Emotion wheelJust a short post as I am trying to fit as much writing in before the schools and nurseries close and I have to work whilst entertaining an energetic and adventurous 3 year old. If any magazine articles get published in the next few months with random Peppa Pig phrases in them you’ll know why!

But as everything is up in the air I have really been thinking about how athletes cope. They are often used to uncertainty and ‘controlling the controllables’ but in this COVID-19 situation what is controllable? If you are someone who likes certainty, and things to grab hold of and dates to work towards and plans and goals then the next few months might be really tough.

Discipline is needed in sport but, when you get really used to following a disciplined approach, sharing your emotions can be hard. We may believe that to be taken seriously we just need to ‘suck it up’. but we can only do that for so long before it harms our wellbeing and then it can then be very difficult to tell people how we feel, what worries us, when we are scared or when we are angry.

Something I have recently started using with the younger athletes I work with is an emotion wheel and I think it could benefit all of us, whatever our age. There are thousands of emotions but I would guess that from the top of our head most of us could only name 10-20. An emotion wheel names 130 of them. If we are soon to be confined to our flats and houses for weeks on end then having good quality, open communication will become vital. Without a way to escape and get some space we may get resentful or hostile. Being able to chat up front about this, looking through the wheel each day and having a chat about which is the word you are currently feeling can help deal with some of those issues and open the door to better communication. Better communication and seeing things from each others’ perspectives will make a much less stressful living environment.

The emotion wheel I usually direct people towards has been created by Geoffrey Roberts and is downloadable here: https://imgur.com/a/CkxQC

Would love to hear if anyone tries it and how you get on.