And if you’re facing a similar issue, don’t worry. A mood tracker can help. Let’s find out how.
What Is a Mood Tracker
A mood tracker is basically a tool that helps you regulate your mood at regular intervals. The primary purpose of this tool is to find your mood patterns from time to time and determine how your state of mind changes according to circumstances and situations.
If you’re curious, mood trackers come in a wide variety. They can be as simple as a physical or an online journal or as complex as an online app with multiple features for a paid subscription.
Here are some of the reasons why it’s worth keeping a mood tracker:
It helps you identify what causes you to react in certain ways and what internal and external triggers cause most mood fluctuations. It can be ultra helpful for people with mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. It enables you to understand what factors affect your mood—for example, sleep, diet, or daily activity. It can help you develop a coping mechanism to deal with your different moods. Based on your mood tracking results, it can help you determine whether the treatments you’re taking, like therapy, are working or not.
Types of Mood Trackers
Now that you know what a mood tracker is and how it can help you, let’s look at the different types of mood trackers.
Mood Journal
The first mood tracker on our list is a mood journal. Unlike most regular journals, it’s not merely about recording your daily activities. Instead, it helps you to identify your feelings and actions.
According to a therapist, Amanda Ruiz, MS, LPC, constantly recording your feelings can help you better track your emotions. It lets you determine what emotions certain people, places, or things are triggering. Using that data, you can recognize the signs of your strong emotions and prevent or embrace them accordingly.
The technique allows you to control your moods instead of letting them control you.
To get started, just get yourself some regular journal, a pen, and start making entries, as suggested by healthline.com.
Emotion name. Cause of this emotion. What behaviors or actions does this emotion lead to? Was the emotion appropriate for the situation? Do I tolerate the situation, or should I take some measures to solve it? If yes, how?
Mood Chart
The next mood tracker on the list is the mood chart.
It’s basically like journaling in a very concise format. All you have to do is record what emotions you feel throughout the day, followed by the activity that caused that emotion. You can either make a chart in a notebook and start recording or use a calendar to do it.
If you’re creating the chart in a notebook or a journal, make sure you mark them by date to keep track of things. The emotions you record can be no more than a word: happy, sad, afraid, nervous, angry, etc.
Although, if you’re facing any difficulty in naming your current emotion or describing your feeling, just rate it from 1-10, with 1 being the happiest and 10 being the most anxious (or a terrible day).
If it’s possible, consider recording your emotions throughout the day as they change from morning to night. Plus, record the activities that lead to those emotions, for example, an argument with a colleague, someone confronting you outside, etc.
Within a few weeks, you’ll have enough data gathered to recognize your mood patterns so that you can deal with them.
Visual Tracker
The third type of tracker on the list is the visual tracker. If journaling or writing is not your thing, but you are interested in art, then it can be the one for you.
It’s called the mood mandalas, and it helps you record your emotions in the form of colors. Just assign your emotions with different colors, for example:
Pink = happy Blue = sad Red = Angry Yellow = Hopeful Green = Confused
Once you’re ready, fill them in your mood mandalas according to what you feel in a day. Later on, after days and weeks, you can track your emotions by seeing the pattern of colors.
Apps
The last type of mood tracker on the list is mobile apps, and you get several great options to choose from. Some of them are free, whereas others come with a paid subscription.
Usually, mood tracking apps offer multiple features like recording your feelings, daily activities causing certain emotions, sleep cycle, diet, etc. Then, based on these inputs, they track your moods and show you the results accordingly.
Some apps that can be useful are Calm, Aura, and Ten Percent Happier.
How to Select the Best Mood Tracker
While choosing your mood tracker, you should consider a few things so you can continue using it as long as it’s required. Some of them are listed below.
Layout
Make sure the layout you use to track your mood depends on your top preferences, and it’s available to you when you need it.
For instance, if you like writing, opt for a journal. If you’re into art, mood mandalas would be the best for you. If you like to record everything on your phone, consider downloading an app for it. On the other hand, go for the mood chart if you want to make it as quick as possible.
Price
Besides choosing it from your preferences, make sure you opt for something within your budget.
If you’re going for an app, you must take a free trial first, so you can find out whether it’s even working for you or not.
Features
When using a specific mood tracker, ensure that it helps you connect with the external factors, such as sleep cycle, diet, therapy, etc.
It helps you find out what is working for you and what’s not.
How to Track Your Mood Better
Play by the Rules
Playing by the rules and being honest is crucial to getting the results you want.
For instance, you might feel the urge to record only your positive emotions and leave out all the negative ones, but it can disrupt your results if you do so. Eventually, it’ll get problematic for you to control your mood properly.
Capture Patterns
It’s essential to understand how your mood fluctuates. So, consider recording your mood patterns at regular intervals. It’ll help you note mood fluctuations throughout the day.
However, consider keeping daily entries if that’s too much for you.
Tracking Mood Can Be Easy and Beneficial
As you can see, tracking your mood isn’t nearly as hard as you may have thought. Now that you know everything about mood tracking, from what it is to which mood tracker’s the best for you, don’t waste any more time and start using these resources to track your mood today.
