There is a direct correlation between a larger emotional vocabulary and improved emotional regulation. 

In this series, we unpack complex emotions to find the wisdom hidden inside them.

Many studies found that individuals who could articulate their feelings with greater specificity were better equipped to cope with stress and experience fewer negative emotional outbursts. Think of it this way: if you can only say “I feel bad,” how can you address the root cause? But if you can identify “I feel overlooked,” the path to resolution becomes a little bit clearer. The feeling wheel provides the emotional dictionary for this crucial differentiation.

This article combines the framework of emotions wheel with the transformative power of art journaling to help you improve your emotional intelligence.

Beyond “Fine”: The Importance of Naming Your Emotions

The ability to accurately name your emotions, a concept psychologists refer to as affect labeling, is far more than simply naming how you feel. 

Studies show that labeling emotions can actually reduce their intensity and help you regulate your responses. When we can articulate what we’re feeling, we engage the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s executive control center, which in turn can dampen the activity in the amygdala, the brain’s alarm system. This isn’t just a theory, fMRI scans reveal this neurological shift in action. Yet, many of us struggle to name more than just a handful of primary emotions. This is where the feeling wheel becomes an invaluable tool.

The Emotions Wheel

The emotions wheel is a visual model that organizes emotions into a spectrum, moving from core, primary emotions outwards to more nuanced, secondary, and tertiary feelings. Imagine it as a color palette for your feelings. For instance, what starts as “sad” might reveal itself as “lonely,” “vulnerable,” “despair,” or even “grief.” The wheel provides a vocabulary, helping you articulate feelings with precision.

Art Journaling

While the emotions wheel provides the lexicon, art journaling offers the canvas. Unlike traditional verbal journaling, which relies solely on words, which can be limiting, art journaling embraces visual expression – drawing, painting, collage, and mixed media – to help you view your emotions from a new perspective.

A study published in the Journal of the American Art Therapy Association highlighted that art-based activities can significantly reduce stress and improve mood. What’s less commonly discussed is how art journaling fosters a unique form of non-verbal dialogue with oneself. Sometimes, an emotion is too raw, too complex, or too subtle for words alone. A swirling blue and black abstract, a jagged line, or a torn piece of paper can help you communicate an emotional truth more effectively than a page of text. And while you’re engaged in artistic activity, your brain makes new connections and thoughts. 

Art Journaling Activities and Prompts

Art activities are divided into three categories for expressing, exploring, and understanding/processing emotions. Each activity is accompanied by journal prompts that encourage reflection.

Art Journaling Activities For Expressing Emotions

The goal is to externalize feelings and release emotional energy.

The Color-Coded Mandala

This activity combines the structured nature of the wheel with the meditative aspect of mandalas to express emotions while reducing stress and anxiety.

1. Draw a blank circle (mandala outline) or use a pre-printed coloring page. Draw 3-4 smaller concentric circles inside it. Divide the big circle into 6-8 sections (slices). Draw patterns inside fields.
2. Look at the emotions wheel and identify your current mix of emotions. Choose 3-5 emotions you’re feeling right now.
3. Pick a color for each emotion, and for each color, pick a few shades.
4. Color the mandala using only the chosen colors. 
5. The ratio of colors should visually represent the intensity of your emotions.

Journal prompts for reflection

• Which color dominates your drawing? Does this surprise you?
• Was it difficult to limit yourself to only a few colors? Did you want to add others?
• Does the finished mandala look chaotic, organized, heavy, or light? How does that relate to your internal state?
• If you could give this mandala a title, what would it be?

Abstract Feeling Swatches

Great for those intimidated by drawing realistic images. Boxes provide safe and limited space for expressing, without being overwhelming.

1. Select three emotions you’re experiencing right now, from the outer edge of the wheel (tertiary emotions like overwhelmed, daring, or inadequate).
2. On a canvas or mixed-media paper, create three separate boxes or abstract “swatches”. Write one emotion at the bottom of each box.
3. Use texture, line pressure, and color to represent that specific emotion without drawing a picture of it. Don’t draw objects; focus on energy of emotion, and physical sensations (e.g., jagged lines, smooth waves, bold dots, blocks of color)

Journal prompts for reflection

• How did you decide which lines/shapes matched which emotion?
• Look at your swatches side-by-side. Do they look related, or are they complete opposites?
• Which emotion was the easiest to express abstractly? Which was the hardest?
• If you could touch the “swatch,” what would it feel like (rough, sticky, soft, sharp)?

