Overview

Expand emotional vocabulary, build self-awareness, and facilitate emotional check-ins with this emotions wheel template. Based on Plutchik's wheel of emotions, this visual reference maps primary, secondary, and tertiary emotions in a radial structure — making it a versatile tool for team retrospectives, SEL classrooms, therapy-adjacent workshops, and personal development.

Key Features

• Full color-coded emotions wheel with three layers of emotional complexity
• Check-in zone for participants to identify and mark their current emotional state
• Reflection prompt section for guided journaling or discussion
• Team check-in aggregate area for group emotional temperature
• Printable single-user format and facilitated group format

How to Use

1. Display the emotions wheel and give participants 2 minutes to identify which emotion best describes how they're feeling — they mark it with a sticky note or dot on the wheel using the Shapes tool
2. Invite sharing — participants can describe their marked emotion in the reflection zone using the Text tool or speak to it verbally
3. For team check-ins, aggregate individual marks in the group view section to see the team's collective emotional temperature
4. Use the reflection prompts to facilitate a deeper conversation — post one question at a time using the Text tool and collect responses as sticky notes
5. Close with an intention or reframe — what would each person like to feel by the end of the session? Add it as a note in the intentions zone

Benefits

Teams that can name how they're feeling are more self-aware, more empathetic, and more psychologically safe. The emotions wheel gives people the vocabulary to say something specific instead of defaulting to "I'm fine."

User Research Template