THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Miriam Schulman:
Well, hello. This is your host, Artist Miriam Shul man, and you’re listening to episode 118 of The Inspiration Place Podcast. And I am so grateful that you’re here. Today, we’re talking all about the intersection between spirituality and politics and why they’re mutually exclusive. I have no idea where this conversation is going to go, but to help me out, I have a wonderful guest. But before we get there, I wanted to make sure you knew I’m taking applications for my Artist Incubator Mastermind for 2021.
If you’re lacking a solid strategy or a winning mindset, or maybe you’re disappointed with your current art sales, I can help you. If you’ve been listening to my podcast and you’ve found my tips helpful, maybe it’s time to take the next logical step and work with me on a deeper level. The Incubator Program is for professional and emerging artists who want to sell their art or create online art classes. If you’re ready to invest in your art career and join a dynamic community of artists who are doing the same thing, please go to Schulmanart.com/biz, as in B-I-Z, to apply. There’s no fee or commitment to apply, and those who qualify to get on Zoom with me will actually get a personalized artists profit plan for 2021. You don’t want to miss out on that. Go to Schulmanart.com/biz.
Okay. Now back to the show. Today’s guest is a certified medium, Reiki master and teacher, spiritual mentor, speaker, and writer. She teaches spiritually ambitious souls how to connect to their intuition and spirit guides and live their life purpose in abundance, whether it’s through starting their own business or advancing in the corporate world. She serves community of over 30,000 spiritually ambitious individuals through her online program and weekly spiritual videos. Through her signature framework for intuitive languages, she helps her students understand how to receive their intuitive guidance so they can make aligned decisions toward their life purpose.
Our guest has been a speaker for Amy Porterfield, Lily Dale, and the Illuminate Film Festival. Her writing has been published in OMTimes Magazine, and she’s a regular contributor for Screw the nine to five. Today’s guest resides in Arizona. Please welcome to The Inspiration Place, Whitney McNeill.
Whitney McNeill:
Hey, Miriam. How are you? Thanks for having me.
Miriam Schulman:
Sure. Just as I was introducing you, my phone started buzzing. I was like I better turn that off.
Whitney McNeill:
Oh, no. Yeah. It’s been one of those weeks.
Miriam Schulman:
Yes, it has-
Whitney McNeill:
I’m looking right now. There’s actually landscapers outside, and I’m like, please, please be quiet.
Miriam Schulman:
… My podcast editor was like, “Yeah, well there was like this weird banging noise happening in the background that I tried to edit out.” I was like, “Oh, yeah, I know what that was. Oh, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Whitney McNeill:
I get it. I understand. Right as you un-muted they came around the corner. I’m like, “All right, come on spirit guides.” It’s going to be okay.
Miriam Schulman:
It’ll be fine. I didn’t prep the way I normally do for this interview. So my listeners don’t know this, and maybe you don’t know this, but normally I can spend up to three hours preparing for an interview. No, I’m serious. Oh, my gosh. I overdo things sometimes. I overthink it. But the reason this interview came to be, and I wouldn’t call it an interview, this podcast discussion, so Whitney and I were discussing spirituality politics, the polarization that’s happening now, and what’s happening on both ends of the spectrum.
And we felt it was really important to come together and have a conversation about it, especially Whitney felt it was important since she teaches spirituality that people aren’t confused with some of the more radical fringe beliefs and what she believes in. And then there were some other issues that we both felt it was important to discuss and bring to the surface. So does that sound like a good introduction about why we’re here?
Whitney McNeill:
That sounds great. I’m sure this is going to flow. We’ve got all this stuff that we were chatting about, and it’s good to just get it out. There’s so much going on right now. I think that the awareness level of where everybody stands, it’s heightened with the political climate. And I think this year has been like a throat chakra year. Everybody’s saying everything that they think. I think we’ve got to get some things out on the table as far as what’s going on. And we’re having a conversation about opinions and what we’re seeing.
And I think the main thing, Miriam, too, is just we need balance. One of the things I talk about is the pendulum swings, right? And so whenever we get into this intense place in our lives, or right now the world, especially the United States, we are seeking balance. And so everything has got to come back into balance, and I think we forget that sometimes. So it’s important that we bring that to the forefront.
Miriam Schulman:
I would even say Whitney, even though us who are in the US feel it’s about us, I have clients who live in Canada who say they feel triggered by this as well.
Whitney McNeill:
Oh, yeah. Definitely. My director of operations is from Canada, and she was telling me the same thing. I know people in Australia, some people over in Europe, and they’re all feeling the energy and it’s affected everyone. And this year has affected people in so many different levels with so many different triggers that have come up.
