Psychic Medium MaryAnn DiMarco On Tapping Into Your Intuition

MaryAnn DiMarco:

When you lean into hope, you open your world to so much more, and you're trusting your guides and that they may be opening more doors for you than you ever could have imagined.

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Marie Forleo:

Okay. Do you ever have the feeling that you're kind of psychic or that your intuition leads you in certain directions and you wish you could just make it stronger and better and know exactly how to make the right decisions all the time? My guest today is going to show us precisely how to do that. MaryAnn DiMarco is an internationally recognized psychic, medium healer, and spiritual teacher who provides guidance, counseling, and mentorship to celebrities and students around the globe. As an expert, she's been featured across multiple platforms, including The New York Times, The Dr. Oz Show, Women's Health, Elle, and more.

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Her newest book, Medium Mentor, is available now. MaryAnn, thank you so much for making time. Come on, woman. This book, it's so fantastic. I enjoyed it so much. I have so many things that are underlined and I just felt, first of all, I adore you as a human being and I felt your voice so clear through this. But there was also a lot of moments for me personally, that I was like (gasps), I learned so much from reading this, and we're going to dive into some of that.

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But first, I loved that you've shared, "I balance my chakras and I talk to the dead but I'm just not that weird about it." And I know that you came to serving as a psychic almost by accident. So for folks that don't know you, can you share a little bit about how you got to where you are now and why specifically you wanted to write this book?

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yeah, I would love to do that, and thank you and I love you too and I'm so happy to be here. I really thought this was very normal for many years of my life. I was very fortunate to grow up with a mom who thought this was just part of our every day. Learning about ascended masters, learning about higher levels of consciousness, learning to meditate it at a very young age. So I always knew I had psychic abilities. I didn't exactly know how to use them. Later on in life, and I stuck with this my whole life, but later on in life, in my 30s, I was going through a really rough time, my life was just turned upside down with divorce and grief and trying to manage my two young children through this and really learning parts about myself that I just forgot about and had to relearn them and what is going on?

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I wound up in the hands of this beautiful woman named Pat Longo. And I thought I was making an appointment to see a psychic medium. But actually when I made the appointment, she is a healer and she teaches people how to do this. And almost automatically Marie, I was like, "Oh, I think I'm supposed to see you now. I think this is it." I think all of these years that I had been feeling, all of this energy around me, the weird dreams, the nudging, the feeling like someone standing next to me, the things that I heard, I realized that it was at that moment, that through my unraveling moment, I was about to be put together with spirit and I was really excited about that. So I started taking classes and within just a few weeks I was reading.

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Marie Forleo:

That's incredible. 

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

I know it was cool.

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Marie Forleo:

And so you had a whole other career before this. I mean, you were in retail, it was like a completely different life.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Totally different life. I thought I had business background, I was in retail management. I was in sales and then I stayed home with my children for many years and I was starting to feel like, "Okay, what's next?" My children were getting a little older and I was started trying to figure out how to balance my time. And I thought, "Well, this will be really nourishing for me." So I just took it like this was something that I always wanted to learn how to do.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

I never in a million years thought it would be to the extent that I'm doing it now.

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Marie Forleo:

And so tell me about this book because this is really helping all of us or for anyone who feels like they want to develop their sense of intuition even more powerfully or they want to take it to that next level and they too feel they have psychic abilities, different abilities that aren't necessarily in the "mainstream" quite yet, I think more so now than ever, but who may want to go on a professional path. So tell me about the inspiration behind this book.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

