Feelings Wheel Collaborative by Susan Finelli

DIRECTIONS:

finellisusan1 — 2025-06-01 18:13:39 UTC

After identifying a recent emotion, answer the following prompts:

What triggered this feeling today or this week?
How did it show up in my behavior or choices?
What does this tell you about your current needs or boundaries?
What surprised you about the feelings you named?
How does expanding your emotional vocabulary change the way you understand your experiences?
How can this tool be useful in your future profession or personal life?

EXAMPE: Dr. Finelli

finellisusan1 — 2025-06-01 18:27:13 UTC

This feeling was triggered by my credit card being compromised for the third time in six months. Although I notified my bank immediately, I am now hesitant to use my credit card at all ~ unless absolutely necessary. This tells me that I may need to be thinking more about my spending decisions and learn to use cash for in-person purchases and save the credit card for online spending. I am surprised that I am more upset that my card was compromised than I am by the amount of purchases I make with my credit card. Expanding my vocabulary helps me identify what is really the issue. It also prompts me to want to change my habits. I feel this tool can be useful in both my professional and personal life because it allows for deeper self-relfection and more specific verbage when talking to others about what I am going through. I am also excited about sharing this tool with others because I know how powerful it can be!

Jordan Malcolm

2025-09-15 15:36:54 UTC

My emotion today on 9/15/25 is anxious. This feeling was triggered because this morning my car stalled when I tried to start it and many different codes popped up, which I assume means I need to replace the battery. I commute to campus and work two jobs, so I rely on my car more than anything. In my behavior, I feel I've shown this reflected emotion by being more reserved and less cheerful in class. This tells me that once I get to class, I need to allow myself to forget about my outside stressors and put my best foot forward so those around me do not feel my negative energy. This is something I know will be crucial as a future educator, because my students will notice if something is off with my mood, and I will then have an influence on their mood for that day. Expanding my vocabulary allows me to trace back my mood this morning and identify what has truly triggered it. I am surprised that my mood has been impacted by my situation because until I sat to reflect it, I did not even realize it was on my mind.

Sam Dickhaut

2025-09-15 19:24:18 UTC

My feeling today (9/15/25) is overwhelmed.

I am feeling this emotion because I have a lot going on in school, as well as my extracurriculars. This upcoming week I have my first exam in Clinical Gross Anatomy, covering the back and lower limb. There is a lot of material on this exam, as we must know what nerve innervates every muscle, as well as other anatomical terms. Additionally, at the end of the week I am leaving for a three-day camping trip to Western Pennsylvania for my Hydrology course. On top of my extracurriculars, I am involved in fraternity and sorority life on campus, and this week is recruitment week. The feeling caused me to prioritize studying and getting ahead of my courses, rather than going down to OSU with my family to see my sister. While I was disappointed that I wouldn’t get to spend time with family, this choice showed me that my biggest priority is my education. While I was not particularly surprised about the feeling, as I have many different involvements, I was surprised about how well I overcame it. I think I did a great job at getting ahead of my coursework and studies, and I was able to facetime my family to talk to them. Expanding my emotional vocabulary allows me to better identify and understand what I am feeling, and work to overcome this feeling, or reach this feeling more often. As a future Anesthesiologist Assistant and educator, I plan to use my knowledge of feelings to identify how I am feeling in my work, as well as the feelings of my patients and students, and identify the best course of action.

Katie Porach

2025-09-15 22:43:42 UTC

My emotion on 9/15/25 is overwhelmed. I have a lot of homework, and my job has been stressing me out. In my behavior, I've been moody and acting out more than usual. This tells me that I have to put up boundaries on what I work on days. What surprised me was to really say it out loud. I have been putting it away for so long. Being able to feel my feelings and expand my emotional vocabulary will allow me to understand and process my experiences in a healthy way. Being able to acknowledge my feelings is a useful tool as a teacher because I can help show empathy for my students.