Miriam Schulman:
I’m going to put some cards out on the table so people don’t have to guess. So Whitney and I are very progressive, you would say, in our political views. Is that how you would-
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah-
Miriam Schulman:
… describe yourself?
Whitney McNeill:
… I would.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. I consider myself very progressive in many of my views, and not everyone in my family agrees with me.
Whitney McNeill:
I know that feeling.
Miriam Schulman:
I have a son who voted the other way, and I have a sister who possibly also voted the other way that I did, who are more conservative. And I know in your family, you have divisions as well. Is that right?
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah. We definitely do, and it’s been really challenging. Just going to be super honest with you, I’m trying to understand their mindset. I think that whenever we come to a place of division, I personally always like to try to understand where the other person’s coming from, but I can’t. And so I still ask, but I still don’t understand it. But my dad, my aunt, they voted the opposite way. My mom and I are very much in the same alignment of being progressive.
And I was like, “Gosh, Mom, you know, how is it that you can be married to somebody that’s totally the opposite? Like how does that work?” My psychology, I’m trying to figure that out. That’s really challenging. So it can be challenging in realizing I think there’s a divide that’s happening in the world, but also just within families, too, and it’s hard.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. So my family right now resembles that show Family Ties with Michael J. Fox? He was this little yuppie Reaganite and his hippie parents. So my husband and I really hippy dippy, and then our son comes in with… He’s always quoting the other side. I was like, oh gosh. Well, it’s important that we talk about this. It’s not really a conversation that we are going to talk today about why we believe these things and not the other things. It’s more about trying to understand where people are coming from. And this is the compassion I have for my son, your father, most likely, my sister, and anybody else who didn’t vote the way I do. It’s not a check all these boxes or check these other boxes. There are certain things that maybe people are passionate about.
So if someone’s very religious, they’re anti-abortion, and that is going to be how they vote. It doesn’t matter what the other boxes are. It’s not if they check these boxes, that means they are this. And if they check those boxes, it means they are something else. What is your thought on that?
Whitney McNeill:
It’s really tough for me. So for instance, one of my family members who did vote for Trump, she is very religious. And so that was one of her main sticking points, right?
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. And then for Jewish people who are pro-Israel, so that’s where my son is coming from and my sister, the Republican policies do favor Israel. So that is where they’re passionate about. So it doesn’t mean that they believe our country should be racist and should support racism, but they have these issues that they feel very strongly about.
Whitney McNeill:
I always would look at the person. Different parties have different beliefs, but I always like to look at the person and their energy and what they’re standing for. What I am coming to understand is that other people have higher priorities to them, and they are more passionate about a certain issue, right-
Miriam Schulman:
Right.
Whitney McNeill:
… than I am passionate about this issue. So it’s just understanding and truly a lesson, I think, in letting go of control and a lesson of letting go of expectation, because we sometimes think that people should think like us. And really, we understand that everyone has different priorities and they have different belief systems. And so it’s truly a lesson of understanding that we can’t control other people’s beliefs, and that we can’t control the expectation. So it’s been a wild ride for sure.
Miriam Schulman:
And now let’s dive in right away. We established are our compassionate sides, too. This is not just for you if you voted the way we did. It’s for you to understand the conversation about really spirituality, because there are some extremists groups who have been, how would you put it, co-opting that language? Or how would you put that, Whitney, what is happening?
Whitney McNeill:
I think that’s a great way. What’s happened is we have these fringe groups or these people that have really gone into conspiracy theories. I could talk about that for so long as far as why I think that they may have gone down that road. But in spirituality, there’s certain phrases that we use. Everything’s energy. And so we talk about, “I resonate with this, I resonate with that.” We might want to talk about the fifth dimension. We might want to talk about ascension, and these are all normal terms as it comes to spirituality.
But what’s happened is, we’ve seen that people who are in this conspiracy realm have also used these terms. And so unfortunately, now people are looking at those terms to then automatically label anyone that uses, “Hey, I resonate with this, or let’s talk about starseeds or something.” They are automatically labeling these people as the crazy, woo-woo, conspiracy people. And I’m like, “No, no, no, no, no, listen, I’m not for conspiracy theories. I’m progressive in my beliefs. But these terms are still utilized in spirituality. They’re normal to utilize in spirituality.”
So it’s an interesting time because it’s almost like people are saying spiritual stuff is bad because all spiritual people are going down this rabbit hole scenario. And I’m like, “No, let’s not label the whole spirituality area that way.”
