emotion wheel
Image Description: A rainbow-colored, watercolor "emotion wheel"-- a circle divided into six pie-like wedges. Each wedge has a core emotion written in the center and related emotions written in a middle and outer layer. The top wedge is yellow with "joy" at the center. Moving clockwise, the next wedge is orange with "genius" at the center-- then red with "anger" at the center-- the bottom wedge is blue with "sad" at the center-- then purple with "fear at the center" and finally green with "disgust" at the center.
EMOTIONS ARE experienced IN the body
Emotions are our body's way of telling us what it needs. Improving our ability to recognize and name which emotions are present for us (particularly when they are difficult emotions) can help us to take better care of ourselves and each other.
FREE DOWNLOADS
If you'd like to make a donation to support this work you can send a contribution via Venmo to @abby-vanmuijen or purchase a license, physical print or worksheet on my Etsy shop.
Licensing:
These images are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.
In non-lawyery language... You are more than welcome to use this image for educational and personal purposes, but please do not resell it or put it on/in items that you are selling without my permission. I also have personal and professional use licenses for sale on my Etsy shop (see below) My main request is that these images are properly credited, not altered or copied and bonus points if you're able to give them a shout out on the internet and/or make a donation or purchase of a license or print. Please reach out if you would like to use any of these resources as apart of a larger work, request a custom edition or have any other questions regarding usage. If you see this work being used improperly out in the world, please let me know. Thanks team <3
ORDER PRINTS & Wipeable worksheets
(The links below will take you to my Etsy shop)
Emotion Wheel Print
6x6" | 8.5x8.5" | 11x11"
*Wipeable* Feelings Check in Worksheet
11x17"
*Wipeable* Emotion Wheel
6x6" | 8.5x8.5" | 11x11"
*Wipeable* Body Mapping Needs Worksheet
11x17"
Top Left ID: The Emotion Wheel in a light wood frame on a shelf with a little potted plant to the right of it. Top Right ID: A laminated worksheet titled "How am I doing today?" with the emotion wheel in the center and a black dry erase marker laying on top. Bottom Left ID: A laminated emotion wheel with several words circled in black. A left hand holding a black dry erase marker is presumably doing the circling... Bottom Right ID: An emotion wheel printed on a square card with a brown envelope underneath it-- they are both resting on a wooden surface.
Please reach out to me directly if the cost of this print is too high to allow you to purchase it.
I am always interested to discuss the option of a free or discounted print. I also have a supply of lightly damaged, but still useable products available for free pickup from my studio in Berkeley, CA.
How do I use this Emotion Wheel?
Please use this emotion wheel however you are inspired to. Here's how I use it if you need a place to start:
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Find a quiet moment and settle into yourself however works best for you--focus on your breath, drink some water or tea.
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Start wherever you’re drawn to. Make your way around the wheel— reading or having someone else read each word. As you go through, write down any words that resonate with the experience you're having in the current moment. (*Try to write down or circle at least 5-10 words)
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Look up the definition of any words you don't know. You can also draw/paint the colors associated with the words (whether the ones on this wheel, or your own color associations) or circle the words if you have the wipeable version of the wheel.
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Reflect on this visual representation of “how you're feeling"-- what do you notice? Can you notice where certain feelings show up in your body? Are there any feelings you’d like to pay special attention to or to cultivate as you move forward in your day?
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If you feel comfortable, share what you circled or drew- with a loved one, a teacher, a mental health professional, the internet, or hey, you can always send me what you made, I would love to see it :)
A few other versions of the wheel:
About this Emotion Wheel
This is an emotion wheel that I designed in 2020 (the year of all the feelings...) for use in my own therapy and healing work. When I began to engage with existing versions of the emotion wheel, they overwhelmed me more than helped me... the colors felt wrong, there weren't rules for which words went in which categories and every wheel I could find looked like it had been designed in ClipArt in the 90's. My therapist joked that I should make my own wheel...
This is the 27th version... I am currently making updates as I receive feedback from folks using it out in the world (please reach out if you have any notes to share). Someday, I will write more about the thought process behind the colors, the core emotions, the watercolor medium and the decision-making logic behind which words go where, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy spending time with it.
My hope is that this wheel and the framework with which it was designed inspire you think about your emotional experiences in a more nuanced way. I hope it gives you some tools and language to better understand how you're feeling and how to communicate those feelings to others.
Please note that I am not a mental health professional and this wheel and the worksheets above are more rooted in artistic exploration, personal research/study and my own self-reflection than they are in science or in-depth scientific research. (for now!)
Image Description: A notebook resting on a wooden surface. There are 9 circular diagrams with various combinations of emotion words and colors (that reference the colors on the emotion wheel) painted in watercolor on each one. The circles are labeled with days of the week.
