Art Sponseller, JD, PCC, Senior Executive Coach, www.artsponseller.com
Your brain needs emotions to make decisions. Logic alone isn’t enough. As kids, many of us were taught to ignore feelings, told we don’t solve problems. But this misses the point. Feeling an emotion, like anger, doesn’t mean acting on it. You can feel angry without shouting or sulking. Emotions give us vital information.
Anger, for example, signals that something important to you—like a personal principle—has been crossed. It offers gifts: motivation, boundaries, and direction. By embracing emotions, not repressing them, you unlock their power to guide you toward what matters most.
Brain science backs this up. People with brain injuries that disconnect emotions from logic struggle to make even simple choices. Think about buying a car. It might check every logical box—price, size, fuel efficiency—but if you don’t feel excited about it, you probably won’t buy it.
I encourage my clients to welcome emotions, not to act impulsively, but to listen to what they’re saying. Curiosity and self-control turn feelings into tools for better decisions. Embrace both logic and emotions—they work together to lead you to choices that feel right and make sense.