Miriam Schulman:
No, it’s exactly what we talked about in the beginning is that if somebody votes Republican versus Democrat, it doesn’t mean that they check all the boxes that you might have in your mind of what boxes you’re checking off. And it’s the same thing if you’re talking about somebody who’s spiritual, that it doesn’t mean that they are going to check off these boxes versus those boxes. There’s these intersections.
I have a cousin who is very… I don’t even know what the word is. She’s really out there. I think she’s like in that weird Venn diagram intersection between the very progressive left… She’s in Portland, she’s Harry Krishna, and she’s an anti-vaxxer. So there’s like that weird intersection between people like her and people who are the extreme right. They hold the same beliefs. It’s very interesting how these things sort themselves out.
Whitney McNeill:
It is really wild. I think in the spiritual area with anything, like you said, there’s balance, right? So in the spiritual area, we’ve got to make sure that we have balance. I think some people going down this conspiracy road are… They’re tapping in and understanding the awareness of their own spirit. And so they’re like, “What’s next? What’s more? This is interesting discovering myself, so now there has to be even more.”
And so sometimes spiritual ego comes into play where it’s like, “Ha-ha, I know something you don’t know.” And then they go down this conspiracy road. And then I think, too, there’s a part of understanding that maybe let’s just say Trump would be here to disrupt so that we can actually look at what’s going on in the world and be here to be liked. That doesn’t mean that his mission would be here, though. It would be more so like, “Hey, I recognize you’re a disruptor.” It’s interesting because I think that spiritual people are open and I’m open. I’m a spiritual person and, Miriam, you are, too. And it’s just making sure that what you’re doing is in balance is the key.
Miriam Schulman:
One thing that I wanted to talk to you about that came up when we were talking about having this conversation is the whole idea of not policing our words. And let’s define what we mean by that. What I’m not talking about, I’m not talking about that we should use words that are really egregiously offensive. That’s not what I’m saying. But there are some words that have been, I think, labeled too quickly as being, these are bad words and you shouldn’t use them. Do you know what I’m talking about, Whitney-
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah. Definitely-
Miriam Schulman:
… Can you the same one that?
Whitney McNeill:
… Yeah. You’re talking about the spiritual terms and that sort of-
Miriam Schulman:
Well, I’m talking about all of it, but since the topic of spirituality, can you enlighten me with what those terms are that are being-
Whitney McNeill:
… They’re being used, yeah.
Miriam Schulman:
… But I think it was the light-
Whitney McNeill:
Lightworker. Lightworkers-
Miriam Schulman:
… Lightworker-
Whitney McNeill:
… one.
Miriam Schulman:
… That was one. And there-
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah, that’s one-
Miriam Schulman:
… was another one-
Whitney McNeill:
… Lightworker, there’s starseed, there’s ascension, symptoms. Awakening is a big one. Almost like if somebody is using the word awakening, runaway from them, because they must be going down the conspiracy road. And it’s really important that, I think, everyone be who they are and be authentic. And knowing that lightworker and starseed and ascension symptoms and the awakening, those don’t mean anything as far as political views. They don’t. They’re just in the spirituality area, and they’re really valid terms.
So whenever somebody goes into their intuition to awaken that spiritual part of themselves, it is called an awakening. We start to understand, oh, I’m here for a purpose. I’m here for more. When we talk about starseed, I don’t really talk about it a lot, but I have friends that do that talk about different planetary systems. When you’re talking about ascension symptoms, it’s really raising your vibration. And that’s another one, Miriam, is anybody talks about raising their vibration, be careful. And-
Miriam Schulman:
… I talk about it all the time.
Whitney McNeill:
… Exactly. And resonate, like the word I resonate with this or that, that is really just a normal term because everything’s energy. So I resonate with a certain vibration or I don’t. It’s really important that we don’t start to put a stigma on these words, because it’s how people understand what they’re going through. And it has nothing to do with the political beliefs at all.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. I really appreciate that. There is the idea of manifesting versus white privilege.
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah. I think that’s a great topic. Let’s talk about universal law. So when we teach spiritual principles and universal law, universal law, spiritual principles, that’s like if we talk about it, you can say from God or from the universe. The universe and God, they don’t discriminate. So everyone can utilize spiritual principles, no matter what race they are. But what I will say is people discriminate. So everyone has their own set of challenges, their own set of blocks. And so really understanding where everyone’s at is different.
