Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom

There comes a point when saying no is no longer rejection. It is self-respect. It is the moment you stop betraying yourself just to keep someone else comfortable. In this episode of Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom, Susan explores what she calls “the sacred no”: the boundary that lets you care about other people without losing yourself in the process. Drawing from her near-death experience, her spiritual work, and lessons tested in her own relationships, she unpacks how old survival stories can quietly become identities, why real power is authorship, and how the beliefs you inherited do not have to keep directing your future. Susan also reframes self-love as something far more demanding than comfort or self-care. For her, self-love is a contract: the standards you enforce for how others speak to you, how you speak to yourself, how much time you give your own life, and what you are no longer willing to tolerate. Through practical exercises, reflection questions, and the “repair clause,” she offers a way to return to yourself without demanding perfection. In This Episode: [00:54] Introducing “The Sacred No” and why no can be a complete sentence [01:14] When saying no becomes self-respect instead of rejection [02:10] The heartbeat that has stayed with you through everything [03:17] What Susan says death taught her about boundaries [05:59] Three truths about power, self-love, and release [08:39] The stories we tell ourselves about who we are [09:31] Why so many people introduce themselves through a wound [12:04] Real power is authorship [13:35] The ordinary moment Susan realized she had made herself smaller [14:31] “This is not who you came here to be” [15:28] What empowerment actually means [18:49] Three questions for reclaiming your power [20:35] Would you still tolerate this if it were your last year? [21:44] When being needed becomes your identity [23:14] The “Inherited vs. Chosen” belief exercise [25:13] Why shrinking yourself often began as a survival strategy [27:56] Self-love beyond candles, rituals, and self-care [29:00] Susan’s definition of self-love as a contract [32:06] What Susan’s near-death experience taught her about self-criticism [34:43] The clauses of the self-love contract [37:18] Why boundaries are part of self-love [37:49] The repair clause: return instead of perfection [38:45] Loving yourself enough to let something be uncomfortable [40:31] The mirror-minute practice for speaking to yourself differently Notable Quotes [01:14] “There comes a moment when your no is no longer rejection. It’s self-respect.” [06:04] “Your power was never lost, only loaned out, and loans can be called back.” [06:14] “Self-love is not a mood, it’s a contract.” [10:11] “A true sentence is not the same thing as a complete sentence.” [12:04] “Real power is authorship.” [15:09] “A story that helps you survive your past is not automatically a story that should get to author your future.” [24:47] “Anything inherited without your consent can be released without your guilt.” [28:52] “Self love is the set of standards you enforce for how you allow yourself to be treated by others and by your own inner voice.” [38:09] “Real love, the kind that lasts, was never about perfect adherence. It’s about how quickly you come back to the terms after you’ve drifted.” [38:39] “Return is the practice, not perfection.” [38:45] “I love myself enough to let this be uncomfortable for me.” Susan Grau Susan is an internationally celebrated intuitive life coach, a key opinion leader, author, medium and speaker, who discovered her ability to communicate with the spirit world after a near-death experience at age four. Trained by Dr. Raymond Moody, James Van Praagh, and Lisa Williams, Susan is a Reiki Master, hypnotherapist, and grief therapist. Her new book, "Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons," published by Hay House, explores healing from grief and the afterlife. With media coverage in GOOP, Elle, and The Hollywood Reporter, Susan's expertise extends to podcasts, radio shows, and documentaries. She offers private mediumship readings, life path guidance, reiki sessions, and hypnotherapy, aiding individuals in healing and finding spiritual guidance. Resources and Links Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Podcast Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Susan Grau Website Order Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok Mentioned Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons Wisdom from the Spirit World on Living, Dying, and the In-Between by Susan Grau

