Feelings wheel

What It Means

A feelings wheel is a round chart of emotion words that helps you name what you feel more precisely. The center holds a handful of broad, core feelings, and the rings around it hold narrower words that belong to each one, so you can move from "mad" toward the word that fits better. Gloria Willcox's Feeling Wheel, published in 1982, is built on six core feelings: mad, sad, scared, joyful, powerful and peaceful.

How People Say It

• "I pulled up a feelings wheel and realized I'm not angry, I'm embarrassed."
• "Find it on the wheel, buddy. Is it mad or scared?"
• "Our therapist gave us a feelings wheel for the fridge."

The Breakdown

Signs a wheel could help

• "Fine," "stressed" or "upset" is the only word that comes to mind.
• You react strongly and only later realize what the feeling was.
• A child can say they feel bad but not how.

How to use one

1. Start in the center and pick the core feeling closest to now.
2. Move outward to a narrower word in the same section.
3. Say or write it in a sentence: "I feel ___ because ___."
4. Notice whether naming it changes how strong it feels.

A short self-check. Over one week, write down the core feeling each evening. If one section shows up most days, that's worth noticing, and worth bringing up with someone you trust.

Starting the conversation. "I've been saying I'm stressed, but looking at this, I think I'm more disappointed. Can I tell you why?"

Where It Comes From

Gloria Willcox published "The Feeling Wheel: A Tool for Expanding Awareness of Emotions and Increasing Spontaneity and Intimacy" in the Transactional Analysis JournalJournalingWriting down your thoughts and feelings, in a notebook or an app, to understand them more clearly and to see what's behind your stress. See more in October 1982 (volume 12, issue 4). Her wheel places primary feelings in an inner circle, mad, sad, scared, joyful, powerful and peaceful, with two outer rings of secondary feelings related to each.

Good to Know

A wheel helps you find a word; it doesn't diagnose anything or measure how serious a feeling is. For young children, Buhata's emotion coachingEmotion coachingA way of responding to a child's feelings: notice the emotion, connect, listen, help name it, then solve the problem together, with limits on behavior. See more page covers CDC's advice to name feelings in plain words with a simple feelings chart. If one hard feeling sits with you most days, talk with a doctor or licensed mental health professional, and if you're thinking about suicide, call or text 988 (the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline). Call 911 in an emergency.

Related Terms and Categories

• Name it to tame it

  Dr. Dan Siegel's phrase for calming a strong feeling by putting it into words, naming the emotion out loud or on paper so it feels more manageable.

• Emotional regulation

  The growing ability to notice a feeling and manage how strongly it shows and how long it lasts, so a child can calm down and carry on.

• Emotion coaching

  A way of responding to a child's feelings: notice the emotion, connect, listen, help name it, then solve the problem together, with limits on behavior.

• Mood tracker

  A daily record of how your mood was, often a number or a color for each day, kept to spot patterns over weeks and months.

• Journaling

  Writing down your thoughts and feelings, in a notebook or an app, to understand them more clearly and to see what's behind your stress.

• Self-compassion

  Treating yourself with the kindness you'd offer a friend when you struggle; researcher Kristin Neff describes three parts: self-kindness, common humanity and mindfulness.

Wellbeing and habits