I started getting people coming to me that were just hungry for this information, really wanting to know, "How can I do this"? It's the reason why I wrote my first book too, but this was different, this was about that deeper connection of utilizing these abilities within your everyday life and for others, if that's what you wanted to do, if that's what you chose to do. And honestly, sitting in meditation with my guides, I kept hearing, "Wake them up, show them how, you should teach them." And it was just a repetitive theme and my job is to listen to what my guides say and to go with that flow and that's what I did. I was very excited to write this book because my hope is that it will do exactly that, help people navigate through their lives within business, personal life, their own psychic abilities, grieving, whatever emotion it is that they have that they're looking to connect, whatever level it is, and I'm hoping that this is a great starting point for many people.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah, and I think it will be. And I love it because it's in such normal everyday language. And again, you are a normal everyday person. We're both very Italian-American, we have our conversations where it's just throw downs and then we can go into these other realms. So you also share this and I believe this too, that everyone is psychic that everyone possesses the abilities but few develop them without instruction or mentorship. And I love that you make the point, we're all born with intuition and we're all born with the ability to pick up on other people's energy and feelings. And I know specifically for my audience, so many of us, and I feel like I've been an empath my whole life. I've been very intuitive my whole life. It's part of the reason why I do my coaching and part of how I do it is tapping into that sense of being able to feel into other people what's happening, reflect and then support them.

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But there's something that you wrote that really stood out to me. You said, "Empaths often feel like they suffer because they take on other people's energy." And I love that you followed up with this, "The issue in this case isn't an abundance of empathy, it's a lack of boundaries." And I was like, that was, that was a huge moment because I think at certain points in my own life and throughout my career, I have not had good boundaries. And the taking on of energy, I didn't know how to deal with it. So I want to be quiet and hear your perspective on this because I think it's going to be of huge service to many people listening and watching right now.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Thank you. It was one of the greatest lessons I've learned through doing this work because coming off of many years of being a people pleaser, many years of only being good as my last sale, taking in the vibe of a room and really ingesting it, becoming kind of a chameleon of the energy, I didn't realize that it was okay to say no, not only in my active physical life, but in my spiritual life too and telling my guides, my loved ones on the other side, help me be grounded, protect me, allow me to say no and feel really good within this flow and within this energy, and we are all born with this divine gift, we all have this empowerment within us. We're full of light, we are the light, we're part of this energy to be able to navigate that and truly understand how to use that tool was one of the most greatest gifts this work has given me and I was very excited to it with other people because like you, it was a light bulb that went off for me.

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It was like, "Oh, I can not only put boundaries around myself, I can control my reaction in a way that serves me better and then in turn, change the climate of a room. And that can happen from the boardroom to the bedroom to whatever room you want it to be. You can really work on changing that energy to just have this more beautiful flow. My advice is that everybody learn how to do that in the most effective way possible, the most authentic way possible to you.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. And you obviously walk through, there's so many techniques in the book, very specific exercises that you walk people through and we're not going to have the time to be able to go through them today, that's why you need to get your hands on this here book. But I also want to back that up and follow it up with the other thing that's so wonderfully refreshing about your work MaryAnn is you're very much into DIY spirituality. In terms of these particular practices, you'll lay out a suggestion, "Hey, here's how I do it. This is something that can get you started but please tweak this, make it your own so it feels comfortable for you, your particular experience, your beliefs, your background, so that you can tap into this incredible energy, right, and to create these practices." Not that you're following somebody else's dogma, but that you're really accessing all of the information, the wisdom and the energy that's available to you.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Absolutely. You have to feel like yourself…

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

…when you are doing any type of practice, it has to suit you in some way. I spent a lot of time trying to fit in some sort of box that people wanted me to be in. I don't know, I thought maybe should I have a crystal ball? Do I need like some sort of... I don't know what it was supposed to look like. So I spent a lot of years thinking, "Oh, I think it's supposed to look like this because that's how this person does the practice."

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

It was so freeing to let go of that…

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

…and just be me. And so, yeah, I am really normal and casual about it because that is my personality when it comes to this type of work. Anybody can take whatever suits them from many different practices, backgrounds, religions, whatever that looks like for you and formulate your own style of this practice.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Now that work doesn't feel like work, it feels cathartic. It's a relief and feels like something that always existed within you anyway.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah, and it feels so natural and almost fun. The past few years for me, I have been practicing more intentionally connecting with not only my guides, spirit, universe, source, God, I use all of them because it all feels like it works at different points and at different times. And it is remarkable the dialogue and the strengthening of my own abilities that I didn't even know was possible. And I think the other thing that's so exciting about your work MaryAnn is I think sometimes many of us in life believe that you're either born with an ability or you're not.

