I came across this very useful tool that has been a big help to me, it’s called the Feelings Wheel.
I first saw it here, and I thought it could be useful and helpful, so I am posting it here:
How The Feelings Wheel can help you personally
As a somehow emotional person, I usually have a hard time describing how I feel
I especially have a hard time knowing what feeling made me feel the way I feel.
In other words, what is the actual root feeling that is contributing to my current feeling?
For instance, when I feel inadequate, now I know that the root cause of this could be insecurity, and the root cause of insecurity is fear.
This tool helps you to determine in more detail where feelings come from, but the same is the other way around.
I may know I feel fearful, but why do I feel fearful?
Looking at the feelings wheel, I can see that it could be because I may be scared, anxious, insecure, weak, rejected, or threatened.
From there, I can see yet a third level of feelings per category.
This could be very useful so that when you are feeling a certain way, you could now start dealing not only with the superficial feeling, but also the root feeling, or vice-versa, you could start dealing with the root feeling, as well as the superficial ones.
How The Feelings Wheel can help you in ministry
Another way this has been useful to me as a minister is that I can add better descriptions in my sermons or studies.
Anytime I am preparing a sermon, there are two main tools I use when it comes to describing feelings:
- The book of Psalms
- The Feelings Wheel
If I am preaching on hope, then I go here and do a search for anything related to the theme that could assist me in assisting others.
I have found that this helps people. Sometimes they don’t know how they feel, but they know they feel a certain way.
Now, please know that this is not an ironclad feelings list.
It’s not the main authority of the know-it-all-about-your-feelings system. But I think it’s useful nonetheless. Take it for what it’s worth to you.
How are you feeling? How do you think you can use this for yourself, or others? I’d like to know other ideas of how this could be useful. Comment below 👇