Corrie McFadden

2025-09-16 00:13:30 UTC

My emotion today on 9/15/25 is overwhelmed. I had a busy weekend and was not able to get ahead on assignments for school which has left me with lots of homework this week. This includes assignments where I have to read multiple articles, need to write essays, and need to contact my cooperating teacher! This has shown up in my behavior because I have spent extra time to organize everything to try to calm myself down to not feel as frazzled. My current needs are to stay focused yet understand that there is only so much I can do, and if I get to stressed I can always reach out to my professors for support. School is not something that I let stress me out very often so feeling overwhelmed for me was something new when I looked at my assigments for the week. Being able to identifiy this emotion has helped me feel calmer and stay focused on the assignments I need to get done one step at a time and make myself less stressed. This tool can be useful in the future when I do not know what emotion I am feeling and I need to calm myself down or find a way to refocus.

Ella James

2025-09-16 17:45:51 UTC

My emotion today on 9/16/25 is exhausted. I have had a really busy past week with multiple soccer games this past weekend. This has made it hard for me to find time to do all of my school work for my classes. Because of the build up with practices and games then completing school work on top of them, I have not had much time for adequate sleep. This feeling was prevalent in my behavior as I am someone who you can read my emotions all over my face. I usually am very energetic and happy, however, I have been very tired and quick-tempered, which is not at all like me. Yesterday, we had an optional lift, which I typically attend. However, I decided not to go as I wanted to catch up on school work and let my body rest. This build up of exhaustion tells me that I need to block out my time better in order to allow myself the needed amount of rest. I am surprised with the frustration I felt with myself for being tired and unfocused, as I usually tend to give myself grace when I feel this way. Expanding my emotional vocabulary has really allowed me to put words to the feelings that I have. By putting words to these feelings I can better identify solutions for them and ultimately fix negative feelings I may be having. In my future, I plan on going to medical school, which can have a high mental toll. This tool will allow me to identify how I am feeling and what I can do to counteract negative feelings. By doing so, I will be able to optimize my productivity and efficiency to be the best medical student and future physician I can be.

Maranda Hall

mdhall25 — 2025-09-17 00:20:40 UTC

My emotion today, on 9/16/25 is Bad. I feel tired, busy, and stressed. Homework and work have triggered how I am feeling this week. I always have so much to do during the week, and I never feel like I have any time for myself. Feeling this way makes me act relentlessly and restlessly. Sleeping while being stressed is not an easy task. This tells me that I need a break, and it's only the fourth week of school. Next semester, I need to take only five classes instead of six. I need to set better boundaries for myself, such as creating a better schedule to follow during the week. It surprised me that I would feel this stressed out and tired. I know college is a lot of work, but sometimes going to work and school is really hard. Expanding my emotional vocabulary makes it easier to regulate my emotions and understand how I am feeling. This tool would be extremely helpful in my future work and personal life because it will help me create healthy habits and have clear and strict boundaries for myself.

Brenda Hall

brendahall0926 — 2025-09-17 00:26:14 UTC

My emotion today, 9/16/25, is happy. I completed many assignments, which made me feel very proud. It showed up in my choices by making time to complete assignments so that I don't feel stressed out towards the end of the week. This tells me that I was thinking about my future self, and I set myself positive boundaries. I surprised myself by being motivated. I tried to work hard so that I could relax before the weekend. Expanding your emotional vocabulary is a good concept to adopt because it allows you to be self-aware. This also made me understand more about my experiences because I have been overwhelmed by homework before, and I don't want to feel like that every week when I get more homework. This tool will help me in my future profession because it is a good way to check in with my students and allow them to express their thoughts and feelings. It can also help me in my personal life by allowing me to check in once a week or every day to express how I am feeling and how I can improve.

Karlie Klemens

2025-09-17 18:32:51 UTC

My emotion today on 09/17/25 is bad. I feel stressed, busy, and tired. Which leads me to feel unfocused and out of control. This feeling was triggered for me this week because of recruitment this past weekend. I also work 3 days a week and have an internship the other 2, so my weeks are super packed. With recruitment this weekend I did not have much time to study, and I have had two exams this week. I have been up all-night studying and waking up early to study again. All of my extra free time has been used on studying, so I have not really done anything that I enjoy. It has shown up in my behaviors and choices because I have turned down hanging out with friends and spent a lot of time in my room. My current needs and boundaries should be taking time to myself. Sometimes my friends have a tendency to want to hang out for a long time late at night. I need to make sure I put up those boundaries, so they leave earlier. I also need more rest as I have been staying up later and waking up earlier. As long as I get the rest I need and calm down, I should be feeling better by the weekend. I am not surprised that I feel this way. I knew with my busy schedule and the two exams coming up I was going to struggle this week. Now that recruitment is over, I should be ready to tackle next week. Expanding my emotional vocabulary can help me to better understand my experiences. There is nothing worse than feeling a certain way and not being able to explain it to someone. Expanding my vocabulary can also help me in the future when I work in the medical field. For some it can be hard to explain the way they are feeling or what type of pain they are in. Understanding can help me know what they are trying to explain to me. If I am feeling a certain way, I can check this chart and put words to what I am feeling. The chart can also help me when understanding others feelings. Most people explain just the outside of the shell, not the innermost part, or they only give one feeling. Understanding these can help me understand the bigger picture when someone acts out or acts off.