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And I had this for myself specifically around singing. I had this belief, and it was a mistaken belief, that you either are born being able to (sings) sing just amazingly and I didn't think you could actually train it or learn it. And I think what's so incredible about this work is the fact that we all have intuition and we all have certain abilities that are probably underdeveloped. And should this be of interest to you, should this be something you feel called to do, that there's a legitimate path to strengthening these gifts.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Oh absolutely. Just like any muscle.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Right? We are going for a marathon, we want to train for that marathon, we want to learn how the body works. And it's the same thing with your intuition. 

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

You are entitled to use it. If you want to access it, go right ahead, and there's so many ways that you can sharpen that tool and like we were speaking about before really making it authentically you, but getting better and better at it.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Learning when it shows up and then it becomes instinctual.

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Marie Forleo:

That's right. And I feel like I'm teetering on that level and I'm ready to go to my next level, which I want to talk about the first of 10 techniques really that you focus on in the book. And I love that you share if we really want to develop our intuition and our psychic gifts, is that we have to check our egos, right? Is that number one? I think it is number one.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

That is number one. It is number one.

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Marie Forleo:

So can you say more about why that is so critical and why you put it in the first spot?

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

I put it in the first spot because most of my students that come to me think that they are not worthy of doing this work. And they come in with doubt and fear attached to their ego. The ego will always be present, it's always going to show up. But if we ask it to just step aside for a moment and we thank it for showing up, and we recognize it, we're like, "All right, I see you." But I know that this exists within me, anyway. We start to and then go in tandem, we work with it, it's one of the first skills because it always shows up. We want to get it right, we want to get the information right, we want to please others while we're doing it, we're frantic to learn our service, maybe we're not trusting divine timing. This all can fall under ego.

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And when we surrender to that and we learn how to utilize it more as a superpower, I like when mine shows up because then I know I can get to work and learn some more. We then just start to ease through the practice a little bit more. I honestly feel like it starts to develop those really early stages of trust too with your universal team and with energy and mostly with yourself and your abilities.

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Marie Forleo:

Hey, real quick. If you are loving these tips, then you are going to love my free audio coaching program even more. It's called How to Get Anything You Want. And inside you're going to and learn three proven steps to turn any dream into reality. I'm not kidding. Go to Marieforleo.com/subscribe. That's Marieforleo.com/subscribe. Go do it now, and I'll see you there.

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So I love that you wrote this, "If we're shaming and judging ourselves, we can know for sure that ego has taken over." And this was another line that I underlined in your book and I love what you told this story, that in the past, that you've shied away sometimes from other mediums, when you perceive an activation in your own ego, you feel yourself getting stressed out and like you have to keep up. So I want you to first share, because I have so much to say about this. Can you share how you navigate situations like this? If you are around someone, and again, they could be a lovely person, right? But you feel that sense of competitiveness within yourself and it just starts to feel disgusting. 

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yeah.

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Marie Forleo:

What do you do in those kinds of situations?

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Competitiveness is probably one of the deepest parts of my ego, just a natural competitive person. I always have been, not really with other people, I just play sports. And like I said, I had sales background so it does show up. What I learned early on is gratitude. Gratitude, paying a compliment, seeing the accomplishments of somebody else, what somebody else is experiencing is a reflection of what I myself would like to achieve and so then it becomes inspiring instead of competitiveness. I've changed my perception on it. I changed my reaction to it and then the whole energy and shifts changes. And it's one of the tough ones. This is not easy, I want to add. The ego is a lot of work but when you get good at it, you just keep sticking with it and it allows for more consistency within your practice.

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You don't get shamed away, you kind of don't do that to yourself. I spent a lot of time like, "Oh, what's wrong with you?” And, you know, “Calm down.” Or, you know, talking myself off the ledge. When I started to have a conversation with my guides and with spirit or I would meditate on it or I would write about it, I saw myself moving into spaces of gratitude and learning how to work with it and then the expansion of yourself continues on and you start to hear with more clarity. It's one of the most important parts of the work I think.

