Mood swings. We all have them, yet we don’t necessarily understand them. However, understanding your moods helps you manage them and feel better faster. If you are more aware of your moods, you may be able to better manage your lifestyle choices, make informed health decisions, prevent or avoid triggers of negative moods, and work towards a better quality of life.
While emotions and moods have a lot in common, they are distinctive concepts. Knowing the difference between moods and emotions can allow us to better understand and track our emotional states.
Mood can be defined as a longer-lasting emotional, internal, and subjective state.
Discussing mood on a continuum allows us to acknowledge that we are often not simply in a “good” or “bad” mood, but that our moods typically fluctuate from high to low throughout the day depending on the situation, thoughts, emotions, and behaviors we experience.
What puts you in a good or bad mood?
Are there times throughout the day you notice patterns in which your mood is typically higher or lower?
Are you typically aware when your mood changes? If so, what do you notice?
When might you check-in with yourself and your mood each day (e.g., when you wake-up, during lunch, after work, before bed)
Using the number scale from 1-10, with 1 being a bad mood, and 10 being a good mood, is one of many ways you can track your mood. Listed below are other ways to track your mood throughout the day and week:
• Mood Journal/Diary Card (e.g., time, mood, factors)
• Apps (e.g., Pacifica, Daylio, Moodpath, Moody)
• Bullet Journals (e.g., colors, emojis, line graphs, etc.)
Do you have a system already in place to track your mood? If not, which system above might work best for you to start consistently tracking your mood on a regular basis?
“There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune. - Thomas Carlyle”
Behavioral activation teaches us that we can impact our mood by changing our behavior. It consists of identifying pleasurable activities associated with wellness and working towards implementing them into a daily routine. It is designed to increase one’s contact with positively rewarding activities, particularly when one is experiencing a low mood. Listed below are the five categories we have teens consider when identifying behavioral activation skills.
Do Something:
• Distracting & Fun
• Relaxing & Soothing
• Social
• Active
• Productive
With Spring upon us, it is a great time to schedule pleasant activities to enjoy on your own or with others. If you have not done so already, we recommend establishing a weekly schedule & routine that include these different behavioral coping strategies.
Jackie Matney
