I realize this series of posts about feelings has gone on for several months now, but the truth is we’ve just scratched the surface of this topic. So much of our human condition revolves around learning to recognize and act on these feelings in healthy ways— learning to communicate our joy, sadness, fear, peace, power, and anger so we’re understood by one another. So many of our society’s problems come back to ineffective emotional communication. I mean, look at the current political landscape; how might our electoral politics differ if people were more aware of our own anger and fear? How might religion and spirituality in our society differ if we worked together on accessing feelings of peace and power? How might our collective mental health improve if we normalized talking about sadness and joy? Emotional awareness and communication are crucial skills I’d love to see us teach more, and I hope this series of posts has added a drop or two to that bucket.

Personally, I’ve seen a lot of positive change in my own life the more I’ve studied and practiced with the feeling wheel. I still have a long way to go, but learning to recognize and express my feelings more healthily has been important for me, and I hope this study has helped you as well.

Moving forward, I’d encourage you: print off a feeling wheel. Keep it somewhere easily accessible like your pocket or bag or car. When you experience strong emotions, refer back to it. Even if you don’t work your way out into the outer spokes, reflect on the old mantra from my supervisor: sad, mad, scared, joyful, peaceful, powerful. What are you feeling, and what do you want to do with those feelings? None of these feelings are bad; it’s all about staying aware of them and how you may be acting on them without realizing it.

So. How are you feeling?