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Marie Forleo:

I want to share something that you wrote because I found this to be incredibly, not only honest, but also I think really helpful. Especially if anyone listening finds themself in one of those places and given the platforms that most people are plugged into 24/7, right? For anyone that participates in social media and who is any type of creative artist or entrepreneur, they are comparing themselves literally dozens of times a day. So I have no doubt that people are saying, "Yep," like there's hands being raised all over it.

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And I love that this is one of the things that you shared as a pathway to moving through it, that you thank your guides for showing you where your ego needs a little tune up. Then you ask your guides that, or maybe the universe, and again, you can correct me if I'm, if I'm misquoting you here, you ask that the other person be well, happy and find love and success in life and that they be removed from yours. That just made me so happy. Because again, you could want the best for someone…

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Absolutely. 

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Marie Forleo:

…and you do not have to force yourself to be friends with or be around that person.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

You don't.

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Marie Forleo:

Say more.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

They might not want to be around you, who knows? We can move into the space of, I need to be liked.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Right? I need to be liked can activate your ego too. I ask people to be removed for the greater good of all concerned always, with safety and with light around them. But if I continue to see it activating my ego or I am continuing to see their ego within themselves and it's not judgment, it's just an energy shift. It's not serving me well, it's probably not serving them well. And so yeah, you can say to spirit, universe, God, whatever that is for your source, please allow this person to be removed from my life and I want them to go with ease and with safety and love around them. And it is absolutely magical how that happens.

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Marie Forleo:

It's one of the kindest and best ways, right? That you can say, okay.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yes, see you on the flip side, it's okay.

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Marie Forleo:

It's great.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

We don't need to be here together, it's totally fine.

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Marie Forleo:

And I want to drill down too, because I think this is a topic that's so important and it's so important, it's a continuous lesson for all of us. You had mentioned in terms of disarming your ego, gratitude. You have three that you specify in the book, gratitude is one which we've talked about. Two, surrendering expectations. This is another place where I underlined MaryAnn. I love, and I wrote this trade expectations for hope. You wrote, expectations come with need, hope does not.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Hope is endless, it's vast.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

When I put expectations, I'm terrible with disappointment. Oh, I'm not good with it. So I decided, all right, well that means you just keep putting expectations on everything, let's stop that. And let's just go with hope. When you lean into hope, you open your world to so much more, and you're trusting your guides and that they may be opening more doors for you than you ever could have imagined. Expectations come with limitations.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes, that's right. Because it's, "Oh, I expect it to happen this way, in this particular time, with the image that I have in my head," which nine times out of 10, it is born from an idea that we learned in the past.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

That's right.

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Marie Forleo:

As you said, it is limited or it's coming from a smaller part or a more frightened part of our ego that thinks it needs to be this particular way, and if it isn't this particular way then I am not going to be happy. And I've found in my own life so many times when I'm like, "Open my hands, I'm going to let Jesus take the wheel." What comes through is a gajillion times better. I'm even going through something right now, which I'm going to tell you about after we get off this recording, I'm not going to say it on the thing because I want to see how it actually, things aren't signed or whatever, but it's literally another one of those mind blowing. And as you say, some people like, "This is going to sound crazy," and MaryAnn's like, "No, it's not look, who you're talking to."

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

No, it's not.

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Marie Forleo:

But my point is this notion of surrendering our expectations, it is super powerful, isn't it?

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yes, it's super powerful. I always say, if you're manifesting, do it with hopefulness. Leave. I don't love too much of an exact manifest, I like it a little open ended, right?

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Marie Forleo:

Yes!

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

We want to be specific but more open ended than that. And then set it and forget it. Set and forget it. You did it, all right, this is what I'm aiming for because your guides are like, "You're so cute, that's fantastic. I have so much more for you. I have so much more for you."

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Marie Forleo:

That request is adorable but hold on to your hot pants and if you stop pushing...

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Let me show you what we can do here. And Marie, it's amazing. 

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

It's also a relief to surrender that type of control. You let it go.

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Marie Forleo:

For control freaks, again, raising my hand, right? So much of my life, oh my gosh, have tortured myself, torture and other people of course, striving to control outcomes. Dude, that was my MO and I am finding this to be so much more pleasurable. And it's great for my stress levels. It's fantastic. I'm like, "Oh I don't got to worry about it." Like, it’s handled. It’s being handled. 