Somebody who has more privilege, they might understand they’re manifesting and feeling like it’s easier versus someone who has had some blocks. They feel like they’re have blocks. They might feel they don’t have the privilege. And so they might have a different set of circumstances that they’re going to start at a different level or be in a different place.
So it’s, I think, really important that we acknowledge where everyone’s at and we understand that everybody comes from a different place. And some spiritual teachers, I think, don’t believe in privilege. They don’t believe in racism, and they don’t think it exists. They think it’s just part of a made up belief. And I’m like, “No, it really does exist, unfortunately. People actually think this.” And so understanding that spiritual laws still apply to everybody, and they still work with everyone, but I think it is important that we look at what’s really going on in the world. I think the best way we can manifest is to be grounded, Miriam. And part of that grounding is looking on and seeing what’s going on in your world and not just living in the spiritual realm all day long.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s really important. And just so our listeners are a hundred percent clear, if this is the first episode you’ve listened of mine and you don’t know, I have had more than one conversation about anti-racism work. I do believe it’s important. It’s something that we all have, inherent racist bias, including people who are Black. So Jewish people have some antisemitic biases as well. We have been socialized to have certain biases with all the isms, and that’s something we have to continue to work on. That’s part of being a woman. What the work is, is shedding our own sexist beliefs about ourselves. You agree with that, Whitney. That’s how we first became friends was that-
Whitney McNeill:
I know-
Miriam Schulman:
… conversation.
Whitney McNeill:
… Definitely. We’ve been conditioned, and we don’t even know it sometimes. It’s just unconscious, society we grew up with, our family we grew up with, how we were shaped and formed. And even people will walk around and say they’re not racist. And it’s like, “Well, you don’t understand that there’s a conditioning in there that is most likely… Yeah. You are somewhere under there.” It’s something that I think that we all need to work on a hundred percent.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. I was called out a few months ago. I had something that was very ageist in my advertising. I said, “Oh, even a 75 year old can do this.” And a 75 year old or 70 something year old, I don’t know how exactly old, she’s like, “Really? Don’t you think that’s a little ageist?” She’s right. I didn’t even realize I was doing it. So we all do it. And it’s not to say that we’re all evil, so it’s not black and white thinking. It’s very nuance thinking that we do have these subtle biases that we need to work on. And not only it’s how we might be inadvertently holding other people back, but it’s also how we hold back ourselves.
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah. Definitely. And looking into opening up our world and all these blocks that we’ve had that we didn’t even realize was there, I think that’s really important for sure.
Miriam Schulman:
So one thing, Whitney, I wanted to dive into as well today, it’s a little bit sticky. So you and I both joined a unnamed Facebook group, and I haven’t really posted in there because I started to feel a little bit uncomfortable with some of the posts. I saw a lot of leaders in our space basically rejecting people who didn’t have the same political views as they do. And you can share where you’re coming from, but where I’m coming from, I’m going to be open about who I am. And I’m okay with people rejecting me because of that, fairly or unfairly. I’m fine with that. I don’t want to hide who I am because I’m afraid somebody might not agree with me. I’m okay with showing it all.
At the same time, I’m not at the place where I want to reject other people because they disagree with that. They disagree with me because they have other points of view. How do you feel about that?
Whitney McNeill:
I had a hard time with it, to be really honest with you. And I’ve come at this place of, I’m going to share my beliefs. I’m going to be more open with who I am and how I think in my political beliefs. But one of the things that I was taught when I was young was like, you never mix politics with business. And I’m like, well, times are different. It’s like, this is how I feel. And so I think the more I do that, the more I’m going to attract more people that are aligned in the same way.
Now as a spiritual person, I’m a teacher, and so I think there’s this healing aspect. And some people out there I think are… You and I had just spoke about they’re raised in a certain way. They’re conditioned to believe a certain way, but they might really be looking for healing.
And so the more that they find who they are, the more that they find more about their spiritual part of themselves, I think that they start to become more open. And so people who are willing to work in unison, I think are great. I think it’s the people that are just going to be really no and cause a ruckus in the community that I have, or if they’re not contributing to inclusivity, if they’re clearly racist or if they’re clearly being harmful to others, then no, I’m not going to work with them. But if they’re open, and they’re willing to come together in that spiritual place, then that’s a different story.
Miriam Schulman:
I see where you’re coming from with that. I want to wrap up soon, even though we could probably talk about this for hours. Did I miss anything, before we start to wrap up?
