Thanks to a Spiritual Medium, Her Manifesting Journey Reaches a Higher Plane

Granville’s intuitive gifts grew over the years to the point where she would “know” her husband’s updates before he shared them. Once her kids got older, she felt she had the space to explore this part of herself. “At one point I shared a spiritual tidbit with my daughter, who said, “‘Mom, is this what you really want to do? Because it’s what you’re always talking about.’ And it was like an Oprah aha moment,” Granville recalls. After attending a retreat led by Dr. Joe Dispenza, a neuroscientist and spiritual teacher who blends brain science with quantum physics to show how thoughts can rewire perspective, Granville decided to hang out her own shingle.

She told me she’d met her husband in high school in a small Maryland town I probably hadn’t heard of — but oddly, I had. In fact, my late husband and I had a house right next door to her in-laws, and my kids and I deposited his ashes in the water a stone’s throw from our joint shoreline. I had cuddled Granville’s mother-in-law’s Jack Russell terriers at our shared mailboxes. Chopra had asked me to pay attention to synchronicities, and this was certainly an uncanny one.

Granville began my reading with a banal metaphor: life as a game of musical chairs. The chairs represented our shifting choices and opportunities. The music was the external world — its noise, its pace, its pressure. But the key question was: What music are you listening to inside?

I realized that, like many human beings, my instinct is to rush toward decisions, to avoid sitting in uncertainty. But Granville gently guided me to see that urgency is often fear in disguise. She reminded me, “The first answer isn’t always the best answer. Sit with it. Go deeper. There’s more to discover.”

Granville described two versions of ourselves: the human self, often caught in fear and scarcity, and the soul self, connected to presence, ease and higher knowing. “When you’re present, you’re in touch with your expanded self,” she said. “That’s when you feel joy, flow and delight — and that’s your power.”

The difference is energetic. When we’re stressed, our energy contracts, literally. I don’t have to take Granville’s word for it. Scientists studying stress have found that it activates the sympathetic nervous system, initiating a “fight-or-flight” response, which increases heart rate, elevates blood pressure and causes muscle tension — all signs of a contracted state.

But when we’re experiencing joy or creativity or even just feeling our skin in the sunshine, our energy field expands. And it’s in this expansive state that manifestation — or the process of aligning your energy with your desires. and allowing them to come into your life — happens. “Manifestation begins as energy first. Everything else — every house, job or relationship — solidifies from that,” Granville said.

She had a prescription for me, one that startled me with its simplicity: “Get out of your head. Get into your body.” She explained that I’ve relied on my intellect to navigate life — which has worked brilliantly in many ways — but that it’s not the tool for spiritual alignment. The head solves problems. The body feels truth.

This was the same advice Suzanne Eder, coach and author of What You Want Wants You, gave me when I started this journey.

To help with this shift, Granville suggested something delightfully accessible: music. “Music is one of the fastest ways to shift your state of consciousness. Use it to move, to feel, to get present — and then take the AirPods out. Stay in that feeling. Let it guide you.” Whether it’s walking, dancing or simply swaying to a favorite song in your kitchen, music reconnects us to the present moment and reawakens our intuitive wisdom.

She described how my perfectionism and inner pressure — “the burr under the saddle” — may have once served me but no longer do. “You don’t need to push yourself anymore,” she said. “That belief got you here, but now it’s time to remove the burr and enjoy the ride.”

In other words, self-compassion, isn’t optional — it’s the energetic lubricant that makes manifesting sustainable. Again, this advice resonated almost verbatim with what Eder had told me.

Granville suggested that we work together to release the blocked energy that she sensed was holding me back.  As part of a visualization, Granville asked me to imagine my life as a container filled with big rocks (core values) and sand (details). If we fill it with sand first — the perfect address, job title or salary — there’s no room for what matters most. My rocks? Authentic connection. Self-expression. Intimacy and being understood. The lesson: Focus on the rocks by practicing gratitude and appreciation, and let the rest flow around them. The house, the job, the relationship will arrive if they resonate with the real me.

It’s not about being unworthy of receiving. Rather, we’re not often in the energy state that matches what we want. If we want delight, we need to feel delight, now. If we want stability, we must cultivate inner steadiness in real time. If we want love, we must be a match for intimacy and connection. The good news? The universe is not testing us — it’s mirroring us.

Bringing it all together

At the end of our session, I asked about my career, my love life, my children, those big unknowns. Granville’s response wasn’t prescriptive. It was empowering. “Leave the doors open. Focus on your rocks. Say to the universe: ‘This, or something better.’ ” She reminded me that my soul already has GPS. I don’t need to muscle through the jungle with a machete. I just need to listen for the music, that inner sense of resonance that says, “Yes, this is mine,” and “Swing from vine to vine.”

Manifestation isn’t about scripting every detail. It’s about aligning our energy, trusting our timing, and returning, again and again,  to presence. So if I’m feeling stuck, rushed or unclear, I can ask myself: Am I trying to solve a future problem? Am I ignoring the whisper of my soul in favor of the noise of the world? Am I living from pressure or from power? If I feel my energy contracting, it’s not a failure. It’s feedback. I can sit with it. Let my presence expand. Trust that the rest will follow. And maybe put on my favorite song.

After my session with Granville, my life went from a standing start to a full-speed gallop.  My house sold after six months on the market. I found a new home that I adored in a matter of days. I was called in for a job interview after years of self-employment and, lo and behold, I was asked out on a date.

“The universe is always reaching out its hand,” Granville said. “The question is, are you reaching up to meet it?”

AARP essays share a point of view in the author’s voice, drawn from expertise or experience, and do not necessarily reflect the views of AARP.