WHY EMOTIONS SHAPE OUR DEEPEST CHOICES

Have you ever stopped to reflect on what truly guides your most significant decisions? I’m not referring merely to everyday choices — the dish we pick for dinner, the email we respond to first, or the route we take to work. I’m talking about the decisions that define the essence of who we are, that shape our leadership, the quality of our interpersonal connections, and the way we face the inevitable adversities of life.
Today, I invite you to step out of the narrow field of linear thinking — the kind that sees reason as sovereign and isolated — and immerse yourself in a journey that transcends the cold logic of the conscious mind, entering the vibrant and often uncontrollable universe of emotions.
Inspired by the provocative assertion of Antonio Damasio — “The limbic system does not learn through reason. It learns through emotional repetition” — I propose a deep and integrative reflection. It is essential to understand that our emotions not only influence but fundamentally shape our actions, our leadership style, and ultimately, the destiny we build — both personally and organizationally.

The Limbic System and the Paradigm of Emotional Learning
The limbic system, comprised of core structures such as the amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex, is the epicenter of emotional processing in the brain. However, it does not operate in isolation: it is intrinsically connected to regions of the prefrontal cortex — especially the ventromedial (vmPFC) and dorsolateral (dlPFC) areas — responsible for regulation, evaluation, and cognitive planning.
This interconnection creates a bidirectional pathway where emotions originating in the limbic system directly influence the rational processes of the prefrontal cortex. In turn, the prefrontal cortex modulates emotional responses, enabling inhibitory control and thoughtful decision-making. When an intense emotional experience alters this system’s balance, judgment may be temporarily compromised or heightened through unconscious automatic responses, directly impacting the quality of decisions made — whether personal or organizational.
Neuroscientific studies show that emotional repetition activates and strengthens these corticolimbic connections, creating robust neural pathways that underpin new behavioral patterns. This explains why merely presenting rational arguments is insufficient for change: the brain requires emotional validation to solidify and give meaning and urgency to new learning.
To clarify the impact of this in everyday life, imagine a manager trying to implement a new process through memos and data-driven meetings alone. Even with strong arguments, the team’s adherence is slow, marked by resistance and demotivation. Why? Because without emotional engagement, employees don’t form affective bonds with the new initiative, and the limbic brain, deprived of emotional stimulation, fails to consolidate learning.
Now, consider a different scenario: a leader who, beyond explaining the change, shares real stories about past team challenges, expresses vulnerability in the face of difficulties, acknowledges achievements, and creates symbolic rituals to celebrate small victories. This approach activates deep emotional circuits, fueling intrinsic motivation and a sense of belonging — essential elements for sustainable transformation.
In this sense, Cognitive Behavioral Development (CBD) reinforces the need to act on behavioral repertoires with an emphasis on experiences that generate positive and constructive emotional states, facilitating the internalization of new patterns. It’s not just about changing what people do, but how they feel and perceive their actions and environment.

Breaking the Command-and-Control
Paradigm Understanding that emotion — not isolated reason — is the engine of human action implies a radical rupture with the traditional command-and-control paradigm so ingrained in managerial culture. Leadership based solely on logic and rule enforcement limits its effectiveness, especially in contexts where complexity, uncertainty, and the need for innovation are constant.
Behavioral science and neuroscience teach us that the human brain is wired to seek emotional safety and meaningful social connections. Therefore, it is through the creation of emotionally safe, empathetic, and inspiring environments that we lay fertile ground for the desired cognitive and behavioral development.
This is one of the core lessons for leaders who aspire to be agents of change: emotional repetition, manifested through authentic and meaningful experiences, is the key to reconfiguring beliefs, habits, and consequently, organizational cultures.

