The Gratitude Effect: Building a Resilient Life with Krista Ford

Unlock the powerful secrets of strength and resilience with Krista Ford, a professional powerlifter and the pioneering first Black female bobsledder. In this episode, Krista shares her awe-inspiring journey, from breaking barriers in sports to launching her own successful strength training company. Dive into her debut book, "Krista's Promise," a self-help spiritual memoir that underscores our interconnectedness and the transformative power of perseverance. You’ll also get a sneak peek into the themes of my upcoming book, "Overcome Yourself," and learn how to transform perceived weaknesses into your greatest strengths. Together, Krista and I unravel the significance of the law of attraction and the vital need to distance ourselves from negativity to uplift our lives.

Embrace the transformative power of gratitude and intuition as Krista and I explore the importance of intentional living. Discover how surrounding yourself with high-vibration individuals can profoundly impact your decision-making and overall well-being. Reflect on the urgency of pursuing your goals now, in light of life’s unpredictability, and learn how daily gratitude practice can reshape your mindset. We delve into the principles laid out in Rhonda Byrne's "The Secret" and discuss how consistent gratitude can build resilience, drawing a powerful metaphor from Michael Jordan's free throw practice. Tune in for an episode that promises not just to inspire, but to equip you with actionable tools for a more purposeful and empowered life.

Chapters

• 0:02 Strength Training, Powerlifting and Spiritual Memoir
• 7:21 Gratitude and Instincts in Alignment
• 15:38 The Power of Gratitude and Manifestation

Transcript

Nicole Tuxbury: 0:02

Hello there and welcome back to another episode of Overcome Yourself, the podcast. As you know, my name is Nicole and I'm so excited to be here today with Krista Ford. So, krista, take it away. Tell us a little bit about you and about your business.

Krista Ford: 0:19

Okay, so my name is Krista Ford. I'm a professional athlete still, am still competing in my sport of powerlifting, 40-something years later now. I'm also a pioneer in another sport. I was the first Black female to ever bobsled in the whole history of the sport, so I got a little bragging rights there. I'm the first and I am still a pioneer of that sport. I'm a first and I am still a pioneer of that sport. I'm a first time author. Now I have a book coming out in a couple of weeks.

Krista Ford: 0:53

My business is I have a strength training company business as well that goes according to what I do. So I'm one of the strongest women in the world in my sport. So I have a company that kind of offsets that. So I just train athletes and other people just how to get stronger in life, no matter what the age or anything with that. So that's my company and that's what I do. So I've been an athlete my whole life. I still am, I'm still competing, I still do my love and my passion and that's kind of where I'm at in life right now.

Nicole Tuxbury: 1:30

So oh, yeah, tell me more about your book.

Krista Ford: 1:40

Sorry about that more about your book. Sorry about that. Okay, all right. So my book is called Krista's Promise and it is a self-help spiritual memoir. It is all about God really, it is my vessel and telling my story, but it is all in the in the book. I'm basically giving the message out here that we're all innately connected together as humans walking on this earth and then with all of us, we are connected to our creator, god in the universe and all the energy in the universe and whatnot. So that's what the book is. It's really my life story. My life isn't over yet.

Krista Ford: 2:24

So, of course, I believe there's going to be a series of books coming behind this one, but this is my first and I'm really excited about it because I cannot wait for the world to know what I've been knowing all along, and that's that we all have purpose here in life. That's what this book is really talking about. We all have purpose in life. We just got to figure out what this book is really talking about. We all have purpose in life. We just got to figure out what it is, find our passion, find our purpose and start living the best life that we can while we are here, because time is not refundable whatsoever.

Krista Ford: 2:57

So we need to make the best of it as we're here and just really giving everybody a good message that you can do and be and have anything you want in life. You just got to go for it and you got to keep moving and you got to get intentional and you got to level yourself up and you got to. You just got to ask and you got to start working and getting toward it and once you get it, it'll come in life. And that's what another thing is Just. The whole book is just talking about don't ever, ever, ever give up in life Period. I don't care what you're going through, I don't care what you've been through, I don't care where you came out of. Don't ever give up and that your dreams and everything can be a reality in your life. It's all in the pure and how you think and how you feel in your heart. That's really all it is to it.