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

It’s so good for stress. And you’re an active player, you're still an active player.

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Marie Forleo:

That’s right. That’s right.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

You're still saying yes. Spirits coming to you not with answers with breadcrumbs, with hints, with guidance...

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Marie Forleo:

With nudges.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yes, with nudges.

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Marie Forleo:

My body literally gets, the other day again, I will tell you this, but it's like, I was physically pulled, not physically, right? But it was like, my body was moved in a particular direction and I heard certain things and I was like, "Okay, we're going to follow."

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Which brings me to, I want to talk about the Clairs. So will you explain what the Clairs are and just walk us through the different ways that we can sense or receive information again, because for folks listening right now, especially if they've only had that slight feeling, you know what I mean? And maybe the thought of anyone, even them being potentially psychic or even developing their intuition, it's like a bridge too far.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yeah. What I want to say about the Clairs is, we can call them Clairs, but we are extending them to the senses. Really what I'm saying to you is pay attention to all of the senses. When you are looking to connect with spirit, that's one of the most important things that I've learned. I see a lot of students and a lot of people who are trying to connect, especially to their loved ones on the other side, Marie, they're trying to hear them or they're trying to see them. Well, you might feel them with that inner knowing, right? You might sense them around. You might smell things that remind you of them. Maybe you're smelling perfume or you are smelling smoke, if they were a smoker or whatever that may be.

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Marie Forleo:

Or meatballs.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Or meatballs. Sunday sauce. I mean, you never know, you might be smelling that. Use all of the senses. You're knowing, you're hearing, you're seeing, your clairvoyance with the third eye, paying attention to dreams, paying attention to science and symbols that can come to you. All of this, whether it's your loved ones or not, is not just a single connection, this is a connection that you can use for all of the universe. God, like I said, guides, whatever it is for you, whatever it is authentically for you. But I highly encourage that you use all of the senses when you are trying to connect with spirit and then you open yourself up to just receiving the most incredible messages in many different ways. When I first started listening to spirit, I heard them a lot, but I felt them viscerally.

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I thought, "Wow, there's something here that I'm supposed to be paying attention to that pulling and that knowing." And I just don't want anyone who's listening, don't limit yourself to what you think it should look like. We go back to that, open yourself up to receiving in many different ways. I have a lot of students who, who say, "I think I'm crazy but I could have sworn so and so was standing next to me.” And I'm thinking, "No, you're not crazy, they were. Just accept it and trust that you have the sense and the ability to connect."

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Marie Forleo:

Yes. So I'm definitely Clairaudient and I think I'm all of them, but this one, it happens to be probably one of the strongest at the moment. And the six simple words that were told to you that now I will never forget. Can you share them for anyone else who...

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Is it spirit comes in your own voice? Is that them?

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Marie Forleo:

Yes it is.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Spirit comes in your own voice. It is not some weird disembodied voice. For many years before I learned how to do this, I thought it was, "Hello, can you hear us MaryAnn? We are coming from above." And it's not that at all thank God, because that would just make me want to run away and hide and be scared. I don't know, be under my blanket.

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It is this inner voice, it is the inner knowing of that voice, that exists by the way when you're in prayer, let's say for argument's sake and you want to receive the word of your higher power, it will come to you and that same way it is that inner knowing, the inner word. And that is your Clairaudience, a listening in Claircognizant too, where you're kind of paying attention again to that inner knowing and feeling. And that was life changing for me. Pat Longo is this tiny, tiny little woman and I am all of 5'9" and I really just almost pushed her and like, "You have got to be kidding me." It was like she unlocked the biggest secret.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. Well, have all of these ideas, right? It goes back to kind of almost classical, almost like a parody of an idea, like you said, like a disembodied voice or with these kind of weird creepy things. And it's like, "No, it's your own voice in your own head."

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

It's your own voice kind of coming in, they're activating you, they're using all of your frame of references to be in connection with you too. So dreams, movies, music.

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Marie Forleo:

Songs.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Songs, yes.

