Your Wheel of Life is a tool that can be helpful in developing greater self-awareness and insights into what you might want to be different in your lived experience. I’ve seen several variants of this, different templates and models in diverse contexts. Here’s an approach that I have found helpful and perhaps will be for you too.
The hub at the centre of your wheel is the Self – the you that feels like your core being. This can be represented by whatever fits for you at this time – shape, colour, size etc. Perhaps not think too deeply about this … it can help to just go inside yourself and let the Self guide you to whatever what comes present – what do you see in your mind’s eye … does the image bring anything with it …. just notice any emotions or physical sensations. Try to stay out of judgements or asking ‘why’ questions of the Self – just connect and observe.
The wheel spokes represent the key aspects of the life you are living and how important each is to you. The greater the importance the longer the spoke.
For example, here the Self element felt quite small and faint. The spokes identify some key areas of life with those relating to relationships – partner, family, friends – feeling important. You might find it helpful to associate shape, colour, texture or even sound to the spokes – bringing more life and energy to the words.
Here the partnership spoke better reflects how this person sees that aspect of their life – wider and a colour that has a significance for them. Also reflecting on the career/work spoke a ladder has become attached – that may bring with it feelings of growth, possibility or a sense of trapping expectation. In this way the wheel starts to open up our thoughts and feelings relating to each spoke of life.
The rim of the wheel is your Resource Bubble – The more resources being given to that aspect of life the greater the allocation of your resource bubble. Resources often include our time, money and energy along with more externally focused elements such as support. Some resources may feel quite finite and fixed while others may feel more fluid with potential to increase or decrease. Your bubble can be drawn in whatever way you prefer – just something that shows the distribution of your current resource pool.
Here there are aspects that feel either over or under resourced and some that are more balanced. The Local Community spoke feels to be taking much more of life than its assigned value/importance. The workplace role has a similar feel to that whereas Partnership, which had been given high importance, is not getting some of what it needs. Similarly, this person would like to put more into activities like sport and travel.
Exploring your Wheel of Life ……
Where on your wheel do you experience your wants and needs? For example … Purpose, Meaning, Peace, Security, Growth, Joy, Contentment, Excitement, Connection, Inspiration, Love, Adventure …
How attuned is your wheel to those things that you want from life? Are there elements of your wheel, your view of Self, the spokes or where your resources are spent, that you would like to be different? If so, what could help you to achieve that?
In our example the person has been involved with a local society and their role has increased significantly over the years. They are worried about letting down the group but would very much like to pare back their involvement. They recognise a pattern of agreeing to take on things because it is difficult to say no – how will people react … will they judge me in a negative way …. does it touch into feelings of self-worth … Through this process we can begin to focus in on underlying thoughts, feelings and limiting beliefs that can block us from experiencing more of the life we want to live.
If this approach feels helpful and you would like to explore this as part of the counselling process just get in touch.
Joanna Russell Counselling — September 2023