Nicole Tuxbury: 3:41

So that is amazing. Tell me the name of the book again.

Krista Ford: 3:45

Christus promise is my name and it was a promise to God. Yeah, so you got to get the book to see what the promise is. But I'm just telling you it was a promise that I made to God and he actually well, he came through on his end of the bargain already.

Nicole Tuxbury: 4:07

So yeah, so it's called Christmas. Oh that's, that is amazing. So I totally understand. I have a book coming out soon as well. I feel like a lot of the themes you mentioned are in alignment with what I'm talking about as well. The name of my book is Overcome Yourself, and one of the things I talk about is how the thing that I thought, the things that I thought were my greatest weaknesses, the things that everyone told me were my greatest weaknesses, were actually my superpowers in disguise, and I just had to. We choose to perceive it. So can you talk to me a little bit about that?

Krista Ford: 4:56

You're spot on. That's exactly how I live my life every day. I live my life according to the 12 laws of the universe. One of them is a big one is the law of attraction. That is something I have learned a while back, and basically, what you think about in life, you bring about. I am definitely on the same page with you on that one, because it's all up to us what we do, how we treat people, how we want to be treated and how we look at life and what do we want to do here. And so I totally agree with you 100% on that, and that is the way I live.

Krista Ford: 5:37

I live on a very high level now. I vibrate way up here now. I vibrate way up here now. I draw to me people who live up here now, and you'll notice that what you just said to me is confirmation to one huge thing when you find yourself in a spot where you're trying to do better for you, there is always toxic people around you that you never thought were as toxic until you start trying to come up a little bit, come up a little bit, come up a little bit, especially in your mind and your spirit and your heart, and then I have learned the hard way on that one that some of the closest people to you are the ones you got to let go of at a point when you start vibrating on a much, much higher level, energetic wise you know.

Nicole Tuxbury: 6:30

So I actually proved that mathematically in my book and I actually showed scientifically how that is a hundred percent correct. Yeah, there's like a chart and everything that I made, but you know, what.

Krista Ford: 6:44

I think the best way to help people and to let our stories resonate with people out here in the world is by experiencing it. So experience is the best teacher here. So I'm a lot like you in this sense that we have put together a message because we are experiencing or have experienced it before, and I think that that helps us to be the best teachers out here. Anybody who has gone through it can preach about it later and say don't do yes, go go left, go right, do whatever. And also, I found this one huge thing according to my memoir and how I live my life, I have learned how to go with my God gut anymore, my instincts, something my grandmother told me. It's in the book too.

Krista Ford: 7:38

My grandmother used to always tell me go with your first instincts. They're always, always right, and she was right. And I put a lot of that to the test, kind of like what you just said, mathematically putting something together to prove a point. I did that too as well in my life. I have and I continue to live that way. So if my gut tells me go left, right, I need to go left, because if I go right which 99% of the time I used to do. I used to go right, even though my mind was telling me and my heart would say go left. I was always go that way and it was always something wrong. Whether that accident was on the road or whatever, something was always not right with the way.

Krista Ford: 8:20

I was thinking about after. So I believe we need to go with our instincts and be intentional in our desires in life. And you're right. And once you start leveling up and vibrating up and stuff starts manifesting like crazy in your life that includes old people out, new people in that are supposed to be on your journey with you and you have all this like-mindedness and kindred spirits. Everybody is on the same page. Everybody's energy level is on the same right one. Versus these other folks, a lot of times you start to see them for who they really are, even if you've been friends with them for decades which I had been before and I had to let them go.