The “Paper Tear” Release

Using the physical act of tearing paper to release tension associated with specific emotions (usually anger or frustration).

1. Choose a colored paper that matches a high-intensity emotion.
2. Focus on that feeling. Tear the paper into pieces—slowly or quickly, depending on the urge.
3.  Glue the torn pieces onto a white background to create a new shape. Essentially you are taking something broken and making it whole again in a new way.

Journal prompts for reflection

• How did it feel tearing the paper?
• Does the reassembled image look like an explosion or a mosaic?
• How does the energy in your body feel now compared to before you started tearing?

 

Rhythm & Hues

Connecting auditory senses with emotional vocabulary.

1. Play a piece of instrumental music that feels in tune with your current emotions.
2. While listening, look at the emotions wheel. Which emotions match the music?
3. Move your hand to the rhythm of the music, using colors associated with the emotions you selected. Let the music influence the pressure and speed of the stroke.

Journal prompts for reflection

• If this drawing had a sound, how would it sound?
• Did the music bring up an emotion you weren’t expecting?
• Does the drawing feel fast or slow, chaotic or peaceful, energetic or letargic?

 

The Emotion Jar

Creating a safe container to put away overwhelming feelings that are burdening you, so they don’t have to be carried all day.

1. Draw a large, empty jar on a piece of paper.
2. Select 3–5 emotions that are currently cluttering your mind. Assign to each emotion a color and a shape.
3. Draw shapes that represent emotions inside the jar.
4. Put away those feelings by drawing a lid on the jar.

Journal prompts for reflection

• Does the jar look full or does it have room for more?
• How does it feel to know these emotions are “contained” on the paper and not just floating in your head?
• When would you feel safe opening the lid again?

Art Journaling Activities For Exploring Emotions

The goal is to investigate where emotions come from, how they interact, and how they feel in the body.

Somatic Body Mapping

This connects the word that is the name of the emotion to the physical sensation produced in the body.

1. Draw a simple outline of a body.
2. Close your eyes and take a deep breath. Scan your body from head to toe.
3. Using the emotions wheel, select 3–4 emotions that are currently present. Assign a color to each.
4. Color the body outline where those feelings are physically felt (e.g., anxiety might be red scribbles in the stomach; grief might be a heavy blue rock in the chest).

Journal prompts for reflection

• Where do you carry the most emotion in your body?
• Did you notice any numb spots or empty spaces where you feel nothing?
• Does seeing your feelings on the map change how you understand them?
• What happens to the area with the most intense color when you take a deep breath?
• What is one physical thing you can do to soothe the most intense area (e.g., stretch, drink water, use a heating pad)?

The Inside vs. Outside Mask

Exploring the disconnect between what we show the world and what we feel internally.

1. Draw two face outlines, one on each page. Above one face write “The Persona”, this is your outside mask, and above the other write “The Self”, this is your inside mask.
2. Choose one or two emotions that you never show or hide from others.
3. On “The Persona” face, paint/draw emotions that you usually show to others instead of the ones you’re feeling.
4. On “The Self” face, paint/draw the real emotions you are having but hiding from others.

Journal prompts for reflection

• What is the biggest difference between your inside and outside masks?
• Why do you think you hide your emotions? Is it for protection? Out of fear?
• On a scale of 1–10, how exhausting is it to keep the mask on?
• Who is one person in your life you might feel safe showing a little bit of the inside to?
• What would happen if the inside always showed on the outside?

The Emotional Iceberg

Visualizing the difference between visible behavior (surface) and underlying feelings (deep).

1. Draw a waterline with an iceberg (tip above, large mass below).
2. Look at the emotions wheel and choose a few emotions that you show on the outside, and a few that are hidden from sight but are influencing your behavior.
3. On the tip, draw/color emotions you often express through your behavior.
4. Beneath the water, fill the iceberg with drawings/colors that represent emotions that are fueling the top emotion.

