Feeling Wheel

How to use the feeling wheel

The feeling wheel is a tool for naming what you feel with more precision. Most people, when asked how they feel, default to two or three umbrella words: "fine," "stressed," "okay." Underneath those words is a far richer emotional landscape — and naming the specific emotion is the first step to working with it. Psychologists call this principle name it to tame it: emotional granularity is consistently linked to better regulation, more flexible coping, and reduced symptom severity.

The standard process is simple. Pause for a moment. Start at the centre of the wheel — which of the six base emotions feels closest to your current state? Move outward one ring: which sub-feeling is the best match? Then to the outer ring, where you'll find the most specific word. Click any word to see what that emotion typically signals and what need might be underneath it.

List of emotions

The wheel contains 108 emotions organized into 6 base categories and 34 sub-categories. Here is the complete list of feelings:

Plutchik's wheel of emotions

The feeling wheel above follows a methodology pioneered by Robert Plutchik (wheel of emotions, 1980) and Gloria Willcox (Feeling Wheel, 1982). Plutchik proposed 8 primary emotions that combine into more complex states; Willcox adapted that into a clinical 3-ring chart for therapy and emotional literacy. The version on this page is inspired by the Junto Institute's modern feeling wheel, a contemporary adaptation in the same lineage. Its six primaries draw on Paul Ekman's basic-emotion research with two adjustments: love is added as a primary in its own right, and disgust is folded into anger as a sub-group rather than standing alone. Everything is laid out in three concentric rings with asymmetric branching — secondary and tertiary words show finer shades of each base emotion.

Plutchik's wheel and the feeling wheel agree on the broad strokes — that there are a small number of base emotions, and that real emotional experience usually combines or shades them — but Plutchik's model emphasises mixtures and intensities, while the feeling wheel emphasises naming. Either model is fine for self-reflection. Plutchik's wheel of emotions is more useful for thinking about how emotions blend (jealousy = anger + sadness, awe = fear + surprise). The feeling wheel is more useful when you're trying to find a single accurate word for something diffuse you're feeling right now.

Feelings wheel for adults, for therapy, for kids

Feelings wheel for adults. The version above is the standard adult feelings wheel — a 3-ring chart with 108 emotions. It works particularly well in self-coaching, journaling, and as a check-in tool before a difficult conversation.

Feelings wheel for therapy. Therapists often use the feelings wheel during sessions to help clients move from vague distress to specific naming. Many therapists keep a printable feelings wheel pdf or laminated copy in the office. The download link below is suitable for clinical use.

Feeling wheel for kids. Children typically benefit from a simpler version — the six base emotions and a couple of sub-feelings each is usually enough. The wheel above adapts on small screens to show fewer levels at a time, which can also be a kid-friendly mode. Some therapists add a "color wheel of emotions" mapping where each base emotion has a strong color, helping pre-readers identify and name what they feel.

Download printable PDF

For offline use, classroom use, or work with clients, a high-resolution emotion wheel PDF and feelings wheel printable version is available. The download includes the full emotion wheel chart suitable for adults and therapy contexts.

Download the printable feelings wheel pdf →

Why naming emotions matters

The discipline of expanding your feeling words list — sometimes called emotional granularity — has measurable effects. Studies by Lisa Feldman Barrett and others have found that people with high emotional granularity report less alcohol use to cope, less aggressive responding to negative events, and better recovery from depressive episodes. Working with a feelings wheel for a few minutes a day for 4–6 weeks measurably increases the size of the emotion vocabulary most people use spontaneously.

If you'd like to combine emotional naming with a brief calming practice, the diaphragmatic breathing timer and EFT tapping are good companions to this exercise.