Nicole Tuxbury: 9:06

Well, you start noticing patterns in language and actions and then, as we raise our homeostasis I was just talking about this the other day some things just are not acceptable to us anymore, and it's really hard to sit there and listen to people make excuses, and then you're like well, but what about this? To sit there and listen to people make excuses, and then you're like, well, but what about this? And they are so set in their excuses they get mad at you for offering solutions, right, and so it's like you know what I that's not, that's not me Like you know, like I can't sit here and watch you be miserable, like, if that's what you want to do, that's great, but I know there's a solution here and you just don't want to see it, so, anyway. So what I was going to say is as far as like vibrations and raising our vibrations, I think that's so important and it makes me remember the days when I was praying for higher vibration people and then to be able to look around.

Nicole Tuxbury: 10:06

You know, like you coming on this podcast is not an accident oh no right, like those are the vibrations that I've raised to be able to connect with you because of connecting with other people, right, because we might have met. I guess we met through Brooke, right? Yes, and so because of the work that I've done and I end up matching up with Brooke I love Brooke. Shout out to Brooke, she's amazing and you know, and she's got those high vibrations and so the people she sends my way and so, like I remember praying for people like you, krista, to come into my life, to come into my circle. I was like, and I had to make room, I had to let go, not necessarily, you know, like, like there's people that, like we're friends, but like you're just, you don't get as much space in my, in my space, like I love you over there.

Krista Ford: 10:57

Yes, right.

Nicole Tuxbury: 10:58

We don't have to reject you, like in my book. I'm like, if you have to go climb a mountain and that's your desire, you want the peak of something. There are people who do not want to climb this mountain with you and you're going to have to leave them in whatever shithole they're in, because that's what they want. Right Like at the bottom of the mountain, there's not much going on. There's not much going on some people. You can come back and pick them up because, like grandma, she can't climb the mountain. So when we get up there, we might like lift her up and be like all right, grandma, come with us but there are people that we're gonna have to just kind of leave there and, like we can visit.

Nicole Tuxbury: 11:31

Hey, what's up? But, like I'm over here down there. Right, you didn't want to do this with me and so that's hard. But you know, like, like you said to bring it back, like my mom died, she wasn't even 30, you know, she was like 29, I was one and a half and so you know, we can't wait to climb that mountain. I can't say, well, I'm gonna wait till I'm 45 to climb my mountain, because you know what I'm gonna drop dead tomorrow.

Nicole Tuxbury: 11:58

Yeah, exactly you know, so why wait to climb the mountain? Why wait to do all those things? And so let's bring it back to one of my other big themes that's in my book. I have to ask everyone, so one of my biggest things is gratitude. So I talked about superpower, like my talking right. If I still saw talking as my weakness, I wouldn't be doing this podcast. I turned it into my superpower by finding awesome things to talk about, and I did that by practicing gratitude. So talk to me about how gratitude has played a role in your journey.

Krista Ford: 12:34

Oh my God, nicole, that is my start of my day. Every day, I have an absolute perfect routine that I do every day when my feet hit the ground, when I wake up. Attitude of gratitude is mine every morning, every day, I wake up and I stay with that because that just sets the pace for my whole day. So my thought is this that's the pace for my whole day. So my thought is this If you are thankful for everything you already have, whether that just be clothes on your back, food in your belly, a roof over your head, you are going to start attracting more of what you already have, as long as you thank the Lord for giving it to you, and having it in the first place.

Krista Ford: 13:22

Thank the Lord for giving it to you and having it in the first place. So I am all about attitude of gratitude. That starts my whole day. Like I said after, I thank the Lord for, first and foremost, letting me breathe, having another day of life and another opportunity to do something good for myself or someone else for the day. That's first, and then I just start going down my whole list every morning. Sometimes it's the same things, but that's what I'm really grateful for. I'm grateful for this. I'm grateful for that. Thank you, lord, for this. Thank you, lord for that. Blah, blah, blah.

Krista Ford: 13:55

I go all the way down and then I just start talking to them and, after I thank them for everything, I also ask them, before the day is up, send me one to two to ten omens, a sign. This is a sign you and I, like you said, it's not clarity and discernment for the people that are not supposed to be there any longer and or ones that come to me. I will know that they are not supposed to be on this journey with me and just don't even waste my time. Keep moving, like you said.