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Marie Forleo:

Can I tell you, it was like a few weeks ago, and I was like, "What?" And when I realized the song and the lyrics, I'm like, "I haven't listened to this song in a long time," and it literally, it was playing on a loop. I had not heard it, anything. And then I realized, I was like, "Oh, it's the lyric, oh, it's exactly what I'm supposed to do right now." And I shared this story with Josh and he pulled up the song and we listened to it and we were both dying laughing because every single lyric was so applicable to me.

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But it does, it comes through songs and those personal references. Josh was having some type of skin thing that he was going through because he didn't realize he was allergic to something. I literally walked down MaryAnn and a word came out of my mouth that I had never, and it was the name of a particular supplement, he's like, "What did you just say?" And I said, "I heard this supplement that you're supposed to take." And he's, we were both like, he's like, "How?" I was like, "I don't know how I knew it, but it came in," and we were laughing so hard because it's like, you can't explain this. Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Contagious. It's contagious. You've been hanging around with me, it's contagious. When you don't deny the gift. When you say to yourself, "This is a real thing and this is happening." 

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

There is no going back because spirit loves to come in and validate for you.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

They love to come in. I always tell them like, "Now you're just showing off." They love to come in and show me, even in my moments of doubt, they'll come in and be like, "Look, let us show you what's really going on here."

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The beauty of what you did, Marie, is that you listened.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco: 

And you didn't hold back and you didn't question it. You didn't let that ego rise up and say, "I think I'm crazy." And everybody does it, everybody starts off going on. "I don't know, maybe I'm making this up." But you're not.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

And when you go with it, the magic happens, I'm in awe of it every day.

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Marie Forleo:

Oh, I love it. It's so much fun too. So okay, I want to talk about fear now because you have this fantastic story about the lesson that spirit had to teach you about fear through some intense imagery and some rats. Can you tell us that? No, because I think the metaphor is so incredibly important and I want people to hear this from you because if they get nothing else, but they get this metaphor and this image, it will serve their life.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

I do not like rats. I have a thing. I worked in the lower levels of Manhattan and had some quite experiences with rats. And it's a thing. I went into this meditation really with a different intention. I think I had gone in maybe to hear some guides about soul contracts, whatever deep thing that I was looking to do. And my guides put me in a corridor of doors and I was walking down the doors, and one of these guides opened up this door for me. And there they were, these two nasty rats fighting each other. And I was really clear. And I stood there and watched it confused at first. And when I walked out of this room and down to a different room and sat and listened to the guidance with my guides, because this is how my life rolls, this is what I do.

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I heard what would happen if you... What you saw was fear, so rats representing that I'm fearful of. And what would you do if you put out food to them? And I thought, "Well, they would be coming to me." And it was yeah, because when you feed your fear, fear comes. When you feed your fear, fear grows. When you feed your fear, you nourish it don't you? You're giving it good nourishment to thrive. Starve it, starve the fear. And I thought, "Oh yeah." Sometimes I'm like, "Okay. Yeah, I got it really quick."

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It's not to say that fear will not arise, it does. We are on an earthly realm where fear is part of our lessons and what we have to experience. Nobody comes out unscathed. But when it shows up, I could either choose to really nourish it or I can choose to work with it in a way that is far more productive, understanding it, writing about it, learning the lesson through it, why it's showing up, doing that type of work is always a joy. And you can really understand the story and it works to calm that fear. And then I think you're able to navigate through it.

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Marie Forleo:

I just love though not feeding it.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Don't feed your fear.

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Marie Forleo:

The imagery of not feeding, put the cheese away

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Put the cheese away.

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Marie Forleo:

Put the cheese away.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

And let the rats have at it. In other words, fear was fighting itself.

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

You don't need to be part of it, you don't need to add to that storyline. You're going to back out and let it do its thing and just don't nourish it.

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Marie Forleo:

Yep.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Again, another tough lesson, maybe not easy to do, but with practice, it's completely beneficial and it honestly works, no doubt.

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Marie Forleo:

I love that there was, sticking on the same topic of when things are scary and when things are uncomfortable and there's a lot happening in your life, you say that spiritual growth is about leaning into the fear and our willingness to face and see what's there. And here's a line from you. "Ask for our guides to show us whatever it is that we're supposed to be learning." I thought there was so much wisdom in that. Ask for our guides to show us whatever it is that we're supposed to be learning. What a beautiful way to take what will inevitably be difficult, challenging, tumultuous, painful situations that we all as human beings will find ourselves in.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Absolutely.

