Human beings can experience over 34,000 different emotions. That’s a lot to keep track of and it’s certainly a lot to feel. It’s common to feel two things at once or not understand how we’re feeling or what to do about it. To make sense of it all, Dr. Gloria Wilcox simplified the range of human emotions into the Emotions Wheel in 1982.
The Emotions Wheel depicts six core emotions that are at the heart of our experiences, reactions, and sensations. It can serve as a starting point to dissect why we feel the way we feel, what our feelings are trying to tell us, and what to do about it. In the center of the wheel are our basic emotions: sadness, surprise, joy, love, fear, and anger. Radiating toward the outer edges are less intense variants of these core emotions. For example, when you feel irritation, it’s a milder form of anger.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone where you’re trying to describe how you’re feeling and it just doesn’t quite fit into any one emotion? The Emotions Wheel can help with that. It provides a framework to describe the nuance of our emotions and the different shades of feeling. It can also help us understand our own emotions better and communicate them more effectively to others.
Another benefit of the Emotions Wheel is that it shows the polar opposite of each core emotion. Seeing these opposites represented visually can help us understand our feelings and reactions to others better. The opposite emotions don’t tend to cancel each other out so much as intensify the feeling or the interaction. For instance, if you are experiencing grief and encounter someone in the midst of ecstasy, it can deepen your feeling of grief and be disorienting.
When used as a way to check in with yourself, the Emotions Wheel is a useful tool for building self-awareness. There are two main ways that this develops emotional literacy. The first is that it makes it easier to understand and express how you’re feeling. The second primary benefit is the understanding of emotion as a way of triggering survival-oriented behavior.
When we develop the ability to understand and express our emotions, we benefit in many ways. We can manage our stress better, communicate with others, and develop self-compassion. Emotions and feelings aren’t something to suppress. Part of emotional well-being is using our feelings to identify where we are out of alignment with our needs and values. Use the Emotions Wheel to start exploring the complex world of emotions and to build greater self-awareness.