Relational Leadership
Truly transformative leadership is not sustained merely by the logical coherence of speech, but by the emotional coherence of presence. Leading in the 21st century is increasingly a relational exercise — and this demands more than conceptual clarity or technical skill. It requires sensitivity to perceive the invisible: unspoken emotions, unnamed bonds, camouflaged fears, and repressed desires.
Rational communication has its place, but it doesn’t reach the deepest layers of the psyche — those where real commitments are made. That’s why leaders who rely solely on spreadsheets, targets, and KPIs, even if technically competent, often face a silent paradox: human disconnection in formally organized environments.
Neuroscience reveals that the brain doesn’t distinguish, on a limbic level, between real and symbolic threats. A harsh feedback, lack of recognition, unattainable goals, or managerial silence are interpreted by the limbic system as threats to emotional safety. And when the brain perceives a threat, it deactivates prefrontal areas responsible for critical thinking, creativity, and empathy — precisely the functions we most desire in high-performance teams.
In this sense, what we call the “workplace” is, in fact, a permanent emotional environment. Therefore, a true leader is not just someone who communicates well, but someone who regulates collective emotions. Neurobiologically speaking, they are an emotional regulator of the organizational system.
We can illustrate this with an emblematic case I followed during an executive mentoring process. “Ricardo,” an operations director at a multinational, was facing a chronic engagement crisis in his team. His reports were flawless, his logic impeccable, his resume impressive. But his leadership sounded like an empty echo to his subordinates. Over time, one essential insight emerged: Ricardo talked about goals, but not to people. There was no affection, no story, no soul in his message.
By introducing small narrative practices — such as telling the story of why he chose his career, sharing lessons from past mistakes, and recognizing his team’s genuine emotions in the face of intense challenges — Ricardo reconfigured the emotional field of his leadership. Within six months, team engagement increased by over 30%, as measured by an organizational climate instrument. More important than the numbers: his team began using the word inspiration to describe him.
This isn’t an isolated case — it mirrors a universal principle: narrated emotions become consolidated bonds. What you share emotionally with your team becomes the invisible mortar of trust. And that trust sustains behavior even in the absence of supervision.
In the field of Cognitive Behavioral Development, we call this a reprogramming of the symbolic-affective field: when a leader positions themselves not as a task manager, but as a curator of emotional meanings, they don’t just influence behavior — they influence identity within the culture.
The social psychology of Solomon Asch and Kurt Lewin already warned us: behavior is a function of the person and the environment. And the leader is, in essence, the architect of the emotional environment shaping these responses. They are a symbolic provocateur, a generator of repeated emotional states that build, brick by brick, the organizational experience.

Emotion as the Engine of Human Action
At this point, I hope it’s clear: logic explains, but emotion drives. The human brain is far from being a Cartesian machine guided by syllogisms. It is a living, pulsating organism where reason and emotion dance in an intricate choreography — sometimes in harmony, sometimes in silent conflict. Persisting in the myth that emotions hinder reasoning is one of the most deeply rooted mistakes of the rationalist tradition.
Contemporary neuroscience, grounded in pioneering research such as that of Antonio Damasio, reveals a richer truth: emotions do not merely participate in decision-making — they structure and sustain it.
Studying patients with lesions in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex—a critical region integrating emotion and reason—Antonio Damasio observed that although these individuals maintained intact logical capabilities, they were unable to make effective and functional decisions. The absence of emotion, therefore, does not result in pure rationality, but rather in decisional paralysis that compromises the full expression of human agency.
The limbic system—where structures like the amygdala and hippocampus operate—is the core of emotional life encoding and organization, deeply intertwined with meaningful memories. However, it does not act alone: it is in constant dialogue with areas of the prefrontal cortex, especially the dorsolateral and orbitofrontal regions, forming neural circuits that modulate our responses to everyday challenges and uncertainties. This architecture reveals that every decision is, in essence, a continuous negotiation between what we feel and what we think.
In this context, repetition becomes the language of neuroplasticity—and it is emotion that gives it grammar, texture, and meaning. Interweaving scientific discoveries with everyday experience, we now understand that the brain is not merely a data recorder but an organism that is shaped and reconfigured by lived experiences. Neuroplasticity, a central concept in modern neuroscience, expresses this extraordinary capacity of the nervous system to structurally reorganize in response to stimuli.
However, not every stimulus produces this reorganization: it must be emotionally significant. Whenever an intense emotion accompanies a behavior or thought, it gains priority on the neural map. The amygdala assigns emotional value, the hippocampus contextualizes the experience, and the prefrontal cortex builds the symbolic representation that gives it meaning. With the repetition of this cycle, neural pathways become increasingly robust, consolidating patterns that cease to be conscious efforts and become embedded habits—whether powerful catalysts for transformation or barriers to development.