Alyssa Ricci

2025-09-18 00:12:28 UTC

My emotion today, on 9-17-25, is bad. Specifically, I have been feeling overwhelmed with the coursework I have on top of my job. My being overwhelmed has shown up in my behaviors at work. I am more prone to snapping at my coworkers and have to work a lot harder to maintain a professional composure. Being overwhelmed has also shown up in my choices for doing schoolwork. I have been putting off doing schoolwork because the idea of doing it all is so daunting that I freeze up and do none of it. These behaviors and choices show me that I need to take a second to reground myself and focus on each task one day at a time. I also need to make sure that I am communicating with the people around me if I notice that I am getting especially overwhelmed. I might also have to ask my job to cut back on my hours so I have time to work on my schoolwork. I am not surprised that I am feeling bad or overwhelmed because I tend to put a lot more onto my plate than I can handle at a time. Expanding my emotional vocabulary allows me to more accurately name what emotions I am feeling and start the process of working through those emotions. This tool can be useful to me in the future because I will be able to quickly assess how I am feeling and take the steps to ground myself. I can then bring these grounding activities to the classroom so I can help my students understand and process their emotions.

Katelynn Galvin

kgalvin24 — 2025-09-18 18:01:05 UTC

My emotion on 9/18/25 is overwhelmed. This feeling was triggered by homework and my job. I feel I have an overwhelming amount of homework I need to get done (preferably before the end of Friday) because I work a weekend job. My job was also very stressful these past few days, and I have to keep going so I can pay my loans for school! Today I plan on spending the day trying to knock out all my tasks in order to stay on top of my coursework and reduce stress! This was showing up in my behavior this week, I have been extremely tired, and very irritable. This tells me that I should adjust my boundaries (how often I work, what days should be more homework focused) and focus on my needs, such as more sleep and time to unwind. I was not surprised by these feelings, however, I was surprised about how strong they are. I think expanding my emotional vocabulary will better help me understand my experiences by allowing me to better process and handle them. This tool can be helpful in my future teaching career because as a teacher, if I can better understand these emotions and the behaviors that come with them, I can better help my students understand them too. I can also better understand why a student may be acting out, or struggling with behavior issues in the classroom.

Breckyn Daniel

2025-09-18 21:49:05 UTC

My emotion today, on 9/18/2025, is stressed. This feeling is stressed because softball season started last week, and there is a lot on my schedule right now. This has shown in my behavior for the last week because I have not been showing 110 percent effort on my homework and classwork. I have been very tired in my classes this whole week. This has also made me lose the schedule I was on for the first week of school, and I now need to find a new one. Something that surprised me while writing about being stressed is that when I was in high school, I would not get as stressed out as I am in college. I am never one to speak about my emotions, but being able to really think about how school, personal life, work, and sports all have impacted my week is interesting. Being able to expand my emotional understanding and look at the feelings wheel shows me how many emotions people can actually be going through. Being able to look at this chart and see that I can start the day at one emotion and end the day on a completely different one makes me want to track it more often. I can use this chart in the future to be able to ask my students where they are on the chart for the day or the week.

