Mental Health Monday #1: The Feeling Wheel

Hi, it's me again. 

I'm going to try this thing where I post about mental health every Monday. This could range anywhere from personal experiences, advice, coping skills and hopefully interviews eventually. Today will just be a general rambling and then I will show y'all an extremely useful tool that I like to keep on hand.

I don't remember ever being taught about mental health in any of the classes I took in high school. It just wasn't something people talked about. I grew up in a border town that is predominantly Hispanic. I think it might have to do with the culture, but at least in the families I know, there isn't much talk about mental health.

Whether you have a mental disorder or not, I think everyone should care for their mental health. This can come in so many forms from taking a day to relax and destress to learning coping skills that can get you through a stressful day. I use a combination of the two and find that I function so much better when I consider my mental health a priority. 

When I first began my mental health journey, I didn't think coping skills were worth squat. After going through individual and group therapy, I found that identifying my emotions is an important first step in getting through a rough time. 

The tool I want to share today has been a resource I've carried with me for the past year and it sits in my binder cover for easy access. This resource is called "The feelings wheel." Or at least that's what I call it. It's exactly as it sounds: a wheel with a list of feelings all around that will help you identify what you're feeling and back track to the source. This was developed by Dr. Gloria Willcox and was shown to me by my group therapist last year.

I use the feelings wheel as a means of identifying my emotion and processing it in order to figure out why I might be feeling this way. This sometimes even leads me to realize if my emotions are being caused by irrational or negative thoughts. 

For example, if I am feeling embarrassed, I can trace this thought back to the core emotion which is scared. Once I see where this is coming from, I consider what I am scared of. Often, I realize that I have nothing to really be scared of. This is always my first step in the process of coping with my emotions. 

I hope this post gives you some inspiration for caring for your mental health, and if this sounds like a tool you'd like you use, you can download it by clicking HERE.

Thanks for reading and come back next Monday for another mental health post!