Are You Neglecting One of Your Most Powerful Tools?

We’ve all experienced it. That inner voice. Sometimes it whispers: I’m not so sure about this… Other times it’s loud in hindsight: I had a feeling that would happen… Call it what you will—a gut feeling, a vibe, an inkling. MaryAnn DiMarco says it’s our intuition—and it’s a shame when we don’t listen to it.

“Our intuition should be seen as one of our senses,” says DiMarco, a psychic medium, spiritual teacher, and author. “Just like we smell. Just like we hear.” Relying on that and understanding how we can work with energy, the universe, and spirituality—however that looks like for you authentically—you begin this trust and relationship with both a higher power and yourself, she continues.

If you’re thinking, I can’t tap into my intuition, DiMarco will call your bluff. Every one of us, she says, has innate psychic abilities. We simply don’t listen to them enough. According to DiMarco, our soul was born to listen to “Spirit,” the collective name she uses for the energy and beings from the Other Side, and our intuition is how we tap into their wisdom. In doing this, we find clarity, a transcendent peace, and guidance for life’s feats.

I recently spoke with DiMarco over Zoom. We discussed her new book, Medium Mentor: 10 Powerful Techniques to Awaken Divine Guidance for Yourself and Others, which offers guidance for tapping into our intuition and using it for the greater good. She and I also explored what we miss out on when we fail to listen to this divine tool and all that we gain when we “surrender” to it.

A Conversation with MaryAnn DiMarco

How do you define intuition?

I define intuition as your inner knowing. What is your inner knowing telling you, and how much are you going to trust that inner knowing?

You write in your new book, Medium Mentor, that everyone on some level is psychic. Walk me through this.

Everybody can tap into their psychic abilities. Everybody. It is something that has lay dormant within us. We have a right to access it. We should want to access it. And it should feel like a relief when we do. It should feel like, oh that's what I've been knowing this whole moment! That I've been knowing this whole time through this life. That this is what's been going on underneath. I've always known I was psychic.

You can call it psychic abilities. You can call it intuition. You can call it what you like. It is another element of what we, human souls, are capable of. When we sit with it and understand how to utilize it by reading books, sitting in classes, and being consistent in our spiritual practice, we can then have an understanding of how to utilize it in our everyday lives. And you don't have to be a psychic medium to do that.

How can our intuition help us?

It takes us away from the loud mind of doubt, fear, and anxiety-based decisions. Intuition lets us lean into our inner peace, that quiet knowing.

I call this work comprehensive care. By listening to your inner knowing, you then may be brought to the medical doctors that need to help you. You may be led to mental awareness doctors or spiritual practitioners. You may find that people are referring somebody to help you or that all these modalities are coming to you. That is from you listening to your intuition and understanding what Spirit is providing for you, so then you’re going to say yes to that.

It seems that listening to our intuition doesn't get the credence it deserves, as if it’s seen as the second tier. Why so?

I believe that people look to those who are in tune and use their intuition as lucky. Oh, they’re just lucky. Or they're just really good at what they do. Those things very well may be true, but they [people who listen to their intuition] have an element of trust that is greater than most. My husband's a great example. He will just say, ‘that’s how it's going to roll out; that's how it's going to be’ with such an inner knowing and inner confidence that isn't bravado or ego. For him, it's just, I trust what my gut is telling me—and I've learned from that in the past that when I've denied that it hasn't worked out for me.

I experience it as a homecoming.

Yes! I remember when I first started tapping into this work and understanding how I could tap into this clairvoyance and psychic medium abilities, I was so relieved. What I had been wanting to access for so long I realized was so plain, so simple, and far less difficult than I was making it to be.

When I came to this understanding that Spirit comes in your voice and that it is something that is both greater than us but also lives within us was the most life-changing experience I ever had. If we can all get to that point in whatever authentic style it looks like for you, you will never fall back—even through stress and hardship. Life is hard. We're here in a very big learning school. We're all going to be taught lessons, but we can go into this spiritual practice and use our intuitive abilities, our psychic abilities, to navigate through life and we can use this energy that lives within.

How can beginners start to tap into their intuition?

The first thing is to let go of your ego and place yourself in a position of being worthy.

Everybody is worthy of accessing this. So think: I am ready to step into this new part of my life of understanding my intuition. I am ready to accept my psychic ability as the light and the power that lives within me. Then you can think about utilizing your intuition for yourself and also how you can use it to pay it forward to others. That builds momentum in your life. What we put out is what we attract. So first put yourself in the position of knowing you are worthy.

The next point is to accept your free will.

It is about making that choice to lean into a new space in your life to help yourself transform and listen to your inner knowing. This is a transformation of getting back to what your soul was born to do. We were born with these skills. We’ve just been taught to forget them. So it is up to you to choose to use these skills of listening to your intuition.

And also, start your day every morning by saying to your higher power: “Today, I free myself from judgment. I am ready to hear and trust the guidance of my inner knowing.”

This new found trust in your intuition will have you making decisions with a flowing feeling rather than chasing an outcome.

What do you say to someone who thinks listening to your intuition takes loads of work or energy?

I have a lot of people who feel like when they get into this work of spirituality and we’re raising our level of consciousness and keeping our vibration high that it can be a lot of work. They think we're supposed to live in that realm all the time. The idea is that this world is about balance. Shoes drop and things are going to happen. When you come to accept that, you should feel a sense of relief, but you should also feel empowered that you, as a human, as a living soul on this earth, can access the energy within yourself and outside of yourself to navigate through all of these moments. Your mind and your thoughts are incredibly powerful. That if you are a positive person, you can attract positive things. But, of course, negative things may happen to you, however we can always resort back to that positive thinking and that inner knowing to navigate through it.

What if the concept of listening to one’s inner knowing evokes fear—either fear of the practice or fear of what one’s intuition may show them?

Fear's a real thing and it's not something that we should stifle or push away. I always tell people to understand that fear exists and it will appear and reappear. It is your choice how you want to connect with it or allow it to heal in its moment. One of the most powerful things that I teach people is boundaries. What do you want to see and what you don't want to see? You must set boundaries and you can tell Spirit, ‘please show me this through positive affirmations.’ Or maybe you want to write about it and that feels safe and soft. You can create your spiritual practice to work through fear, and I encourage everybody to do that. You don’t necessarily have to speak to your deceased loved one to be intuitive. When I work with clients, I channel specifically to their spiritual prescription that works with their energy—and you can do the same for yourself.

MaryAnn DiMarco is a spiritual teacher known for teaching individual clients and workshops on how to develop intuitive gifts. DiMarco provides guidance and clarity through private readings and spiritual counseling in areas related to grief, career, business, family, love, relationships, life changes, and meeting the souls that guide you. She is the author of Believe, Ask, Act: Divine Steps to Raise Your Intuition, Create Change, and Discover Happiness and— her latest book— Medium Mentor: 10 Powerful Techniques to Awaken Divine Guidance for Yourself and Others. To learn more visit maryanndimarco.com.

Stacey Lindsay

A senior editor of The Sunday Paper, Stacey Lindsay is a multimedia journalist, editorial director, and writer based in San Francisco. She was previously a news anchor and reporter who covered veterans' issues, healthcare, and breaking news. You can learn more and find her work here, and you can follow her here.