May Kupchik

2025-09-19 13:41:46 UTC

My emotion today, on 9-19-25, is bad. I am very stressed this semester. I am working four jobs to pay for school and also on the cheer team at BW. Tonight I work from 2pm to 12am. It has shown in my behavior a lot. I just had a meeting with my cheer coach yesterday about it, and she can even tell I am not doing well. When I am stressed, I get panic attacks, break out in hives, and also lash out at the people I care about the most. I also fall back on my school work when I am stressed and focus on little things like how I need to clean, go shopping, or do laundry. I'm not surprised I feel this way because everyone around me asks how I do it without breaking down, and I simply can't do it without crashing. Changing my vocabulary helps me really think about how I need to regulate my emotions more and take a step back and focus on myself and school. This can help me in the future at school when a student is feeling a lot of emotions. I will have a lot more vocabulary and words to help express how they feel because emotions aren't surface-level.

May Kupchik

2025-09-19 14:23:23 UTC

My emotion on 9/19/25 is bad. I am so very stressed this semester. I am working 38 hours a week and also on the cheer team at BW. When I am stressed, I lash out, break out in hives, and throw up. I just had a meeting with my cheer coach regarding my stress, and she said she can tell I'm struggling. Everyone asks me how I do it, and I simply do not know. Every day feels very rushed, and I can barely enjoy the day. This tells me I need to take a step back and take a deep breath. Nothing surprises me about the way I feel because I am doing a lot. Expanding my vocabulary helps me evaluate how I feel, and can help me deal with it. This tool can help me evaluate how a student is feeling because emotions aren't surface-level.

Noah Baer

nbaer23 — 2025-09-20 15:00:33 UTC

Noah Baer
My emotion today (9/20/25) is overwhelmed. This was triggered by trying to balance classes, extracurricular commitments, and my coral reef project while also keeping up with assignments. It has shown up in my behavior as feeling distracted when studying and less patient when unexpected tasks come up. Reflecting on this tells me that I need to prioritize my most important work and allow myself time to rest so I don’t burn out. What surprised me is realizing that I’m not just “busy,” but actually overwhelmed from trying to do a lot at once. Expanding my emotional vocabulary helped me name this feeling more precisely and reminded me to break tasks into smaller steps and ask for help when needed. I believe this tool will be useful in my future career, since being aware of my emotions will help me manage stress and stay effective in both professional and personal settings.

Julie Roztas

2025-09-21 01:31:40 UTC

Over this past week, I have been feeling so stressed. Particularly today, 9/20/2025, I felt a sudden surge of stress crash over me and my mind. Being a preschool teacher and tutor is what triggered my stress this week. Lashing out my frustrations at my family and not being patient with my students is how it showed up in my behavior this week. Usually, I am really goofy and outgoing with the kiddos, but on Friday, I felt my patience slipping just because the kids weren't listening or were in trouble with the other teachers. To give context, when I lash out at my frustrations with my family, I usually say things in passing and not hurt their feelings. This tells me that I need to take a couple of seconds or a minute break from the kiddos just to ease my mind a little bit and to continue being goofy and outgoing with them. Under the feeling of bad, was stressed, and under stress was either overwhelmed or out of control. I am more overwhelmed than out of control. If I were out of control, I would be mean or horrible to the kids, which I am not. What surprised me the most is that being out of control is under being stressed. In my mind, I would associate out of control with being angry. Expanding my emotional vocabulary will help me teach the kids about how they are truly feeling. Understanding this vocabulary helps me understand how I felt in the past and how it can help develop my thoughts for future reference. As it is said, knowing this vocabulary will help me as a teacher understand what the kids are really feeling and help me understand how to help them through it. In the future, I will be continuing my career as a teacher, so understanding this information will help me understand the kids more for future reference. With this feelings wheel, I am going to print it off and hang it up in my classroom for the kids to see and actually understand feelings!

Aidan Malone

aidanjmalone7 — 2025-09-21 22:15:18 UTC

Today (9/21/2025) I was thankful. I was struggling with money and got a bill for all my subscriptions that needed to be taken care of. I was thankful my mom sent me the money so I was able to pay for the things I needed. It showed up in my behavior making me much happier than I was before because I was not sure what I was going to do if I did not get the money I needed to play off the items. In full honesty I was not surprised by my feelings. I think everyone knows when you get money you will always be happier than you were before without the money. Expanding my emotion vocabulary helps me understand my experience better because now I know there are levels to emotion and not just one term can sum how someone is feeling. This tool can be useful for me because I will now if a students is feeling down it may be connected to different feelings under just sad. I can look for what that student needs at that moment.

