing Multiple Pivots: If you stay in blaming, complaining, and playing the victim, you’re not going to get to a better life.

 

I’m sure a lot of people who are reading this have done work on themselves as probably people have gone through the landmark, had been to form and to all these things and yet they’re still holding onto some resentment from when they were thirteen years old or when they were 28 and they hurt somebody. I’m putting you on the spot. Let’s pretend that everybody that’s reading this is sitting there in front of you and is your client, they’re holding onto something that feels pretty iffy. Michael Beckwith said, “Guilt leads to punishment.” They’ve got this guilt. What do you tell them, Judy?

The guilt that they have did not start in 2019. It started way back when. Maybe like mine, a lot started in utero or kindergarten, first grade. How do you hold them accountable? They were doing the best they could. They didn’t know, even if it was something that was bad like you cheated in your marriage or you killed somebody. Sometimes it doesn’t do any good to hold onto that guilt because you’re not that now. I always say, “Would you do that now?” They say, “No.” Why are you still holding onto it? You have to go back and help those younger selves. It’s not like self-love. It’s love for that younger self because you ask people, “How do you feel about what you did as a teenager? What they did to you as a teenager and how you reacted? How do you feel about how they were bullying you?”

They know it and feel it like that, that’s not in 2019. That’s many years ago in high school. You have to go back and help that high schooler. You have to go back and help that one-year-old, two-year-old, three-year-old. That three-year-old that was an only child until that new baby came in and all of a sudden mom is not having all the attention on you. You’re wondering what happened even though nothing happened. The new baby is wondering why their big sister always hated them. You have all this stuff going on, these dynamics that we don’t understand growing up, not even as adults. My magic thing is to go back and help those younger selves. If you want to hack in the moment, what to do is you appreciate everything. That’s what you say. 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 an advertisement for their lives.

I’ve done this a few times. It’s so moving to see the energy that you’ve got for what you do. This is why you’ve helped so many people because you embody it. You’re living it. It’s in the cells of your being. Those cells were formed long before your major emergence into the world. I feel incredibly grateful for you. 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. You do the same thing. You want everybody to have a hack to a better life. If you stay in blaming, complaining and playing the victim, you’re not going to get there. The people that are there, they’re probably not paying any attention to us.

It’s our own little drama. We make our drama so important in so many ways.

Dr. Christopher Michaels, at Center for Spiritual Living who’s my teacher from the beginning 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, “They’re not awake. They’re not aware. They don’t know. They know something matter, but they’re not there. They’re not ready to wake up. If you try to wake up the walking wounded, you’re going to piss them off.”

It could get dangerous too. We’ve all seen that.

What you can do, you can be the example, but don’t go, “I can help you. You need help.” No. If they’re not ready to wake up, they’re just going to beat themselves. If they’re ready then, “Here I am. What do you want to know?” If they give me an opening and ask me like you did, what do you want to know?

Will you say what your website is?

When you put guilt on yourself, you're punishing yourself. Share on X

It’s my name, JudyWhitcraft.com. Some people are going, “Did she say witchcraft?” It’s not witchcraft, but people think that. Did they remember my name? I didn’t pick that one either. Good job, God.

This is going to be my new mantra. I have enjoyed this conversation more than I could tell you. I’m looking forward to the next chapter, the next installment and everything that’s going on. I realized what a mentor you’ve been. I want to publicly acknowledge and express my appreciation to you for that.

It’s my pleasure.

You’re a beautiful mentor. We will have information about Judy and what she’s up to. The website, if you want to check that out yourself, please feel free to do so. Please leave comments. Let us know if you’ve been following along these decades of beautiful affirmations. If you’ve got a favorite, please share. I would love to see some of your favorites. As we close out this, I want to remind myself, it’s so important that we have our own reminders. Part of how we serve the world, as in reminding ourselves how to live good lives, live productive, happy and healthy lives. The first thing I want to do is wake up. I’ll piggyback what you said. I believe that part of our role here is to wake up a little more tomorrow than we are today. If all of us could do that, then we’ll all hit our own little tipping point. You 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. I’m going to ask you that question I always ask my guest. Are you going to wake up tomorrow?

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

You brought up Michael Beckwith. Reverend Michael was a guest on this show. We had a wonderful conversation. I loved him. He’s a terrific man and he has a waking question as well. There are a lot of interesting synergies that happened. His question is, “What’s my assignment?” Share with me what’s my assignment. That first question that we ask ourselves. 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. I never know what the timing is to the answer when we’re going to get the answer. I don’t believe you ask a question and don’t get an answer.

When you ask a question like, “I wonder what miracles are coming.” You’re going to get an answer to that question. In my question, the TED Talk is the question of, “What could it feel like if I decided I’m going to love my life no matter what?” I’m waking up and putting my feet on the floor, the coffee’s not made yet, or I’m running late, I’ve got all these stressful things going on in my life. If you took that ten seconds to pause and ask that question. It doesn’t have to be that question. I propose that was my proposal. What if I decided to love my life no matter what?

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

I enjoyed this and you’re amazing. Thank you for being a guest.

I’ve enjoyed it too. Thanks for asking.

I love what we did. I hope you love it as well. Let us know your thoughts either way. We’d love the feedback and we’ll see you next time.

 

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About Judy Whitcraft

PR Judy | Doing Multiple PivotsJudy graduated from Kansas University, and her first big pivot point was after teaching elementary school for 5 years, she “retired” and was led to open her own tumbling and dance studio which was successful for 41 years. Judy says her proudest accomplishment (other than her 2 children and 2 grandchildren) is the legacy of over 1,000 children feeling more confident and respectful of others because they attended her tumbling and dance studio.

Another of Judy’s pivot points was becoming open to spirituality and finding Center for Spiritual Living KC where she has been a licensed prayer practitioner for 17 years. She wrote an affirmative prayer and sent it to a distribution list called “Namaste” for 18 years, which is how Adam knows her. Judy has also been an EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) practitioner for 15 years working with clients all over the US and beyond. As a new era seems to be dawning, Judy wonders what magic might be next.