Get to the core feeling first: Start with the inner-most wheel and move outward, moving from the core feelings toward any associated feelings that might be coming up for you. The circle provides some more emotional words you can say in place of intellectual ones.įeeling the thing: When a feeling starts to arise, look at the wheel. To avoid this, try using simpler, more self-expressive words (emotional language) to explain what you feel. Using intellectual language - words that are not connected to your direct experience - can distance you from your emotions and make it more difficult to know what you are truly feeling. Her book, Nurture is full of helpful emotional communication tools for us all. Erica is co-founder and CEO of LOOM, a well-being brand empowering women through sexual and reproductive health. Gloria Willcox to facilitate better verbalization of emotions by her clients.
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The Feelings Circle was originally developed by psychotherapist, Dr.
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We spied ‘The Feeling Circle’ in the pages of the new book - an invaluable tool for emotional communication across the board. For example, “supposititious” was a recent “Word of the Day.” Defined, the adjective means “based primarily on surmise rather than actual evidence.” It’s only appeared in the New York Times three times in the past 42 years.Putting words to our feelings can be a struggle - especially when those words are exchanged with someone we care about on issues packed with emotional complexity.Įmotional complexity is what navigating relationships is all about, according to Erica Chidi in her book, Nurture. Some examples? Serene is a better way to say “very calm.” Lavish is a fair substitute for “very fancy,” and adorable will suffice if you’re trying to say “very cute.”Īnother fun way to build your vocabulary is by bookmarking The New York Times’ “ Word of the Day” page, which will introduce you to words as well as show how often they’ve been used in Times’ articles during the past year and show you the word in context from a previous article. For example, Proofreading Services offers this chart of 128 words to help you curb your use of “very” and replace it with stronger adjectives. Other vocabulary charts to help you better express yourself can be found online. In all, there are 72 adjectives to link to your feelings.Īdult Children of Alcoholic Families Looking to expand your vocabulary even more? A third, outer ring gets even more specific.
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A secondary ring of words helps narrow those feelings down. The wheel has six core feelings: mad, scared, joyful, powerful, peaceful and sad. Gloria Willcox decades ago and has been used by several counseling centers and outreach groups as a way to help clients better describe their emotions. While the wheel is a great tool to help build your vocabulary, it actually was developed by Dr. Or, on the flip side, if your root feeling is sad, could it be stemming from feeling ashamed, or, even more specifically remorseful?
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For example, if you feel joyful, a more specific descriptor might be excited, which could then be refined even further to daring. Or maybe burdensome? Toilsome?!Įnter the feelings wheel, which will help you pinpoint an adjective to accurately reflect how you’re feeling. Unless you’re a poet or an expert wordsmith, finding exactly the right word to describe how you feel can be hard.