A Guide to Understanding Our Feelings
Sometimes, our emotions feel like an overwhelming jumble of mixed thoughts, or maybe we’ve become so used to suppressing them that we don’t properly notice how we feel. That’s where the Emotional Wheel comes in: this guide will help you use it to recognise and name your feelings, and the accompanying workbook will help you explore them further.
Hover over the wheel
Quick-Start Guide: How to Use the Wheel
If you want to get going straightaway and don’t want to read a lot of text, just follow these simple steps. For a more thorough understanding, read the full guide below.
• Step 1: Notice your body. Pay attention to what’s happening inside you. Do you have a fast heartbeat? Are your muscles tightening? Are you feeling low in energy?
• Step 2: Check the Wheel. Look at the Emotion Wheel and see which of the broad categories best describes what you are experiencing right now: Happy, Sad, Surprised, Fearful, Disgusted, Bad, or Angry.
• Step 3: Name the emotion. Once you have a name for the feeling, such as ‘sadness’ or ‘disgust,’ simply allow the feeling to be there without judging it.
• Step 4: Ask yourself what you need. This simple check-in helps you move forward constructively.