Happy, sad, or angry?
For many of us, that’s the extent of our understanding of emotions. Perhaps throw in hangry, too.
But things are changing.
While 20 years ago it’d be considered a bit hippy-dippy to talk about self-care and therapy, the idea of getting in tune with our mental wellbeing is now very much in the mainstream.
We’re keen on life improvement, on ‘getting to know ourselves’, on going deeper.
Emotion wheels can be a key part of that, a handy tool to add to your mental health arsenal.
First created by psychologist Robert Plutchik, the emotion wheel is, well, a wheel, made up of eight primary emotions: anger, fear, sadness, disgust, surprise, anticipation, trust, and joy.
These days, you can stick to that basic structure, or find more in-depth versions that cover off tens of niche emotions such as ‘disillusionment’ and ‘provoked’, but all fitting into – or between – those eight essential groups.
The idea is that by identifying an emotion and putting a name to it, we can then start to deal with it.
Taking a pause and asking yourself how you’re really feeling can help you be more mindful, allowing you to respond rather than react.
It can be useful to have an emotion wheel of your choosing to hand so you can check in with yourself whenever tough emotions arise.
Perhaps print one out (or make your own, if you’re feeling creative) and stick it in your notebook, save a wheel to your computer’s desktop, or make sure a screenshot remains in your phone’s photo folder.
You can even find pins and prints of emotion wheels on Etsy, in case you want to make the visuals part of your aesthetic.
Tyler Woodward, CEO of CBD brand Eden’s Gate, says: ‘People can use the emotional wheel to help them name the emotion they’re experiencing in real-time.
‘It seems like such a simple task, kind of like naming colours or shapes as a child, but it can be easy to lose touch with our own emotions in an increasingly distracting digital and emotion wheels can be a great tool for helping us to recognise and respond appropriately to our own emotions.’
Once you get into the habit of using your wheel to identify emotions in the moment, it might be handy to keep track of your feelings in a journal, to see if there are any patterns arising.
It doesn’t need to be anything formal – even a note on your phone listing the emotion and the trigger (what was happening in that moment? What about right before?) can be useful to look over.
You might find certain issues or patterns that you want to rectify. Perhaps you’re finding that your current working hours are leaving you drained, or that you keep coming away from chats with a certain friend with a lot of irritation.
Identifying the emotion is that key first step in making things better – and a wheel can help you do just that.
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