What’s Really Driving Your Decisions?

A Conscious Insight from Cornerstone L&D

We like to think we’re making decisions from the mind.

That we weigh our options. That we’re clear. That logic is leading.

But when we look closer — through the lens of consciousness — we see something deeper:

Most decisions are already made before the mind catches up.And unless we bring awareness to how that’s happening, we’ll keep repeating the past — while thinking we’re choosing the present.

The Vibration Comes First

Every experience begins as energy.

Before you speak, before you interpret, before you react — your system has already received a signal.Not just intellectually. Energetically.

Your nervous system is constantly reading the field:The tone of someone’s voice.The tension in a room.The micro-shift in a facial expression.Even the silence in a conversation.

You don’t consciously think anything yet — but you feel something.And that feeling — that frequency — is the first step in your decision-making process.

Let’s walk through it.

Stage 1: Data Gathering (Receiving the Vibe)

Your body is a tuning fork.Before your brain makes meaning, your system is already receiving energetic input.

A glance.A pause.A word with sharp edges.

These are vibrations, not yet thoughts.Your system responds to what’s alive in the space. It doesn’t label it — it feels it.

Stage 2: Information Processing (The Pattern Finder)

Your brain now begins to do what it does best: match and label.

It starts scanning for past patterns:“This reminds me of…”“Last time this happened…”“This must mean…”

You’re still not reacting — but your interpretation is being shaped.And it’s being shaped by what you’ve already lived through, not by what’s true in the now.

Stage 3: Meaning-Making (Where the Past Takes Over)

This is the moment where most unconscious decisions are born.

Your brain (and body) decide what something means — and it’s rarely based on the full reality in front of you.

Instead, it’s based on:

• Old wounds

• Emotional memory

• Unprocessed stories

• Ancestral patterning

• Cultural programming

• Childhood conditioning

You’re not reacting to what’s actually happening.You’re reacting to what it represents to you.

And this happens fast.

You feel left out — not because you are, but because something in the moment reminded your system of exclusion.You go silent — not because it’s wise, but because you associate speaking truth with conflict.

This is the unconscious assigning of meaning.And it runs the show until you interrupt it.

Stage 4: Decision-Making (The Self That Responds)

Now — based on the meaning that’s been made — a part of you acts.

Sometimes it’s the Primal Self: reactive, protective, fast.Sometimes the Ego Self: performing, pleasing, proving.Sometimes the Intellectual Self: analysing without feeling.And sometimes — when you’re present — it’s your Conscious Self: clear, calm, aligned.

The problem isn’t the choice itself.It’s who in you is making the choice.

Because unless you’ve paused to notice the meaning being made — the choice isn’t truly conscious.

It’s just a familiar pattern playing out again.

What Consciousness Really Means Here

To be conscious isn’t just to be spiritual.It’s to be self-aware in the moment the pattern wants to repeat.

It’s to recognise:

• “I’m starting to contract.”

• “I’ve already made meaning — and I didn’t realise it.”

• “This feeling in my body is from a much older story.”

When you become conscious, you create space between stimulus and response.

Time slows.Energy shifts.And instead of reacting to the past, you respond from the present.

This is the space of the soul.This is the space of real leadership.

A Simple Practice

Next time you’re in a decision moment — big or small — try this:

1. Pause. Feel the vibe before the words.

2. Name the pattern. What meaning has already been made?

3. Breathe. Let time expand before you act.

4. Ask: Who in me is about to make this decision? Is it the part that wants to be safe… or the part that knows what’s true?

   
   

You don’t need more information.You need more awareness of when meaning is being made.

Because when you can pause, notice, and question your interpretation,you reclaim the most powerful part of your leadership:

Your presence.