NEED this...

I must have this when I see t. I never have a good answer other than "fine" or "OK" for the "how are you" question.

Improve Your Vocabulary With the ?Wheel of Feelings? | Mental Floss

I don't see fine on the chart. I would be unable to explain anything without it.

That chart was written by somebody who hasn't really thought very much about the semantics of the words involved...

I think this may be really useful for me - I certainly can never go beyond those middle feelings in describing how I am - going to print it off.

Thank-you!

When a T asks how you are and you say you're good, then I'm going to wonder why you're seeing a T. Unless, that's just a cover-up and you need the T to help you dig deep to find out how you're really feeling. Some T's are actually willing to do the work.

I pretty much answer I'm doing okay. She can usually tell how I am doing by my body language when I answer. If she can tell that I am not okay she will always say "okay now how are you REALLY doing"

My problem is i understand the meanings of the words but cant apply them to the feelings i have. This results in misunderstandings across the board.

I have a list of feeling words similar to this that I keep in my journal. It's helpful when I'm stewing about something and can't quite put my finger on what I'm feeling or why. Sometimes seeing just the right word will help me start seeing what is going on with some clarity. It can be hard to put a word on feelings sometimes.

My hospital had similar lists available for when we were setting our daily goals to help us be able to more clearly communicate what was going on with us at that moment.

My T very quickly worked with me to get away from "I don't know" and "fine" answers to questions. Helping me find ways to express what was there but I couldn't verbally communicate well was agonizing at times. I would have rather he just allowed me to stick with my answers that really didn't mean anything; it would have been easier. But no real movement or insight happens for me that way. With some dialogue and questioning, I realized I really did have answers; they were just really hard to access, usually because what was under those answers was a lot of pain or confusion that was very primal. Getting it into a communicative form gave me something to work with.

I'm thinking of putting this on a spinning dart board, or something like that, and taking it with me to T.

Exactly.

When they picked emotions for the movie "Inside Out" I wonder if they were looking at this wheel. They have all the central emotions just not "surprise".

I am curious why pride and shame are subsets of other emotions?

I didn't even know surprise was classified as an emotion.

And what's the distinction between feelings and emotions?

I prefer a circle of verbs: soldiering, persevering, surmounting.

Good question Soup. I found this article about it:
John Voris The Difference Between Emotions and Feelings

Thanks for sharing Coco3! Very helpful.
I think maybe, too, it's not just that some of us have a hard time verbalizing our feelings or emotions, but the english language itself is limited.

Perhaps the "wheel" could use some editing?
I also look at it like a sort of color wheel. Wouldn't happy be opposite of sad? IDK I'm no artist.

Here are 2 other feeling/emotion wheels:

And they're in color! Thanks Scarlet!

This makes me smile. I've seen the chart before. The funny thing is, my T always greets me with "how are you? " in the hallway on the way to her office. I just imagined myself pulling out this chart before she even closes the door too the lobby...

I don't get why it matters - but I did find this.

Emotional Competency - Recognize these emotions

EXACTLY...
That's the "how are you?" I always get and never have an answer for her. I get confused as to how to answer. Is it appropriate time for the real answer, or the usual "fine, how are you?" answer you would say to someone you ran into at the store, or a customer, anybody in public. I always think the real answer is for when we sit down to start talking, not our initial "hello's".

Making too much of it, I know.