⚠️ SENSITIVE CONTENT WARNING This episode and these show notes discuss su*icide, su*icide loss, trauma, grief, guilt, anger, mental illness, addiction, and family impact. No graphic methods or details are included. If you are in immediate danger or may act on thoughts of su*icide, call emergency services now. In the U.S., call or text 988. Outside the U.S., contact your local emergency or crisis service. Pause, breathe, or listen with someone safe if needed. Some losses leave an empty chair at the table. Others leave a thousand questions sitting in it. When someone dies by suicide, the grief can be tangled with guilt, anger, and the painful need to understand what happened. In this episode of Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom, Susan speaks gently and unflinchingly about surviving suicide loss. Drawing on multiple losses in her own family, including her mother, who lived with Parkinson’s disease and died by suicide, and two brothers who struggled with mental illness and addiction and also died by suicide, Susan speaks from the inside of this grief, not from the outside. She reminds listeners that spiritual understanding does not stop the phone call from dividing life into before and after. Belief in the afterlife does not remove the empty chair. Mediumship does not erase trauma. Knowing the soul continues does not mean the human heart does not break. This episode is companionship, not education alone, and it is not a substitute for medical or mental healthcare. Susan offers grounding, honesty, and a critical reminder: your pain is real, but pain is not prophecy. If you are struggling, tell another human being. Let someone help carry what has become too heavy to carry alone. In This Episode: [00:00] The questions left behind after su*icide loss [00:35] Surviving the silence after loss [01:07] The heavy cost of loving someone lost to su*icide [01:45] Why su*icide grief can feel different [02:07] Content warning and caring for yourself while listening [02:32] A conversation of companionship, not a substitute for mental healthcare [03:00] Susan's personal experience with multiple su*icide losses [03:34] How grief, addiction, and loss shaped Susan's understanding [04:03] Spiritual understanding does not erase trauma [04:34] The difference between believing in an afterlife and living with an empty chair [05:00] Why su*icide loss has its own interior language [05:42] The guilt, anger, questions, and silence survivors carry [06:10] Making the pain of su*icide loss visible [06:40] Your pain is real, but pain is not prophecy [07:07] You do not have to carry the pain alone [07:39] The death that does not end when the funeral ends [08:00] Shock, stigma, guilt, anger, and traumatic discovery [08:12] When loss changes everything Notable Quotes [00:00] “When someone you love dies by su*icide, you don’t only lose the person, you lose the chance to ask the questions.” [01:56] “With su*icide, it’s a very different grief.” [04:36] “Spiritual understanding does not stop the phone call from dividing life into before and after.” [04:42] “Belief in the afterlife does not remove the empty chair. Mediumship does not erase trauma. Knowing that the soul continues does not mean the human heart does not break.” [05:44] “Su*icide loss has an interior language.” [06:40] “Your pain is real, but pain is not prophecy.” [06:48] “Dying by su*icide does not get rid of the pain. It just puts it on someone who’s left behind.” [07:22] “You do not have to be strong while listening. You do not have to make meaning today.” [07:39] “This is the death that does not end when the funeral ends.” Susan Grau Susan Grau is an internationally celebrated intuitive life coach, a key opinion leader, author, medium and speaker, who discovered her ability to communicate with the spirit world after a near-death experience at age four. Trained by Dr. Raymond Moody, James Van Praagh, and Lisa Williams, Susan is a Reiki Master, hypnotherapist, and grief therapist. Her new book, "Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons," published by Hay House, explores healing from grief and the afterlife. With media coverage in GOOP, Elle, and The Hollywood Reporter, Susan's expertise extends to podcasts, radio shows, and documentaries. She offers private mediumship readings, life path guidance, reiki sessions, and hypnotherapy, aiding individuals in healing and finding spiritual guidance. Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Podcast  Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Susan Grau Website Order  Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok Mentioned Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons  Wisdom from the Spirit World on Living, Dying, and the In-Between  by Susan Grau Resources and Links

