Life is an emotional rollercoaster. We experience a full range of emotions each moment of every day. Navigating these emotions in a way that leads to overall well-being takes practice. The great news is there’s a new app for that. How We Feel was designed to help users identify and track their emotions, learn what causes them, discover helpful regulation strategies, and identify patterns. Built by scientists, designers, engineers, and therapists, the How We Feel app helps users recognize, understand, and regulate emotions at the touch of a finger.
The app was founded as a science-based nonprofit, the How We Feel Project, Inc. The product team, led by Ben Silbermann (a graduate of Yale and co-founder of Pinterest) includes current and former Pinterest employees who are passionate about creating a more emotionally healthy world. The app’s content and scientific team is led by Professor Marc Brackett from the Yale Child Study Center and his colleagues from the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.
How We Feel users start by checking in with how they are feeling in the moment and then tagging or journaling about factors they believe are contributing to their current emotional state. Since emotions are neither good nor bad, users are then given the opportunity to explore strategies to feel the way they want to feel through helpful videos and activities.
The visually stunning application design is inspired by the Mood Meter, a tool used to support the development of a nuanced emotion vocabulary. Widely recognizable in over 4,000 pre-K to 12 school communities across 27 countries, the Mood Meter is one of four tools used within RULER, the evidence-based approach to social and emotional learning developed at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence.