A mood diary is a practical tool that helps you keep track of your emotions and how they can fluctuate over time.
It can support you to:
- Document your feelings – A diary helps create a visual and organise your recordings in a way that’s easy to reflect back on.
- Identify any patterns and changes – Reviewing changes in mood against the activity that happened around it can help you to spot any trends or triggers. A ‘trigger’ refers to a stimulus or event that prompts a strong emotional or psychological reaction in someone. Recognising trends and triggers can be valuable for your awareness and understanding.
- Spot any early warning signs – Noticing if certain things are contributing to a drop in mood consistently empowers you to take proactive steps and put things in place to help regulate your mood.
Try filling this out our mood diary template to help keep track of how your mood changes and what factors impact how you feel.
Instructions
First, choose a number out of 10 that represents your current mood (‘1’ being not very good at all, and ‘10’ representing that you are feeling great). Next, note down in the last column what positive and negative things have contributed to your mood on that day.
Once you’ve completed a mood diary for the week, take some time to reflect on your answers. Can you spot any common triggers? Are there any patterns? This can help you to grow more aware of what things impact your mood, and help you identify any action you want to take.
Ref: WPW0283 This information was published February 2024.