Have you ever felt an inexplicable presence at dusk? Have you woken at 3:00 AM with a knowing that someone was there? What if those moments weren't random but invitations? In this episode of Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom, host Susan Grau explores the sacred concept of "thin places," times and locations where the barrier between our world and the next becomes almost see-through. Drawing from Celtic traditions, Indigenous wisdom, Japanese folklore, and cultures worldwide that independently discovered the same truth, Susan reveals that these moments aren't superstition but careful observation of something real. Susan guides listeners through the predictable categories where thinness clusters: dawn and dusk (the "gloaming"), the 3:00 AM hour, anniversaries and birthdays, doorways and thresholds, water's edge, cemeteries, old homes, and even that favorite chair that still holds a loved one's shape. She explains that thinness doesn't summon loved ones from far away; they're already close. What changes is our capacity to receive when we step out of "logistics consciousness" into receptivity. With warmth and vulnerability, Susan shares her own thin places, a childhood beach, her mother's doorway, a sudden rainstorm, and offers a practical toolkit for listeners to recognize and utilize these sacred moments. This episode isn't about chasing signs; it's about noticing what's always been there. Tune in and discover how to recognize the thin places already woven into your everyday life. Your loved ones are only a heartbeat away. In This Episode: [00:00] Introduction [00:29] The experience of thin places and times [03:43] Episode overview  [07:15] Defining “thinness” and the veil [10:18] The signal and receiver: noticing thinness [12:58] Cultural and global perspectives on thin times [13:35] Understanding thinness and letting go of performance [15:00] Thinness, caution, and safety [16:03] Predictable categories of thin times and places [18:04] Dawn, dusk, and “the glooming” [22:41] The 3:00 AM or thin hour experience [27:26] Moments before sleep and upon awakening [28:26] The hush before a storm and seasonal thin times [32:18] Anniversaries, calendar dates, and body memory [36:02] Birthdays, holidays, and gatherings [39:25] Milestones they never saw [43:19] Water, rain, and natural elements [46:12] Doorways, thresholds, and transitional spaces [48:00] Old homes and energetic residue [49:45] Hospitals, hospice, and cemeteries [52:13] Gardens, favorite places, and small spaces [54:02] Personal stories of thin places [58:30] When thin places bring sorrow, not comfort [01:01:03] If you feel nothing in a thin place [01:03:51] Grief, healing, and getting support [01:04:51] The toolkit: practical steps for thin places [01:09:48] Living awake to thin moments [01:12:08] Closing words and invitation to connect Notable Quotes [11:21] "The signal was there the whole time. Thinness doesn't summon your loved one from somewhere far away. It's your receiver that finally gets in tune." [13:00] "When you get that much independent agreement across that much time and distance, you are not looking at superstition. You're looking at observation." [38:12] "The day itself is thin, and their absence and their presence get turned up at the exact same time together." [01:02:31] "Grief and connection, they're not opposites in this work. They very often arrive in the very same breath." [01:03:04] "An ordinary visit to a thin place with no sign is not evidence of absence. It's just an ordinary visit." [01:10:31] "You don't need a single ounce of training. You just need to know where and when—and to pay a little closer attention." Susan Grau Susan Grau is an internationally celebrated intuitive life coach, a key opinion leader, author, medium and speaker, who discovered her ability to communicate with the spirit world after a near-death experience at age four. Trained by Dr. Raymond Moody, James Van Praagh, and Lisa Williams, Susan is a Reiki Master, hypnotherapist, and grief therapist. Her new book, "Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons," published by Hay House, explores healing from grief and the afterlife. With media coverage in GOOP, Elle, and The Hollywood Reporter, Susan's expertise extends to podcasts, radio shows, and documentaries. She offers private mediumship readings, life path guidance, reiki sessions, and hypnotherapy, aiding individuals in healing and finding spiritual guidance. Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Podcast  Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Susan Grau Website Order  Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok Mentioned Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons  Wisdom from the Spirit World on Living, Dying, and the In-Between  by Susan Grau Resources and Links

