Feeling Wheels
How can we know what we are feeling if we do not know what to call the feeling. Luckily there is a great resource available to everyone! The Feeling Wheel. It was first developed by the emotion identifier we talked about earlier, Robert Plutchik, in 1980. It works with seven or eight primary emotions, shown in the center of the wheel. This version of the wheel starts with seven basic emotions in the center. Plutchik identified these emotions to be the foundation of all other feelings. Being able to identify and label emotions is a very important step towards emotional literacy.
Multi-Lingual Translation Project
It is my current mission to get the Feeling Wheel translated into as many languages as possible. to help the people of the world connect better with their emotions. These are the languages I currently have available... Click on the text to purchase the pdf at a very reasonable price.
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I remember the first time I encountered a Feeling Wheel. My therapist asked me how I feel and I started telling her a story about what happened in my day, which I thought made my feelings clear. She told me that was just a story and not a feeling. Then she handed me this image of the wheel. I was so intimidated at first. I even felt some shame for not knowing what feeling I was experiencing. But I looked at the wheel and after a few moments, I was able to point to one of them and speak it out loud. It was so helpful! I relied on the chart for many years to help me identify my feelings as I was becoming more familiar with connecting to myself on an emotional level.
As we start to use the chart and become more in tune with ourselves, we start to make connections between certain emotions and their bodily sensations. We will also be more aware of how our feelings affect our mood. A mood is how we express ourselves outwardly based on the feelings we have. Our mood affects our actions and interactions with the people around us. When you connect the dots between the feelings you have and how you express them, you are increasing your emotional intelligence. It is a skill that you can learn and one that gets easier over time as well.