Emotions

This section is about understanding what you feel and putting it into words. When all you know is “I feel bad”, it’s hard to decide what to do next.

The exact word — hurt rather than angry, lonely rather than sad — helps you notice what keeps coming back and explain it to yourself or your therapist.

What you’ll find here:

• the feelings wheel — 52 words in 8 families around a circle: tap a word to see what it means;
• the list of emotions and feelings — the same words by family, each with a short explanation;
• printable PDFs of the wheel and the list.

If you can’t find the word, start with the wheel: broad feelings sit in the middle, their shades around the edge. If you have the word but aren’t sure how it differs from a similar one, open the list.

This is a vocabulary, not a test: it doesn’t diagnose anything or judge your feelings. It helps you name what’s already there.

The words come from Brimmy, a feelings journal for iPhone. In the app, you log a feeling with the same words in a couple of taps.