Emotion Wheel
This color wheel looks familiar, but the contents are very different. Developed by Robert Plutchik, an American psychologist, designed it to organize complex emotions with colors. Emotion wheels are usually shaped like colorful flowers. In the center are our basic emotions, the ones we react to first along with synonyms to cover variances.
Radiating toward the outer edges are less intense variants of these core emotions, the colors lighten, representing milder levels of our basic emotions. The connecting words outside of the wheel are blends of emotions. In sum, the darker the shade, the greater the intensity.
So, you might be thinking, what’s the point of this? An important part of learning how to cope with emotions is learning how to understand them. If you don’t understand why you are reacting a certain way or how your emotions are connected to what is happening, it’s more difficult to control them or to determine what might be a more appropriate way to manage them.
If you’re also thinking, boy these are mostly negative emotions, you are right. The premise was to help identify more painful emotions which are typically more difficult to understand, leading toward resolution. When we are aware of our emotions, we develop self-awareness, what we are feeling in the moment.
Life Lesson by Pedro Calderón de la Barca:
“In this treacherous world
Nothing is the truth nor a lie.
Everything depends on the color
Of the crystal through which one sees it.”