Whitney McNeill:
Like you said, I think we could talk about it for hours. But I think this is a great. It’s interesting, and I think that anyone out there that’s listening who is in that spiritual place, if they’re struggling with this cancel culture versus should I be open, I think that it’s hard. I think that it’s okay to have a struggle with it. And I think that you have to really tune in to see what’s the best step for you and see what that feels like. I’ve had people that are really in my face with COVID is not real, and you know that racism doesn’t exist. No, I’m not going to-
That’s hard-
… work with you-
Miriam Schulman:
… That’s hard.
Whitney McNeill:
… I am going to cancel you. If you are someone who is really open to exploring maybe some concepts that you weren’t real then I’ll work with you. So I think, Miriam, one of the things I want to say is I can send love to everybody. As a spiritual being, I can love people from afar. But what’s important is to know it doesn’t mean I have to interact with them or let them in my sphere. We all get that personal choice, right?
Miriam Schulman:
Right.
Whitney McNeill:
And so we all have boundaries. And if somebody is sucking your energy, draining your energy, or you don’t feel aligned with it, then that’s your choice to say no. That’s your choice to say yes, too. But it’s this back and forth of I can love you from afar, but I don’t really want to interact with you. Or I don’t feel like we’re going to have any common ground to connect.
Miriam Schulman:
That makes so much sense. Where I draw the line is, like you said, if I’m put into a position where I feel that because of their strong viewpoints, I have to quiet my own. That’s where it’s a problem for me. I don’t want to have to be afraid to say who I vote for to a client because they’re going to be triggered. I’m going to be open about who I am. And if I feel I need to quiet that voice to make them feel comfortable, that’s the problem for me.
I had given some shade after the vice presidential debate. I had posted a watercolor painting of a house fly. Did I tell you this story, Whitney?
Whitney McNeill:
No.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, my God, that caused a shit storm over on my Facebook page. I’ve never had a post go viral, organically go viral. This one did. It was like hundreds of shares, hundreds of comments. People announcing how they’re unfollowing me, unsubscribing, they’re never doing business with me again. How dare I express myself. That’s where I have the problem. Artists should express themselves, all parts of themselves, not just the parts that make you feel comfortable. So that’s where I say like, “If I make you feel uncomfortable, you can leave.”
Whitney McNeill:
A hundred percent, and vice versa, right? And then if you’re feeling uncomfortable, then-
Miriam Schulman:
Then-
Whitney McNeill:
… you can leave.
Miriam Schulman:
… we have to leave or cut somebody loose. All right. So you have a meditation for my listeners, messengerofspirit.com/peace, totally free. You’ll also be able to grab that in the show notes. Can you tell us a little bit more about that meditation?
Whitney McNeill:
Yeah. I created that meditation specifically for finding peace and calm in the chaos. And what happens is we end up watching TV. We’re connecting with people. There’s people that don’t agree with us, right? There’s people that have strong opinions that are different than ours. And what happens is sometimes we feel like we don’t know our own energy anymore. We forget who we are. We’ve been exposed to all this negativity, and we just need to find the peace in the chaos. So that meditation is really specifically to connect in with your own spirits and to find that calm.
Miriam Schulman:
I love that. All right. So I hope everyone takes advantage of that. I know I will, and I’ll be sharing it with my team. My team loves when I find meditations for them. They’re really into it. Okay.
Whitney McNeill:
Oh, good.
Miriam Schulman:
Yeah. All right. So I’m including links to everything. They’re going to be in the show notes, Schulmanart.com/118. Please check out the Artist Incubator. It’s my private coaching program for professional and emerging artists who want to take their art business to the next level. It is by application only. To apply, go to Schulmanart.com/biz. If you qualify for a free call with me, I will help you design your personalized artists profit plan for 2021. And we’ll discuss the steps you need to take to reach your goals. Then if you’re a good fit for the program, we’ll talk about the program during the call. All right, Whitney, do you have any last words for my listeners before we call this podcast complete?
Whitney McNeill:
I think just giving yourself that flexibility and freedom in your life to express yourself and to create healthy boundaries around who you feel is an addition to your energy and who you feel like is a drain your energy. And knowing that saying no is okay. And that you can still have love for people, but you do not have to allow your energy to be drained by others. That’s just a really big thing. And with all that, Miriam, I think the best thing that we can do is really everyday work for balance in our life. That’s really where it’s all going to come back down to is balance.
Miriam Schulman:
All right. Whitney, thank you so much again for joining me on this very important conversation. I really appreciate you being here.
Whitney McNeill:
Thank you so much for having me.
Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place Podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/Schulmanart, on Instagram @Schulmanart, and of course on Schulmanart.com.
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