Owner’s Manual for Emotions

Psychologist, professor at UCSF, and pioneer in the study of emotions and their relation to facial expressions Paul Ekman originally identified six discrete, measurable, and physiologically distinct emotions that exist throughout almost every culture. These include anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise. Since his early work, we have come to recognize the existence of many more emotions, which are often some combination of these more basic emotions. Today we challenge you to recognize the subtly in your emotions. Rather than just labeling yourself “happy”, “fearful”, or “angry” push yourself to dig deeper into what is going on for you and why. Let this emotional color wheel be your guide!