Control Tip: Track Your Moods

One of my biggest challenges of the past decade has been dealing with depression and alternatively, feelings of mania. Both sides of the mood fluctuation have been relatively mild in retrospect but part of the problem was that when I was up, I would forget that I had ever been down. Same with when I was down...it would feel like I would always be at the bottom. I realized in early 2011 that a simple way to figure out what my moods had really been like would be to keep a calendar.

I printed out a few months worth from a blank template I found for Microsoft Word and just did the easiest thing I could think of -- smiley (or frowny) faces. Now yes, it sounds stupid, but the simplicity is what kept me honest. At the end of three months I was able to look back and see that overall January was a pretty rough month with days split almost evenly between happy (smiley), sad (frowny), and neutral (straight line). I also kept note of anything positive (or negative) that may have happened that day and when it was girl time (menstrual cycle). The last bit I was curious about even though I never figured myself to suffer from PMS.

While I was in the middle of all this smiley/frowny face art project goodness, it happened to coincide with personal care projects of working with a trainer and rehabilitating the way that I eat and sleep. Being able to look back at my moods and some accomplishments during this time have been incredibly valuable to me now because I can see my progress.

Does your calendar have to be so simple? Of course not. If you want to build an elaborate spreadsheet of days, the tide, moonphases, and calories consumed...get busy. For the rest of us who for whatever reason tend to only be able to do things in three month increments, the old smiley face calendar will have to suffice.

Have you used a calendar to track your moods? If so, what methods did you use? Did you find the technique helpful?