Krista Ford: 14:35

So gratitude is my whole thing in my life. It has always been, but now that I have leveled up to the level that I'm at now, it's even more intense and it has me more on fire. And then I play that forward to so many people when I talk to them, always have an attitude of gratitude. First, thank them. Thank them from the time you breathe. Again, thank them first, then go on with your day, and that helps to me. That helps you be in alignment with not only god in the universe and all the energy out here, but it helps you get in alignment with yourself, and then you're able to put that out here in the world every day that you're out here and you're around other people, and so that's that energy that we can attract to each other. But yes, I'm all about that.

Nicole Tuxbury: 15:29

Oh yes.

Krista Ford: 15:31

You're preaching my word. I'm all about gratitude. Oh my goodness.

Nicole Tuxbury: 15:36

Yes, yes, yes. Like the whole first part of my book is all about gratitude and like how did I do, how did I learn about practicing gratitude? How I thought it was Right Because we hear it a lot, but it seems. It seems too simple. It does Like just say these things you're grateful for and you're like, but it's so powerful in changing your perspective. Like we have measurable scientific evidence of changes in people's bodies because of practicing gratitude Everything from heart pressure to things healing faster than they're supposed to. Like. There are physical responses to gratitude, like if we ask medical professionals, how can you predict who's going to survive? These, you know? Like life altering, even life ending diseases or things. And they say gratitude. The people that are practicing gratitude, that are grateful for things, are more likely to survive. Like.

Nicole Tuxbury: 16:37

This is legit and it's a huge part of manifestation the law of attraction, like you said, we have to feel grateful and of those things, more comes to us, cause that's one of the steps of manifestation is being grateful as if you already have it, and that's quantum physics, like we're diving into quantum physics here, like this is scientific. So people call gratitude woo and I'm like you don't understand the power of gratitude. It's, it's magical, it's almost magical, but it's. It's legit, it's scientific, it's mathematical, it's spiritual, but it's legit and I will piggyback off of two things you said.

Krista Ford: 17:20

So I learned all this by reading the Secret. Rhonda Byrne taught me everything about law of attraction, attitude of gratitude, all of these things. And you said something very, very important here If and when you come across and you're sick whether that be an acute sickness or something whatnot you have to already thank him for your healing.

Nicole Tuxbury: 17:51

I'm always grateful for my healing.

Krista Ford: 17:52

That's what heals you. So you can't be walking around always and it's hard. I understand that, because we're all human, we're all going to go through this. But it's hard to walk around with an attitude of gratitude when you're sick, but it's the way you're thinking about it. What will manifest in your body? Like you said, your body will heal itself. That is quantum physics. It's all up here in your head. So if you're constantly walking around saying thank you for my healing, thank you for my healing, guess what goes in your brain that starts manifesting in your body because you feel like you're already healed. You're good to go. Let's go on back on this path.

Krista Ford: 18:30

I was on at first, but so many people don't do that. As well as and, like I said, we're all human. As well as we take humans, we all do we take for granted the small, even the smallest things that we might have that somebody out here that's sleeping on the street doesn't have, but we have it A roof, a pillow, a bed, stuff like this, food in the refrigerator. So you're absolutely right. So I learned all of this by, first and foremost, the secret, the book. That was a key thing for me, right? And then, if you notice something, nicole the whole world is on this affirmation uh, kick. Right now, the whole world is all about leveling up, vibrating up, getting on the right level, getting your mind right, getting your spirit right, getting your life right. Get these crazy people out of your life, put the right ones in your life, and then everything will start, like you said, coming to fruition in a very good way. So we're definitely on the same note on this one. So I believe everything that you're saying and I practice it every day, every day.

