Does Meditation Make You More Intuitive?

The idea that we should follow our gut is popular. Many can attribute a significant part of their achievements to following their gut. 

Navigating through life isn’t an exact science, but rather, things turn out well for those that find a balance between non-analytical decisions and analytical decisions. 

It makes no logical sense to follow the gut, but there are case studies that prove otherwise that have turned out to be statistically significant. 

Notably, the research was done by Dary Bem where the notion that we can predict the future to a great extent through intuition turned out to be accurate. 

But what role does meditation play in our intuition? Does it make us more intuitive? The more the mind and the body are connected, the easier it is to evaluate our decisions and make one that will often turn out to be positive. 

Now, it’s impossible to say for sure if meditation will make everyone more intuitive, but it’s been shown to make people better problem solvers.

The Sixth Sense

Our intuition is seen as a sixth sense by many people. When entering territory that would otherwise seem more esoteric, science tends to have stricter guidelines for something to pass as evidence. 

On the other hand, we’d be naive if we dismiss all the gains meditation can bring that would otherwise seem esoteric at the surface, but once we experience it by ourselves, it doesn’t have to make more sense. 

Now, meditation on its own isn’t strictly a religious or spiritual practice, even if it might have originated there. Many are skeptical of meditation as a whole, and would probably be more if they heard meditation can improve decision-making, what some, in this case would call improving our intuition. 

Our intuition is already there, but it isn’t always used by everyone. Of course, our intuition won’t be accurate one hundred percent of the time but lots of individuals attribute their success to following their intuition. 

For instance, the idea of success in itself is for many not an exact science, i.e, someone wanting to become a successful entrepreneur. 

Therefore, tackling a problem that doesn’t have an intuitive nature to begin with could be costing us.

Abstract problems require abstract solutions on many occasions, so even if you happen to be strictly logical and never once thought about following your intuition, and things hadn’t been going your way, you’ll likely benefit from giving it a try. 

This is not to say that intuition should be used all of the time, only when you feel it’s warranted through gut feeling, or perhaps do 50/50 as an experiment. 

Meditation helps you look at things from a third-person perspective and make more mindful decisions, therefore, the strong correlation mindful decisions have with enhanced intuition may be confused by seeing as many as the same thing, even if they necessarily aren’t. 

However, meditation does go hand in hand with making decisions that favor you in one way or another – you can find countless testimonies of people confirming it worked out well for them. 

And we’re not talking about survivorship bias when an experiment was made that supports the notion, concluding that there is indeed a high probability of making good decisions merely by following our intuition, and even better when we’re mindful about it. 

Fewer Impulse Decisions

Have you ever found yourself making an impulse decision, only to regret it later? This is quite common. 

Sometimes we can’t help it if we feel like we’re pressed against a wall, but by cultivating the habit of meditation, your mind is more likely to default to a mindful state, much like a Wifi has been conditioned to connect to the faster internet of 5GHz rather than the slower version of 2.4GHz. 

At this point, even when you feel you have a limited time to make a decision, you’re more likely to evaluate all the outcomes faster, and the connection between your mind and body can make your gut pick up on something that would help you. 

There are times where some indeed trust their gut and things don’t end up going their way. That sucks, but at the same time, if we’re less attached to the outcome of that decision we’re less likely to feel defeated and hopeless. 

I say this because this becomes a new normal after meditating and realizing you only have the now, you enjoy the process and don’t look for a specific outcome. 

Of course, this doesn’t apply to all situations, there are serious situations where logical thinking is warranted and we can’t afford to have the sixth-sense make the decision. But even in those circumstances, people have reported satisfactory outcomes by following their intuition. 

Nonetheless, with a reduction of impulse decisions, many are likely to see an outcome that they want, but on the contrary, some successful individuals attribute their gains to fast decision-making. 

Fast or impulse decision-making is less risky if it’s at least been evaluated and approved by the gut. Something that it’s easier for it to become a default after cultivating the discipline of meditation and having the meditation physically modify the brain’s structure. 

Should You Follow Your Intuition? 

While there’s a correlation between good decision-making and meditation, as they say in science, just because something correlates doesn’t mean it’s direct causation. 

But even for those who are skeptical about intuition, statistically significant results have shown that based on the idea that our sixth sense can have some insight into the future, it’d be wise to give it a chance. 

Some don’t like to call it intuition because of the spiritual association they make with it. But with meditation, it doesn’t just help creative problem solving but can also aid in logical problem solving and logical decision-making. 

After all, long-term meditators can on some occasions have a higher IQ than their non-meditating counterparts. There’s even support that meditation can increase an individual’s intelligence. 

Now, it’s difficult to say exactly whether meditation makes you more intuitive, but based on observation of those who have made intuitive decisions aided by meditation, it’s safe to say that it’s worked out for a substantial majority. 

Being open to the idea that we can make better decisions through meditation already opens up a door, since the more confident we are with something, the more likely we are to follow through. 

I can tell you about all the meditation benefits they have, but you are not guaranteed to experience them, because it varies on many factors such as how long you meditate, is it monk-like? What type of meditation do you do? Questions like these make it trickier to predict what meditation will do for a sizable amount. 

But what there is to gain from meditation is something people only can experience  first-hand, without attaching their expectations to the end goal. 

With better decision-making, something many meditators have in common, often comes a sharper intuition in both the logical and abstract sense. This will in turn lead to more balanced decision-making that’s neither made on impulse or emotion, but a place of peace.