Kaisey Ruta

2025-09-21 23:23:32 UTC

My emotion today on 9/21/25 is overwhelmed. Today and this whole past week, I have had a lot of homework to do, and I worked every day except Wednesday. I am a dietary aide at a nursing home, and it has been stressful this past week because of the rude STNAS I have to work with. I also tend to procrastinate all my homework until Sunday, when I work a lot. Being overwhelmed this week led me to be very stressed, and my thoughts were consumed by thinking about how much I have to do. I then just had no motivation to get ahead on my assignments because of how tired I have been from going to classes and then straight to work. After this week and these past few weeks, I have realized that I need to set time each day for myself to get my assignments done, so I don't save them all for the last minute. This week, I am going to try to use my time wisely and get assignments done sooner than their due date. I am also going to focus on getting enough sleep and not staying up late. These feelings did not surprise me because I know it is normal to feel overwhelmed with school and work; it is just my responsibility to learn how to control it. I think expanding my emotional vocabulary will help me understand when I feel certain ways and then help me learn how to handle situations better. This tool can be helpful in my future teaching career because I will understand the emotions and the behaviors that come with them. It will help me understand my students on a personal level.

Amaya Mayes

2025-09-21 23:49:58 UTC

My emotion of the day (9/21/25) is hopeful. This feeling was triggered by a text I received from a potential future mentor in my career field. I have been more interested in researching this opportunity and growing more excited about what the future may hold. Based on my current financial needs, this is going to (hopefully) remove a boundary that I've had up for a while. By expanding my emotional vocabulary, I can verbalize more specifically what I feel in a given moment. I may be happy at two separate times, but the happiness I think one way could be very different from the happiness I think another way (feeling hopeful vs feeling aroused). I believe that this tool will encourage me to look beyond the surface of my emotions and truly understand what I may be feeling. If I take the easy way out and say "happy", I may never know that I was feeling grateful - knowing my true feelings will allow me to actually act and move accordingly in any given moment.

Avery Offenburg

2025-09-22 01:47:27 UTC

My emotion today on 9/21 is frustrated. This whole week I have been feeling this emotion in some type of way. It is not my number 1 emotion I am feeling, but it always lingers. I had ACL surgery recently, and it sort of feels like nothing can go my way. Not to mention, being on crutches with a straight leg makes everything 10 times more difficult. This is frustrating because an everyday task that seems easy for a non-injured person takes up more time and energy for me currently. It showed up in my language with my roommates and family/friends. I get irritated easily and they can tell that something is bothering me. This tells me that I need to take a deep breath and put a little more effort into planning my day. If I know taking a shower is going to take longer, account for it so I don't stress myself out more than I need to. This wheel can help me prioritize my thought and feelings more, and better understand what I am feeling. If I can identify what I am feeling, I will be able to process it and find a solution more efficiently.

Angel Zidow

2025-09-22 03:20:07 UTC

My feeling today, 9/21/2025, is Excited. This feeling was triggered by a shopping spree today. I was able to find some cute outfits and had a great time with my mom and boyfriend. They kept me company and were also super patient while I tried on just about everything in the store. I surround myself with loving, thoughtful, and encouraging people. They will do anything if it makes me happy! I'm so grateful that I can experience pure joy and laughter all day before a stressful week of school. Expanding my emotional vocabulary helps me realize how I truly feel, reflect on how my day really went, and make it easier to share my emotions with others. This tool can be useful as a teacher when my students can't describe in detail how they are feeling. This will allow them to find the real reason why they are feeling a certain way. It will teach me how to be more specific and less broad about how I feel emotionally.

Angel Zidow

azidow24 — 2025-09-22 03:34:44 UTC

My emotion today, on 9/21/2025, is happy. This feeling was triggered by me going on a shopping spree today. I was super excited and got a couple of outfits and a pair of shoes. I really needed something exciting to keep me from worrying about stress from school. I'm so happy that I can surround myself with joy and laughter. I was with my mom and boyfriend, and they kept me company while I tried on just about everything in the stores. I was super excited to find some new things and spend time with the people I love. Expanding my emotional vocabulary, allows me to better understand how i am feeling and why i am feelung that way. This tool can be helpful as a teacher when a student can't express how they are really feeling and why they are feeling that way. Personally, I was able to connect many words of emotion to my day and realize we feel so many different emotions in one day.