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Marie Forleo:

At many points in our journey and to ask for help to see what it is we can learn from this.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

That is how much I trust them. That is how much I want to convey to everybody that you are not alone, that you have a team on the other side that is willing to help you. And if you lean into that fear, because fear can feel very lonely, you will not feel alone. And in the darkest moments of my life, and I've had them, pretty deep moments that have brought me to my knees. I have said, "What's going on?" And sometimes not so eloquently.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yeah. Talk to your guides like you would talk to anybody else, feel the emotion in the moment. But I think what it lends to is that you will get your answer. You might not like it, it might be tough, it doesn't make it go away. But you do have a better understanding and I absolutely do that in all of my fearful moments. And we're talking about not like a scared moment, we're talking about moments that you are working through that have taken hold in your life.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

And that to me, it's valuable, it's life changing, and it's helped me through many tough times in my own life, and spirit really showed me the way and how to do that effectively.

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Marie Forleo:

As we wrap up this conversation, which is super fun by the way, I want to talk about how developing our intuition, developing these connections with information consciousness source beyond what most people do on a day to day basis, how it leads to dissolving self doubt? Because I thought that this was not only, again, accurate from my own experience, but somewhat unexpected, kind of contrarian. Because again, I feel like it used to be maybe 10, 15, maybe even 20 years ago, there's not that many people that you could like, "Hey, you want to talk about spirit guides and angels," you know what I mean? Consciousness and God.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Oh yeah, I know.

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Marie Forleo:

And now I remember I was away with a friend and met a bunch of folks that I had known of peripherally, but like everybody's kind of, they're important people and whatever. And within like three or four minutes, I'm like, "Hey, did you guys see Surviving Death?" And I'm talking all this stuff on Netflix and this and that, and the other thing we're like, “Ahhh!”

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Yep.

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Marie Forleo:

It became this whole other level of conversation. So I'd love to talk about how, as you developed your mediumship work, you stopped caring what other people thought about you and then you saw that with your students as well.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

When you talk to dead people, you have to let it go. You're going to hear criticism. And then to your point, I've been doing this many years and back then it was definitely still, there was a lot of criticism around it. And as I was developing, I realized just how much I did care what people thought in so many areas of my life and how much that was weighing me down and really corrupting my intuition. Because I was too engrossed and pleasing people and I decided to just start to rip off the bandaid. And this work started with my personal life and this work showed me how to do that.

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When you let that go, first of all, it immediately tunes them out. You sort of don't really hear it as much anymore. But the doubt will always show up, you just know that you have the intuition and the ability to flow through that. Our mind is loud, it's going to come in with doubt, it's going to come in with fear, and it absolutely going to come in with fear of judgment from others. When you let that go, you free yourself in ways that are endless, in ways that can just change your life on so many different levels. You can live the dream of your joy by letting go of what others think of you because people just want to dampen that and that's not your business. So if you feel that this is inspiring you and that your intuition is right there, but you're so concerned about what people think, let it go. Work on that, have that same dialogue with your guides that we did about fear.

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What is this intuition? What is this doubt? What is this judgment? Why am I here learning this in this moment and how can I work through it? And I promise you, your guides will answer you, you just have to do the work in order to get there, we have to be an active member of the team. 

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Marie Forleo:

Yes.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

And it was a big lesson and it doesn't mean it doesn't rear its ugly head, it does. It just means that I'm so consistent in my practice, and when you are, you have the tools to navigate through what you see. It arises, it becomes instinctual, and you start working with it.

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Marie Forleo:

It's like a different texture of feeling too. And I've realized that, and I've realized times when if I'm a little more rocked back on my heels I'm so much more interested, right, to hear what other people think of my ideas or do they like it or is this sound good? And when I am more grounded, when I am more connected, I find that I'm like, "I don't give a shit." Not in a bad way, it's not a harsh way.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

No, it's not.

