Feelings explained
Every card in the Me in Me deck shows one feeling. Here are all 21, with a short explanation of what each one means — to read aloud to your child, or to yourself before you sit down together.
The questions on the cards were developed by Ida Welbourn, a licensed psychologist and psychotherapist with 29 years of clinical experience.
The 21 feelings
Me
The self is a person's conscious perception of themselves and their innermost core. In a Freudian interpretation, the self is one of the three parts of the psyche: the id, the ego, and the superego. The ego functions as a mediator between the id's primitive instincts and the superego's ideals and morality.
Envious
When a person feels envy, they experience a desire to have something that others have or that they undeservedly have something that they value. It is often a combination of envy and a heartfelt desire to possess what the other person has.
Stressed
Stress is a reaction that can be a physical, mental or emotional response to a perceived challenge or demand. It is a condition that occurs when people are exposed to external events of various kinds that involve strain. Stress is the body's reactions to these that trigger a “fight-or-flight” response in the body.
Disappointed
A disappointed person often experiences a mildly negative feeling caused by something in the world not turning out as they had hoped or wished. Often a disappointed person feels down or dissatisfied, and the disappointment can be directed at a person, situation, or themselves.
Jealous
A jealous person feels that the relationship they have with another person can be disrupted by a third person entering the context (“interfering”). This often involves a negative feeling of insecurity or fear.
Determined
Being determined describes a person's character as confident, resolute and firm in their will. A determined person is often clear and self-assured in their ability to make decisions.
Lonely
A lonely person has a feeling of loneliness — they are aware that they lack contact with others. Loneliness can be physical, through a lack of human contact, or emotional, through feeling emotionally disconnected from other people.
Wild
Being wild is a description of a person who is spontaneous, adventurous, and free from conventions. Children who play wildly are noisy and go beyond normal norms and limitations. Being wild can also be perceived as uncontrolled and messy.
Surprised
A surprised person has the feeling of being taken by surprise by something unexpected. The feeling comes when the situation does not match previous experiences or expectations and can be both positive and negative.
Afraid
Fear is a basic reaction to danger or threat. A fearful person experiences a feeling of unease, dread, or discomfort and often has a “fight-or-flight” reaction.
Curious
A curious person has a feeling, usually one of pleasure, that contributes to and increases the motivation to want to know more about something that they have a need to explore or experience.
Happy
Happiness is perhaps the most positive emotion. It occurs when we feel particularly satisfied with what is happening or with the conditions that currently exist.
Shame
Shame is triggered in us humans, for example, when we perceive that we are being disapproved of by others for something inappropriate that we have done or said. It also comes as a result of self-criticism and beliefs that we have done something wrong.
Proud
An experience of self-worth that gives a feeling of joy and satisfaction over one's own or someone else's achievements or actions.
Angry
Being angry is an emotional reaction characterized by strong irritation and a motive to intervene, attack, defend, accuse, threaten, etc. An angry person often experiences irritation and frustration, and the anger can be felt both physically and emotionally.
Left out
Feeling left out occurs when people are not accepted or feel accepted in the context they find themselves in. A person who feels left out feels socially or emotionally distanced from other people or a specific group of people.
In love
Being in love is a feeling of affection, caring, involvement, and helpfulness. A person who is in love experiences a deep sense of attraction and a “rush” at the prospect of meeting the person they are in love with.
Sad
Being sad means feeling down and despairing in response to something that has happened. It is an emotional reaction to negative events, setbacks, or unpleasant situations.
Safe
Being safe is a state of protection and security, a feeling of trust that comes from the perception that there are no threats. Someone who feels safe is untroubled in the situation they are in. It can be both a physical situation or an emotional situation.
Disgust
A person who feels disgust has a strong feeling of revulsion, and experiences it in response to something that is perceived as unpleasant or repulsive. The feeling can be due to tastes or smells, but also situations and behaviors that are perceived as morally or ethically unacceptable.
Loathing
A person who feels loathing wants to distance themselves from something, to hate it, to see it as something dreadful. Something that arouses loathing is something one has reason to fear. It can be physical objects but also situations or people.
Want to talk about them at home?
Me in Me is a deck for children from age 3: 21 A6 cards, one per feeling, with questions on the back. See Me in Me or see all the decks.
More on how conversations about feelings work in everyday life: Knowledge.