Image Description: A video of a hand circling various emotions on the emotion wheel with a dry erase marker. Then, a hand comes in and sprays cleaner spray and wipes the wheel clean.
Fun fact: The first time I ever used an emotion wheel was in a storyboarding class. Our assignment was "draw yourself eating breakfast feeling five different emotions on the feelings wheel."
That assignment led me down the forever rabbit hole of studying the body postures, facial expressions and tones of voice that humans use to communicate beyond the use of explicit language.
More about the Wheel Design
My design is inspired by and adapted from Dr. Gloria Wilcox's initial "Wheel of Emotions," along with the the many other emotion wheels that have been created over the past decade. Emotion Wheels stem from the notion that there are 5-7 universal emotion groups, which help us to interpret and communicate our survival needs. My wheel is organized based on how those emotion groups show up somatically (or in the body) and is meant to be used in tandem with the "What is my body telling me it needs" worksheet that you can find above.
While emotions have some generally universal patterns, each of us experiences and would describe them a little differently. These resources are meant to be an artistic jumping off point for you to better understand how emotions manifest in your own body and nervous system and what they're trying to tell you-- and to help you find the best language, colors and descriptors for your own unique experience! So please feel free to say, 'hey! for me, that emotion is a different color," or "I feel this in my body when I feel this feeling." That's the whole point!
So to start you off, here are some of the general somatic patterns I've observed in myself and that are often associated with particular emotion groups:
- Joy contains words associated with a feeling of centeredness or calmness. There are relaxed muscles in the face-- in particular around the mouth and eyes-- and in the torso/limbs. Breath may feel easeful (or more easeful) and there is a sense of being oriented to and at peace in one's surroundings. A feeling of joy helps us to know that our needs are (mostly) satisfied in a given moment.
- The Anger section is comprised of words that describe our body's fight response--sensations like increased blood flow in the limbs or face (which may feel hot or flush red.) There are tense muscles in the face (furrowed eyebrows, tightening in the jaw/mouth/lips), body (stomach/chest clenching, creating the urge to yell) and edges of the limbs (clenched fists or toes.) Anger helps us to know that we need something to move or change.
- Sadness is associated with a slower heart rate and/or flow of blood, a lack of sensation or awareness, or a feeling of heaviness in the muscles of the body and the face. It may be marked by crying, welling up or a general downward disposition of the eyes, head or general posture. Sadness helps us to know that we need connection-- to one's self, to another or to purpose.
- Disgust: Is what we feel when we encounter something yucky or toxic (whether physically or metaphorically.) These emotions often elicit guttural sensations-- contraction in the belly or digestive tract, a 'pit' in your stomach, the throat closing or clenching and the mouth/nose coming together to block a smell or taste. There may be the urge to look away, to avoid, or to purge or get something out of the body. Disgust helps us to know that we need to avoid, to purge, to not "digest" something.
- The Fear section is comprised of words that describe our body's flight or freeze response. Chemicals are released in the body that cause us to use as little energy as possible so that we can focus on survival. This is characterized by shallower, more rapid breath and a tight chest, dilated pupils and widening eyes and heightened sensitivity to sensory stimuli, a tightening or hyper-readiness of the limbs (which can feel like jitteriness or sensitivity to touch.) A lot of people also associate the feeling of "butterflies" or a gentle nausea/stomach tingling that happens as our body takes energy away from our digestive system so that we can put it towards this fear response. Fear helps us to know that we need a greater sense of safety.
- And "Genius"-- is my addition to the core emotions. This section contains words that help us to know when we feel like...us. The body sensations in this section are often quite similar to those in the fear section (a sensitivity to sensory stimulus, activated muscles, etc.)-- but are not activated from a place of danger, but from needing to make meaning or create something. The feelings of Genius help us to know that we need authentic self expression.
No one feeling or need exists in isolation. Our emotions and needs are complex, ever-emerging and always bleeding into one another.
"HOW ARE YOU DOING?"
interactive web story and activities page
"How are you Doing?" is an interactive web story and activities page that I created in collaboration with The Pudding and my friend Michelle McGhee. It guides you through the creation process of this emotion wheel and allows you to make your own visual representation of your current emotional experience. This is a completely free resource that you can use anytime and it does not collect any data about you.
Quick links to activities:
Miscellaneous feelings art gallery:
Using the Wheel with groups (teams, families, etc.)
The wheel can be a great tool to use with a group. I've linked a group check in exercise in the jamboard below where you can fill out the wheel anonymously, together, to get a visual representation of which emotions the collective group may be carrying in that moment.
This exercise can be helpful with:
- getting a pulse on a group in a virtual space
- showing that emotions are indeed in the room
- allowing folks to express their more vulnerable emotions in an anonymous format
- creating a concrete and visual representation of our collective humanity and messiness <3