Emotions That Build Narratives of Action
Let us return to the reality of leadership. Imagine a scenario where a manager faces an exhausted team in the midst of an operational crisis, where deadlines are under threat and tensions arise in meetings. The rational leader would devise a plan: redistribute tasks, readjust goals, reorganize logistics. All technically sound. Yet in this type of situation, rational actions do not mobilize—they merely inform.
What truly transforms the atmosphere—and the results—is the insertion of an authentic emotional component: acknowledgment of the team’s pain, validation of effort, sharing of vulnerabilities. At its core, it is vital to understand the role of transparency in leadership. When the leader steps out of the hero role, shares personal anguish with honesty, and invites members to co-create solutions, they activate brain regions linked to empathy, reciprocity, and cooperation (such as the dopaminergic system and the anterior insula). In that moment, the team does not just understand—they feel. And feeling is the first step to acting with purpose.

The Corporeality of Emotion and Embodied Knowing
As Lev Vygotsky taught us, human development is always mediated by relational contexts—and as behavioral psychology and neuroscience reaffirm today, these relationships are both cognitive and somatic. Emotions are embodied: they manifest through muscle tone, breathing, posture, and gaze. Thus, every emotional learning is also bodily learning.
This is why saying “I believe in you” is not enough if the leader’s body communicates tension, distance, or indifference. The limbic system is sensitive to dissonance—it detects emotional falsehood before the conscious mind identifies the contradiction. That’s why congruent leaders—those who align words, body, and intention—are perceived as authentic and generate true engagement.

From Technical Narrative to Emotional Narrative
During an executive coaching process I recently conducted, I worked with João Carlos, an experienced leader in a strategic technology division of a logistics company facing severe engagement and productivity challenges. João Carlos had an impeccable technical profile: he knew his metrics, mastered processes, and was fully aware of what needed to be done. Still, his team showed increasing demotivation, high turnover, and resistance to proposed changes.
The turning point came when, in a coaching session, João Carlos was invited not just to share his plans and strategies, but the narrative behind his leadership—his doubts, fears, and what truly motivated him to be in that role. He recalled a personal story of how, after an unexpected dismissal, he found strength to start over, rebuild his career, and rediscover his purpose.
That story, told with authenticity and emotion, became a milestone for João Carlos. By incorporating that narrative into his conversations with the team, he began to humanize his leadership. Instead of merely demanding results, he started sharing the “whys” behind decisions, building an emotional bridge with his team. Small rituals were introduced to recognize not only deliveries but also efforts, learnings, and both individual and collective achievements.
In just a few months, the indicators began to change. Engagement, as measured by internal surveys, increased by 40%, turnover dropped significantly, and productivity reached record levels. But the impact went beyond numbers: the team culture changed. The environment became more collaborative, open, and resilient, reflecting a shared identity that transcended technical discourse to become a genuine emotional experience.
This process illustrates one of the core principles of Cognitive Behavioral Development: sustainable change emerges when the symbolic and emotional representations that support behavior are reframed. Emotional repetition, associated with positive experiences, reinforced the neural connections necessary to consolidate new habits and strengthen collective self-esteem.
João Carlos didn’t just transform his way of leading; he became a change agent for the entire team—and that energy resonated into other departments, positively influencing the climate and inspiring other leaders to adopt similar practices.