Krista Ford: 19:47

There's not a day that don't go by that I say these things. I say my words of affirmations. I go through my whole day. I make sure that I don't, and when I start falling short cause we always do, we always sometimes the enemy gets in our head or have somebody come to us and start talking crazy. That's when I got to just get back to my peace, back up, walk away, have a good day. I got to go this way and that's just it for me. I don't even have any. I don't have any patience or any kind of anything for that anymore in my life. Like you said, it's all in people that come to me. I know when they're supposed to be there. I feel it just like us, you and I, talking right now. He wants us to be around more people who are vibrating on this high, high level, because we got the secret to really life. I call it the magic of life. We really are doing this.

Nicole Tuxbury: 20:45

So you and I and everybody else out here is like this but yes, yes and the last thing I want to mention that ties into what you said is that's the importance of practicing gratitude. When things are like going well, right, and we're like, oh well, I'm good, Well, that's when you need to practice right.

Nicole Tuxbury: 21:04

Because, Michael Jordan was good at free throws because he was practicing them when the pressure wasn't on. So when the pressure was on and there's a stadium of screaming fans, you got the whole team looking at you like saying shit in your head because they're talking there between themselves. What are you going to do? That's when you need the gratitude, and if you haven't practiced it, you're not going to know what to do. And so that's an example that I give in my book, because you know, I remember growing up, michael Jordan.

Nicole Tuxbury: 21:33

But, he was one of the best at free throws. Why? And I want you to be? You know, I tell my clients. I want you to be the best at practicing gratitude. Why? Because when the pressure's on, when things are going bad, somebody dies. When business goes wrong, when a when a partner betrays us, that's what you need to be very well versed and strong in your gratitude and that all happens when things, when things are good, when everything's chilling, when we're okay, when we're practicing and being grateful for, like even when we're sick.

Nicole Tuxbury: 22:03

When I'm sick, I'm like I'm grateful that I've built a business where I can take a day to rest and heal back and heal, that's it. You say it. I'm I'm grateful that I have access to doctors or I have access to a blanket. I'm grateful that I can make myself some soup, like whatever, whatever small. I'm grateful my dog is here next to me, even if I can't get out of bed. Whatever little grateful thing we have to hang on to. Um, yeah, and so that is amazing. All right, so, as we're wrapping up here, okay, I want to know one final tip for our audience what's like the one thing that you tell all of your strength training clients, like, what's the thing that they need to know?

Krista Ford: 22:47

All gas, no brakes. Push on the gas and go. I don't care what you're doing in life. Whenever you got that vision, whatever you want to do in your life, all gas don't break, just keep going. You will get there. I tell all of my clients, I tell all of my friends and I've been told that. So I took from what I was told and I just try to play it forward to others. So, and one other, one other little snippet I always say about the all gas, no breaks. Snippet I always say about the all gas, no brakes. Go, do something that makes you happy in life. I don't care what it is, I don't care if it's get a cup of coffee or going down the street or sitting out in nature. Do whatever makes you happy, find it, do it. Do it all the time. Do yourself first, then everybody else. Always you first, then them.

Nicole Tuxbury: 23:45

Yeah, love it. And how can my?

Krista Ford: 23:51

audience, connect with you. Okay, so my book and everything is on my website so you can go to wwwpowerbykrista k-r-i-s-t-a. All of my social media is under power by Krista too. I got a YouTube channel. I have all those things. You can just go there. You can find what we're doing pre-orders for my book right now, because it has not dropped yet. It's coming into the fall, but you can go there and you can see all kinds of stuff. Everything I'm talking about is pretty much on there too, as far as that, but everything's under power by Krista, and just spell it with a K, because a lot of people sometimes want to spell it with a C. I'm like no, it's K-R-I-S-T-A and there's no L on there. It's Krista and that is the name of the book Krista's Promise. So you, and when it comes out it'll be on Amazon.

Nicole Tuxbury: 24:47

We'll have eBooks, paperback, hardback and it'll be down below in the show notes and the comments, wherever it is that you're watching. And stay tuned for the next episode of Overcome Yourself, the podcast. Bye, Bye.