Journal prompts for reflection

• How did you choose which emotions you’ll let other people see?
• Which underwater emotion is the most influential on your behavior and fuels the emotions you show?
• Does knowing what is under the water make the surface emotion make more sense?

The Dinner Party Table

Personifying emotions to see how they interact.

1. Draw a round dining table with 4-6 chairs, draw circles around the table for chairs.
2. Look at the emotions wheel to select 4-6 conflicting emotions you feel regarding a specific issue.
3. On the table draw abstract forms that represent the issue.
4. “Seat” your emotions at the table by drawing inside chairs using colors and shapes to give each emotion a visual representation. Who sits next to whom? Who is sitting opposite each other?

Journal prompts for reflection

• Who is the loudest guest at the table?
• Is anyone at the table being bullied or silenced by another emotion?
• If the most silent emotion spoke to the loudest one, what would it say?

The Emotion Equation

Deconstructing complex feelings into simple ones. 

1. Using the emotions wheel, choose a complex emotion you’ve been struggling with lately, and focus on the tertiary emotions.
2. Create a visual equation: [primary emotion] + [primary or secondary emotion] = [tertiary emotion].
3. Use colors and shapes to represent the equation’s variables.

Journal prompts for reflection

• Does breaking the complex emotion down into two distinct emotions make it less intense?
• Which part of the equation is stronger right now?
• What happens if you subtract one of the variables?

Art Journaling Activities For Understanding/Processing Emotions

The goal is to analyze patterns, triggers, and the trajectory of emotional states.

The “Wheel of the Day” Tracker

Create a longitudinal study of your own emotional habits.

1. Print or draw a blank 30-day calendar.
2. Each day, use the emotions wheel to pinpoint the most felt emotion that day.
3. Color that day’s square with the corresponding color for that emotion.
4. Optional: Write the name of one or two emotions you felt inside the square. 

Journal prompts for reflection

• Look at the colors across the month. Is there a noticeable color pattern?
• Are there any surprises? Did you think you were sadder/happier than the chart shows?
• Can you remember what triggered the color changes?
• What color do you want to see more of next month? What is one thing you can do to invite that color in?

The Plutchik’s Opposites

Find balance using Plutchik’s emotions wheel, which is arranged by opposites, by practicing the DBT concept of opposite action (doing something contrary to the urge of a strong emotion to regulate it).

1. Identify the current overwhelming, uncomfortable emotion.
2. Find its direct opposite on the wheel.
3. Draw three rectangles.
4. In the first rectangle, create a small drawing that represents the emotion you’re feeling. 
5. In the third, the opposite emotion. 
6. And in the second, the tiny step toward the opposite emotion.

Journal prompts for reflection

• Does the “Opposite Emotion” feel impossible right now? Why?
• What is one tiny action you could take to move toward the opposite?
• How does looking at the opposite emotion change your perspective on your current feeling?

The Shield of Resilience

Identifying emotions that protect you and give you strength.

1. Draw a coat-of-arms or shield, divide it into 4 sections.
2. Section 1: Draw a representation of an emotion that motivates you.
3. Section 2: Draw a representation of an emotion that warns/protects you.
4. Section 3: Draw a representation of an emotion you want to have more of in life.
5. Section 4: Draw a representation of an emotion that energizes you.

Journal prompts for reflection

• What makes you feel emotion from section 1?
• How could you make better use of the warning emotion?
• How would your life be different if you felt more often emotion from section 3?
• What makes you feel emotion from section 4?

​The Long-Term Impact of Art Journaling

• ​Developing a richer emotional vocabulary: This helps you communicate your needs more effectively and understand yourself and others better.
• ​Improving emotional regulation: When you can name an emotion, you gain a sense of control over it, rather than being controlled by it.
• ​Fostering self-compassion: Giving your emotions space and form, without judgment, cultivates a more compassionate relationship with yourself.
• ​Enhancing problem-solving: Clearly identified emotions are the first step towards addressing the underlying issues that cause them.

 

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. While journaling is a powerful tool, it is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified healthcare provider or therapist.