Repeated Emotions Build Identities
Psychologist Erik Erikson understood that human development is not merely a sequence of cognitive stages, but an affective journey that constructs identity. Every intensely lived emotion leaves marks which, when accumulated, form the emotional matrix with which we respond to the world. And this matrix, when not revisited and reframed, begins to operate as an autopilot in our personal, professional, and organizational choices.
This is why purely informative corporate training programs fail so often: they do not mobilize emotions, they don’t touch the symbolic. Without emotion, what is learned dissipates. On the other hand, processes that incorporate narratives, dramatizations, public recognition, authentic bonds, and emotional feedback build lasting memory and transform the perceived value of what is learned.
See, it is the meaning assigned to the emotional experience that determines the depth of learning. When a collaborator associates their daily contribution with a narrative of purpose, belonging, or overcoming, the brain interprets that experience as essential to their identity. And that which becomes part of identity is not forgotten—it is lived.

Emotional Reinforcement as Habit Architecture
From the perspective of Cognitive Behavioral Development, we know that habits are the result of reinforcing cycles. Classical behavioral psychology, with B.F. Skinner, already showed that behaviors are shaped by stimuli followed by responses and rewards. Charles Duhigg, in studying habits in the 21st century, updated this cycle by including “emotional craving” as a trigger element. In other words: lasting habits only form when the reward generates emotional pleasure or relief.
Imagine, for example, a leader named Ana. Strategically competent, she felt that her speech in meetings did not have the desired impact. During a Cognitive Behavioral Development process, we began to work on micro-behaviors: eye contact, voice tone, physical presence, as well as refinement of gestures, posture, active listening, speaking only at strategic moments, and even her physical positioning at the meeting table. With each positive feedback—a smile, a nod of agreement, or an enthusiastic response—Ana experienced an emotional reward, which her limbic system registered as reinforcement. Over the weeks, these small successes became unconscious rituals. Ana didn’t just learn to position herself better; she began to see herself as impactful. Her identity was transformed, and the habit consolidated.

Environments That Reinforce Emotions Build Enduring Cultures
But it’s not only the individual who internalizes emotional habits. Entire organizations also form “collective limbic circuits.” Companies that celebrate achievements, validate feelings, recognize efforts, and build symbolic rituals activate—on a collective scale—the same emotional reinforcement mechanisms that shape the individual brain. Each ritual—like the “clap moment” at the end of a sprint, feedback circles, or welcome rituals for new members—reinforces identity narratives that, over time, become culture.
In the corporate world, many leaders still underestimate the power of emotional repetition as a tool for change. They invest in well-written announcements, measurable goals, visually striking reports—but neglect emotion as a vehicle of internalization. However, as studies from the Harvard Business Review reveal, teams led by people who can activate emotional bonds show up to three times more engagement than those guided solely by technical leadership.
Therefore, cultures that aim to reinvent themselves must first learn to feel differently. And this is not done with slogans, but with emotionally impactful, repeated, meaningful experiences—capable of redrawing the symbolic and behavioral maps of everyone involved.

