Why Mindfulness Is the Missing Link in Discernment
By Tiffany Andras, MS, CMT-P
Head of Curriculum Development at MAGNUS|One | Mindfulness Coach & Elasticity Educator
Many of us were taught to “trust our gut.”
For those who work in high-stakes environments, this advice often feels critical. Decisions happen fast. Information is often incomplete, and the body learns to detect danger long before the mind catches up.
And yet, as Dr. Shauna Springer so beautifully articulates in her recent Psychology Today article, When Instinct Disguises Itself as Intuition, there is a crucial distinction we must learn to make. Because not everything that feels true is wise.
As Dr. Springer writes, “What we often call intuition is actually instinct, a reflexive survival response generated from the oldest, least nuanced part of the brain.” When we mistake instinct for intuition, we risk reacting from fear, memory, and past threat rather than responding to what the present moment is actually asking of us.
Her question is an essential one.
And mindfulness is the key element that allows us to explore and answer it.
Instinct and Intuition Both Belong, But They Are Not the Same
Doc Springer offers a clear and grounded framework: instinct is fast, blunt, and binary. Its job is survival. It asks one question only: “Am I safe?” When the answer feels like no, the body mobilizes before conscious thought has a chance to weigh in.
Intuition, by contrast, is not reactive. As Dr. Springer beautifully states, “Intuition is not frantic. It is informed.” It draws from the whole system, body cues, memory, emotional learning, and executive functioning. It allows us to evaluate context, consider multiple options, and choose a response aligned with our values.
The challenge is that instinct and intuition feel similar in the body. Both arise quickly. Both feel convincing. Both present as sensation.
And the truth is that without awareness, they are nearly indistinguishable.
This is where mindfulness becomes the foundation for discernment.
Viktor Frankl captured this truth with extraordinary precision:
“Between a stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our ability to choose, and in that choice lies our growth and our freedom.”
I personally see mindfulness as widening that space.
Without present-moment awareness, we remain locked in what I often call the stimulus → response dance. The nervous system reacts, the story locks in, and behavior follows automatically. There is no room for wisdom because there is no space, no pause from which to make any conscious choice at all.
Mindfulness does not eliminate instinct. Instead, it allows us to notice instinct without being driven by it. It gives us the capacity to stay present long enough for the whole brain to come online.
In other words, mindfulness creates the exact internal conditions Doc Springer identifies as necessary for intuition to emerge.
How Mindfulness Engages the Whole Brain
Neuroscience supports what both clinical psychology and contemplative traditions have long observed.
When we are under threat, the brain prioritizes subcortical survival regions, often referred to as the “reptilian brain.” Attention narrows. Thinking becomes rigid. Options disappear. Instinct.
Mindfulness practices, on the other hand, have been shown to increase activation and connectivity in brain regions associated with executive function, emotional regulation, and self-awareness, particularly the prefrontal cortex (Hölzel et al., 2011). This is the exact circuitry required for the kind of integrated discernment Dr. Springer describes.
Becoming present to a moment of instinct – of reptilian brain activation – allows the brain regions associated with present moment awareness to kick in creating the space to integrate, become curious, and discern.
Mindfulness doesn’t suppress fear. It regulates arousal enough to allow choice.
When the nervous system settles, even slightly, we regain access to perspective, flexibility, and values-based decision making. We can ask the kinds of questions Dr. Springer recommends:
- Is this reaction proportional to what’s happening right now?
- What are three possible explanations?
- What are three options for responding?
These questions are not accessible when we are hijacked by instinct. They become possible when awareness is present, the prefrontal cortex is activated, and calm clarity can settle in.
Practical Ways to Create Space in Real Time
Mindfulness does not require silence, cushions, or long meditation sessions. In moments where discernment matters most, we need skills that work now.
Here are three simple, evidence-based practices that help shift us out of reflexive survival and into present-moment awareness.
1. Breath Counting
Practice Breath Counting HERE
Gently count your breaths, one through ten, and if you need more time, start again at one.
This anchors attention and interrupts mental spirals that come from the reptilian brain.
If you lose count, no big deal. Just start again at 1, and see if you can make it all the way to ten.
2. Breath Lengthening
Practice Breath Lengthening (Straw Breathing) HERE
Extend the exhale slightly longer than the inhale.
For example, inhale for four counts, exhale for six.
Longer exhales stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system, signaling safety and allowing the brain to widen its field of awareness (Porges, 2011).
3. The Five Senses Practice
You can find a video for this practice HERE
Silently name:
- Five things you can see around you
- Four things you can feel in your body
- Three things you can hear
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
This practice pulls attention out of memory and projection and back into the body, your senses, and the real, lived environment around you. It grounds you in now.
Presence is what allows discernment to emerge, and these practice are fundamental to getting you out of your head and into your body and breath – both of which live right here in this present moment.
Awareness Is the Gateway to Wisdom
Dr. Springer rightly emphasizes that instinct deserves respect. It has kept our species alive. But as she also reminds us, “Confusing the two can leave us locked in helplessness, reacting to the past instead of responding wisely to the present moment.”
Mindfulness is not about rejecting instinct. It is about relating to it consciously. It is, quite simply and as Viktor Frankl shares, about having a choice in how we respond rather than being trapped in our unconscious, habitual ways of reacting. Though we sometimes need these fast, unconscious lines of response, more often than not, discernment allows us to grow and respond in ways that create the healthy, intuitive, connected outcomes we desire.
When we develop present-moment awareness, we gain access to instinct and intuition. We can feel the body’s signals without being ruled by them. We can respond with the full intelligence of our system, not just its oldest parts.
That is where growth happens.
That is where freedom lives.
And that is where discernment and confidence become possible.
References
Springer, S. (2025). When instinct disguises itself as intuition. Psychology Today.
Frankl, V. E. (2006). Man’s Search for Meaning. Beacon Press.
Hölzel, B. K., et al. (2011). How does mindfulness meditation work? Proposing mechanisms of action from a conceptual and neural perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 6(6), 537–559.
Porges, S. W. (2011). The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological Foundations of Emotions, Attachment, Communication, and Self-Regulation. W. W. Norton & Company.