What if the fear that follows loss isn’t a sign that something is wrong, but a reflection of how deeply you loved? After someone dies, grief often gets all the attention, while fear quietly takes over.  In this episode of Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom, Susan Grau turns her attention to a part of grief almost no one names directly: fear. Drawing on her own near-death experience at age four, the loss of both of her parents, and decades of sitting with grieving clients, Susan makes the case that grief gets all the airtime, but fear is often running the show underneath it. Susan breaks the episode into three parts: why fear shows up so disproportionately loud after loss, the specific fears that surface around where our loved ones actually are, and real, practical tools for loosening fear's grip. She speaks candidly about the fear of forgetting, the fear that grief will never end, the fear that healing is a betrayal, and the deeper, harder-to-admit fear that the whole framework of an afterlife might be a comforting story we tell ourselves. Through client stories, including a woman terrified by her own laughter and a man who couldn't stop replaying his father's voicemails, Susan shows how these fears can begin to loosen when they're named, spoken out loud, and met with real tools rather than platitudes. Whether you're in the rawest part of early grief or years into carrying a loss quietly, this episode offers a grounded reminder: your loved one is not lost, not afraid, and not alone. And with the right tools, you don't have to be ruled by the fear that says otherwise either. In This Episode: [00:01] Introduction to fear after loss [01:15] Grief vs. fear [02:20] Susan's personal experience with fear [04:31] Why fear is so loud in grief [06:43] Fear is love with nowhere to land [07:44] The specific fears grief produces [10:06] Why fear is bigger at night [11:15] The spiritual core: fears about the afterlife [12:25] Are they lost or confused? [14:52] Are they scared or in pain? [16:00] Will they forget me? [17:11] Client story: the fear of the first laugh [18:14] Client story: the fear of losing the voice [19:19] Client story: the fear that grew into faith [20:21] Practical tool: name your fear [21:27] Practical tool: the held breath practice [22:32] Practical tool: write a letter to your fear [23:35] Practical tool: build an evening ritual [24:52] Practical tool: ask for reassurance [26:00] Susan's personal grief dream [27:05] Conclusion and final exercise  Notable Quotes [01:38] "Grief gets all the airtime, but fear is usually running the show underneath it. Fear is the engine. Grief is the exhaust." [06:23] "Fear after loss is very often just love that no longer has its usual outlet... Love with no task doesn't just evaporate. It turns into vigilance." [07:58] "You cannot solve a fear you haven't named." [10:47] "The fear isn't actually bigger at night. It's just unopposed. It hasn't grown. The room just got quiet enough for you to finally hear it." [13:28] "It's orientation, not confusion. Spirit is not the author of confusion or chaos. They are the author of peace and understanding." [21:01] "Vague fear is limitless. It can go on and on. It has no control. Anything with an edge can be worked with." [24:27] "Isolation is fear's favorite habitat." [28:04] "You don't have to completely defeat your fear to live well alongside it." [29:15] "Remember, they are only a heartbeat away. Take care of you." Susan Grau Susan is an internationally celebrated intuitive life coach, a key opinion leader, author, medium and speaker, who discovered her ability to communicate with the spirit world after a near-death experience at age four. Trained by Dr. Raymond Moody, James Van Praagh, and Lisa Williams, Susan is a Reiki Master, hypnotherapist, and grief therapist. Her new book, "Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons," published by Hay House, explores healing from grief and the afterlife. With media coverage in GOOP, Elle, and The Hollywood Reporter, Susan's expertise extends to podcasts, radio shows, and documentaries. She offers private mediumship readings, life path guidance, reiki sessions, and hypnotherapy, aiding individuals in healing and finding spiritual guidance. Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Podcast  Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Susan Grau Website Order  Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok Mentioned Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons  Wisdom from the Spirit World on Living, Dying, and the In-Between  by Susan Grau Resources and Links