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Marie Forleo:

It's just the clarity is so there. And I'm like, even if it sounds just crazy pants to everyone else. And I will say, I think it's interesting for me personally, and I'm just going to talk about myself here for a minute.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Go right ahead.

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Marie Forleo:

When I first started my career, because I think I didn't know what the hell I was doing or what was going on, but that intuitive sense and that open guidance was so strong. And we were also at a time in the world, right, where I didn't have two decades of incoming, taking in, oh my God, every day, a gajillion comments and this and that and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm so happy that I've gotten to a place in my life now where I'm like, "Oh, now I can start to feel and hear the difference." Because part of the reason that I'm here is because I listened to myself and that clarity and that voice was so strong. And then it's been an interesting journey being able to parse through, right? How do I get back to that part of me because I've allowed so much in over the years. It's interesting.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

You see what serves you and what doesn't serve you so much more clear.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

That to go back is so against the grain. 

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Marie Forleo:

Yep.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

And doing this work for as long as I have, I've had many people want to put me in a certain type of box, "Do this type of reading, do this type of work." But my intuition, that pull, says, "No, we're going to do this type of work." When you say yes to that, we go back to boundaries, and you don't compromise on that because you know it feels so right within you and you don't doubt it, there's no looking back, Marie, you don't look back, you just keep going. And when you resist, you're almost resentful if you have to.

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Marie Forleo:

That's right.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

That's where that resentment comes in and so why do that? Don't compromise it and allow yourself into that flow. I think that's beautiful that you learn that and that we can continue to learn it by the way, like I said, because it's polarizing.

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Marie Forleo:

That's right.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Judgment is polarizing and it's going to come at you. Again, we go back to techniques…

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Marie Forleo:

Yep.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

…and tools that help you navigate through it.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah. This is awesome, I love it. I'm so excited because I think that this is really a movement towards, and for me, I've always been a coach that I'm like, "Look, I don't have all the answers but I know you got yours." And one of the things I'm really good at is helping people find their own clarity, right, and strengthen that essence of who they are so that confidence level and that clarity just keeps getting… I'm just like, "You don't need me, I'm just here with a little bit of training wheels at the beginning and then boom, you go."

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So what I love about your work and I love about this work in specific is it's like, hey, it's helping people access what they already have inside, what they were born with, all of those incredible gifts and to be able to use that on a daily basis because they know what's in their highest and best if they have the courage to listen to it. And there's all the love and the support and the insight and the creativity, it's like bubbling out of them, we just kind of live in a society where that hasn't been taught or prioritized or glorified to the level that it needs to be.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

There's such a mysticism around psychic mediumship.

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Marie Forleo:

Yeah.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

And the point of demystifying it and having it just be really normal. Not only that, telling people, "You don't need a psychic medium in order to connect to your loved one on the other side and you don't need a psychic medium in order to navigate your life." By all means, go to one, it's a great experience and I encourage you to do it. But allow it to be a starting point for your own growth and your own abilities.

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Marie Forleo:

Yep.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Because it is something that we were taught to forget and the universe right now is reminding us, not ever so gently by the way, sort of in your face, to figure it out and make that connection and do it for yourself because it is something that not only will you have for you, but you'll extend it through your service for others, you can really pay it forward. And I think that's a really beautiful thing.

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Marie Forleo:

I adore you. Anything else you want to say as we wrap up today? This was awesome, by the way. You're fantastic.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

I thank you so much. I love being here and I love you so much. And I just hope that people pick up the book. I've said it and forget it. I'm sort of like, I was drawn to do it. I put it out there and I hope everybody really enjoys it and finds the power within themselves to make their own personal connection.

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Marie Forleo:

Adore you.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Thank you.

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Marie Forleo:

Thank you so much for being here today, you're the best.

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MaryAnn DiMarco:

Love you, thanks.

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Marie Forleo:

Wasn't that awesome? Now, if you want to take this even further, you have to check out this next episode about four ways to strengthen your intuition even if you don't think you have it. It is so tactical. Go click here, check it out now.

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Now you may not think that you have the intuitive gift but that's just not true. All of us have what I call natural knowing. I mean, it's how our species has survived on this planet.

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