Feelings Wheel
A feelings wheel is an emotion wheel that sorts feelings into 8 families: broad words in the middle, their shades around the edge. Tap a word to see what it means.
Tap a word to see its family and a short explanation from Brimmy.
How to use the feelings wheel
From a vague “I feel bad” to the exact word in four steps:
Find the family
Start with the inner ring: a rough idea is enough.
Narrow it down
Pick the closest shade on the outer ring. If two fit, take both.
Check your body
A lump in the throat or warmth in the chest can point to the family.
Write it down
The word and a line about what happened.
Feelings and emotions wheel
All 52 words by family. Tap one to find it on the wheel.
Anxiety
When you expect the worst or don’t know what to do.
Joy
When things feel good or something good is coming.
Sadness
When something is missing, didn’t work out or is gone.
Calm
When something lets go and you have solid ground.
Anger
When someone crosses you or your boundaries.
Warmth
When someone is dear to you and you want to be close.
Shame & Guilt
When you feel bad about yourself or sorry you hurt someone.
Mixed
When one feeling is pleasant and hard at the same time.
Plutchik’s wheel of emotions
The best-known emotion wheel is Robert Plutchik’s, from 1980. It has eight basic emotions in opposite pairs: joy and sadness, trust and disgust, fear and anger, surprise and anticipation.
Another is the Feeling Wheel: Gloria Willcox (1982) put six core feelings in its center. The wheel above is neither: it uses Brimmy’s families.
Sources: R. Plutchik, 1980 and 2001; G. Willcox, 1982.
What the wheel can’t do
The wheel doesn’t diagnose anything or judge whether you feel the right way. It’s a vocabulary: it helps you name what is already there.
Feelings wheel PDF
The whole emotion wheel chart
Every family and word of the feelings wheel, printable on one A4 page.
Note your feelings every day
The Brimmy feelings journal uses the same words. Log a feeling in a few taps and see what repeats over a week.