Increasing Self-Awareness through the Wheel of Emotions
Do you ever find yourself regularly asking your partner, spouse, or even teen, "How are you?" and the response is the same. "Good." "Fine." "OK."
Or when you are asked the same questions, do you have difficulty offering a different response? It is no surprise that many adults and even more children struggle to identify their emotions.
This wheel of emotions, created by Robert Plutchik, is a useful tool to help not just you but also others understand what they are feeling. It offers a visual representation of primary emotions, displaying the varying nuances and complexities of different feelings.
Start at the center of the wheel at one of the seven primary emotions, and work your way towards the outside of the wheel to dig deeper into what you are feeling. Identification of your emotions will help you understand yourself better, put a name to, and come to terms with your emotions in many different contexts.
Identification of your emotions is one of the first steps in developing the ability to practice self-compsasion. Once we understand how we are feeling, we are better able to identify what we need in that moment. The same is true for practicing compassion with those around us. Once we undrstnad how our spouse, partner, or adolescent is feeling, we are better equpped to take care of those needs.