Transcending Linear Thinking
We now arrive at the boldest invitation of this journey: to transcend the limits of linear thinking—the kind that fragments reality, separates subject from context, emotion from reason—and embrace the living complexity of the systemic universe. In this realm, there is no straight line of cause and effect, but rather an interdependent web where everything reverberates through everything.
Here it is worth recalling Spinoza’s philosophy, which, by proposing an ethics based on the interconnection of mind, body, and nature, anticipated what science now confirms: we are expressions of the same field, shaped by affective forces that cross and constitute us. In harmony, Kurt Lewin, in social psychology, stated that human behavior is always the result of a dynamic equation: B = f(P, E), meaning behavior (B) is a function of the person (P) and the environment (E). In this model, the individual can never be understood in isolation. Their emotions, choices, and patterns are always co-constructed.
When we apply this vision to the context of leadership and organizational development, we realize that emotions are not internal or personal events—they are systemic events. Each emotion expressed or repressed in a team subtly alters the relational field and influences how others act, react, and adapt. One person’s fear, another’s inspiration, a third’s demotivation—all of it is not isolated: it forms a collective emotional field.
Entering this systemic universe requires more than technique—it demands ontological courage. Courage to abandon mechanistic managerial models that reduce people to cogs and to adopt a more relational, fluid stance, sensitive to the invisible that connects everything. It’s easier to take shelter in numbers, dashboards, spreadsheets that reassure the rational mind. But true transformation—individual or organizational—occurs in the affective domain of meaningful, repeated experience.
As I often say to my clients, quoting a phrase from logotherapy: “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” And this only happens when the experience gains emotional meaning. The learning that transforms is not the one that merely informs—it is the one that moves us.
A leader who recognizes this invisible logic begins to operate with a different kind of presence: they perceive circulating team emotions as systemic indicators; they view organizational symptoms (like turnover, cynicism, or apathy) not as individual failures but as expressions of dysfunctional affective fields. And more than that, they act as symbolic agents who realign the system through narratives, rituals, and authentic bonds.

The Philosophy of the Heart
Science has shown us how the brain learns. Philosophy has taught us why we feel. But it is up to each of us, as leaders and human beings, to decide what to do with that knowledge.
So today, I offer an invitation that goes beyond cognition: a provocation to emotional awareness.
What emotional narratives have been shaping your choices? What repetitions—positive or limiting—have sculpted your identity as a leader, parent, child, colleague, human being? What emotions have you been neglecting in the name of productivity? And how can you intentionally construct emotional experiences that sustain a more authentic, inspiring, and resilient culture?
Neuroscience and philosophy converge on a profound point: we are emotional beings who think—not rational machines that sometimes feel. And it is in this emotional territory—often invisible—that the true power of lasting change resides.
If this text stirred something in you, share your feelings, your stories, your dilemmas. We don’t need to have all the answers—but together we can cultivate the right questions. And if you sense that this integrative approach makes sense for your leadership or your life moment, know that I’m here to walk alongside you on this journey of truly transformative human development.

In Closing
I invite you to break free from the prison of linear thinking and step into the vastness of the systemic paradigm—where human behavior ceases to be a cold equation and reveals itself as an intricate intertwining of neural impulses, social relationships, cultural legacies, and living emotions. It is in this paradoxical and dynamic territory that the true challenge—and the most promising opportunity—of contemporary leadership rests.
By merging the knowledge of neuroscience, which uncovers the brain’s mechanisms, with social psychology, which illuminates the fabric of human interactions, and existential philosophy, which confronts us with the search for meaning, we recognize that genuine transformation occurs precisely at the confluence between feeling and thinking, between the individual and the collective, between the conscious and what transcends consciousness. There, in the depths of that encounter, emotional narratives are not mere words—they are structuring forces of the psyche, shaping not only choices but the very architecture of being.
Nietzsche masterfully reminds us: “Without music, life would be a mistake.” That music, here, is emotion—the invisible rhythm that cradles and harmonizes our cognition, giving rhythm, meaning, and power to learning and action. A truly impactful leader does not merely reason: they compose emotional narratives that resonate in the souls of their team, weaving environments of deep trust, shared purpose, and lasting inspiration.
And as he also teaches us: “He who has a why to live can bear almost any how.” Thus, I challenge you to find—not just an abstract why—but your why embodied in the emotions that drive, inflame, and sustain your existence and leadership.
May your journey not be a mere management of time or mechanical execution of tasks, but a passionate dive into the emotions that illuminate the path of authentic growth and collective transformation.

#marcellodesouza #marcellodesouzaoficial #coachingevoce #humandevelopment #behavioraldevelopment #leadership #neuroscience #behavioralpsychology #socialpsychology #philosophy #selfawareness #transformation