What stories do you tell yourself? When someone treats you poorly, do you immediately assume it's your fault? When a loved one seems distant, do you spiral into a mental replay of everything you might have said or done wrong? When you walk into a room, do you feel the energy shift and immediately wonder, is it me? In this episode of Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom, Susan Grau turns inward, exploring the stories we unconsciously tell ourselves and how those stories quietly shape our relationships, our self-worth, and our peace of mind. Drawing on her own history growing up in a home affected by addiction, along with her decades of work as a medium, grief counselor, and empath, Susan unpacks why so many of us default to self-blame when something feels off, assuming a person's mood, silence, or behavior must be about us. She shares candid, personal stories of trying to earn love by shape-shifting into who she thought others wanted her to be, and how she eventually learned that authenticity, not self-erasure, was the real path to peace. The conversation moves through the power of silence as a healing tool, the difference between reacting and responding, and what healthy boundaries actually look like when they're built for yourself rather than aimed at someone else. Susan also speaks to honoring other people's beliefs without needing them to validate your own, a lesson she's learned firsthand while navigating skepticism about her work as a medium. Whether you're working through a difficult relationship, struggling with self-esteem, or simply tired of the mental spiral of "What did I do wrong?", this episode offers a grounded, compassionate reminder. You can't know what you don't know, and your job isn't to manage anyone else's truth, only your own. In This Episode: [00:00] Welcome to Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom [00:51] Introducing today's topic: the stories we tell ourselves [04:16] Shape-shifting for love and the cost of losing yourself [04:45] Unconditional love and what NDEs reveal about it [08:23] Speaking your truth instead of shifting it [08:59] The healing power of silence [09:49] You can't know the truth unless you ask [12:04] Beauty, gratitude, and how we show up [13:33] Boundaries: what they are (and aren't) [14:48] Boundaries with narcissistic behavior [17:31] Compartmentalizing truth to avoid taking action [18:45] Building self-esteem: "I am lovable, capable, worthy, enough" [19:36] Honoring others' beliefs without needing agreement [25:16] Closing message: shine your light  Notable Quotes [05:00] "We know that they have felt a love that is unconditional, that you just can't get here, that isn't possible here when we have a brain. We are judging and having discernment at all times." [08:56] "Sometimes silence is my best friend. It can be my best next right step is to be quiet." [12:07] "Every human that chooses to show beauty has beauty. So if I'm showing others beauty, I am behaving in a beautiful manner, then I have beauty coming out of me." [13:34] "A boundary is for you. It's not for other people. It is, what am I going to do when this person does blah, blah, blah?" [18:43] "Developing self-esteem looks like this, I am lovable. I'm capable. I'm worthy. I'm enough. And I do that a couple times a day. And then my self-esteem starts to catch up." [19:35] "I don't have to change your mind about my belief system. I can just have my belief system and you can have yours and I can honor yours and I can honor mine." [25:35] "Thank God they can't read our minds. So our minds don't matter nearly as much as how we respond to our minds and our thinking." [26:16] "Spirit never gives us hardships to take from us. They give us hardships to show us where to shine our light." Susan Grau Susan is an internationally celebrated intuitive life coach, a key opinion leader, author, medium and speaker, who discovered her ability to communicate with the spirit world after a near-death experience at age four. Trained by Dr. Raymond Moody, James Van Praagh, and Lisa Williams, Susan is a Reiki Master, hypnotherapist, and grief therapist. Her new book, "Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons," published by Hay House, explores healing from grief and the afterlife. With media coverage in GOOP, Elle, and The Hollywood Reporter, Susan's expertise extends to podcasts, radio shows, and documentaries. She offers private mediumship readings, life path guidance, reiki sessions, and hypnotherapy, aiding individuals in healing and finding spiritual guidance. Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Podcast  Infinite Life, Infinite Wisdom Susan Grau Website Order  Facebook Instagram YouTube TikTok Mentioned Infinite Life, Infinite Lessons  Wisdom from the Spirit World on Living, Dying, and the In-Between  by Susan Grau