Wheel of Awareness

Explore Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness, a free, mindfulness tool for stress management and well-being. Learn about its benefits and how to integrate it into your practice in order to improve a patient's emotional regulation and mental clarity leading to a healthy mind.

By Chloe Smith on Aug 2, 2025.

Fact Checked by Ericka Pingol.

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What is Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness?

Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness is a mindfulness tool designed to help individuals enhance focus, presence, and inner peace. This tool enables users to experience open awareness by integrating different aspects of their consciousness. By engaging with the Wheel of Awareness, users can reduce their stress levels, anxiety, and depression while also improving their mental and emotional well-being and their interpersonal skills. It serves as an excellent tool for personal growth, allowing individuals to connect more deeply with themselves and others (Garrisson Institute, 2018).

Created by Dr. Dan Siegel, a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine and founding co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center, this visual metaphor also supports a healthy mind through integration and awareness practices rooted in interpersonal neurobiology and science.

Core beliefs informing the Wheel of Awareness

Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness is based on the idea that consciousness can be visualized as a wheel, with the hub representing our awareness and the rim representing the various elements of our experience, including thoughts, feelings, and sensations. The awareness practice utilizes a "spoke of attention" to focus on various aspects of the rim, helping individuals integrate these parts and find a sense of wholeness. The goal Dr. Dan Siegel has set is to enhance mental well-being by focusing attention and creating harmony between the differentiated parts of our mind, fostering clarity and a more profound sense of stability through this integration. Many individuals find this process helpful as it creates a central hub of knowing, peace, and presence.

Parts of the Wheel of Awareness

The Wheel of Awareness divides the rim mentioned above into four segments that represent different categories of experience:

First five senses: This part includes basic sensory experiences—touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. The practice begins with grounding in the present moment by focusing on these five sensations, supporting awareness, and mindful living.
Bodily sensations (sixth sense): This part of the wheel focuses on internal bodily sensations, such as breathing, heartbeat, and muscle tension. By honing in on these bodily signals, individuals can gain insight into how physical states impact mental well-being. This sixth sense, often overlooked, is essential in linking the mind and body in therapy.
Mental activities (seventh sense): The third part of the rim allows individuals to focus on the mind, including thoughts, feelings, and memories. Taking a moment to observe these mental activities without judgment enables the separation of awareness from the contents of the mind, which can help reduce stress and anxiety. This step is where many patients acces awareness of internal processes, allowing the mindful therapist to better support their journey.
Interconnectedness: The final segment represents an individual's connection to the outside world, including people closest to them, their city, country, and natural environment. This practice fosters a sense of belonging in the external environment. For many, this segment links the wheel to life, the world, and nature in profound ways.

In practice, each of the four segments of the rim is examined by moving the spoke of attention. This spoke symbolizes the individual's focused awareness, which can be directed and shifted to explore various areas of the wheel. Since the spoke is linked to the hub, it is essential to stay grounded in the center while engaging with any one point on the rim. The hub represents the calm knowing that can access every differentiated part of the mind through kind intention and focus.

Wheel of Awareness Template

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How does our Wheel of Awareness template work?

The Wheel of Awareness is a helpful mindfulness tool designed by Dr Dan Siegel that allows individuals the chance to develop awareness and practice mindfulness. Our printable template serves the same purpose. As a clinician, you can use this tool with your clients to promote mindfulness and facilitate greater self-awareness.

Step 1: Access the template

The printable Wheel of Awareness template can be accessed and downloaded by clicking the “Use Template” or “Download Template” button above, or by searching “Wheel of Awareness” in Carepatron's template library on the website or app.

Step 2: Explain and work through the wheel

Begin by introducing the Wheel of Awareness and its purpose. Explain that clients are the "hub" of awareness, representing the calm center of consciousness. Further clarify that the spoke of attention can be visualized as a dynamic arrow moving around the wheel, connecting the hub to the rim and allowing exploration of different aspects while staying grounded.

Outline the rim's four segments, each focusing on the five senses, bodily sensations, mental activities, and interconnectedness. The Wheel of Awareness also includes additional keywords related to each segment to help clients reflect on specific points in their experience, guiding exploration and enhancing mindfulness practice.

Step 3: Ongoing use of the Wheel of Awareness

The Wheel of Awareness can be used as needed and combined with other free resources available on the Carepatron website, such as the Coping Wheel Template for patients struggling with stress, or the Self-Care Wheel for clients wishing to reflect on different aspects of their lives.

When to use the Wheel of Awareness?

The Wheel of Awareness can be used as a mindfulness tool for people who are feeling overwhelmed, stress or disconnected. Regular use can be beneficial for many individuals who seek therapy including those who are managing chronic pain, anxiety and depression. The template can also be used as a valuable tool for tracking a client's progress over time. It can provide insight into the client's mindfulness journey over time.

The Wheel of Awareness template may be used during therapy sessions or assigned to clients as homework to complete between sessions. Regular awareness practice can strengthen the integration of mind and body, resulting in better psychological outcomes.

During sessions: Clients may complete the template with guidance from the therapist. This approach is especially effective when used by a mindful therapist trained in interpersonal neurobiology, allowing access to differentiated parts of consciousness and supporting deeper healing.
As homework: The template can be assigned as an exercise for clients to complete in their own time or when needed throughout the week. Clients may be encouraged to reflect on their experiences and bring the template back for further discussion, providing continuity in the therapeutic process and supporting lasting transformation and peace.

Reference

Garrison Institute. (2018, August 21). Dr. Dan Siegel's Wheel of Awareness - Garrison Institute. https://www.garrisoninstitute.org/the-wheel-of-awareness/

Commonly asked questions

The Wheel of Awareness helps individuals visualize their consciousness as a hub, with spokes of focused attention that allow exploration of sensory inputs, bodily sensations, thoughts, and relationships while staying grounded.

The Wheel of Awareness practice usually takes around 10-20 minutes, but this can be adjusted based on individual needs and preferences.

No special equipment is required - just a quiet and comfortable space and an individual's willingness to focus on breathing and be aware. You can also use our free template to guide your practice.