5 Benefits of Tracking Your Mood

tracking mood

Mood refers to temporary yet significant changes in a person’s emotional state. There are several reasons behind experiencing several emotions successively or all of a sudden at different points of time in a day. Women go through fluctuations in the mood not just in their everyday lives but also during the phases of hormonal ups and downs. These include the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and menopause. In addition, hormonal problems such as PCOS, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), and premenstrual symptom exacerbation (PME) also cause mood swings in women. Birth control pills, certain medications, mental health conditions, and neurological conditions also contribute to mood shifts. This higher likelihood of feeling myriad emotions in different situations calls for tracking mood and living mindfully. Self-tracking your mood promotes self-regulation and ensures better emotional and mental health. But there are several more impactful benefits of tracking your mood. Scroll down further to know more.

Know your triggers and patterns

Both internal and external factors contribute to what you feel. These include:

  • the quality of sleep every night
  • the weather
  • the food you eat
  • level of physical activities
  • your relationships
  • interactions you have with others
  • physical environment
  • media you consume
  • your health

Tracking your mood helps recognize if one or more of these factors affect it. It helps reflect on your feelings and understand what triggers you or calms you down, or makes you feel happy. Once you know it, you can embrace more of what makes you feel better and avoid the stressors as much as possible. 

Self- awareness

Self-awareness helps you assess if your thoughts, actions, and emotions align with your values. It also enables you to objectively analyze whether you need to change something to become a better version of yourself. With a mood tracking app, you can be more aware of red flags in your behavior. For example, you may notice that procrastination helps you feel better temporarily but makes you irritated and anxious as soon as you realize its repercussions. Without mood tracking, one might be unable to pinpoint the cause of irritability and anxiety, and they might think of it as an everyday stressor. However, when you track your mood, it helps gain awareness and control over the problem. It can be your first step to becoming punctual. If you notice that you are still dithering and delaying despite your best efforts, being self-aware may encourage you to seek support. 

Feel your feelings

Amidst the hustle-bustle of daily life, you may forget to notice how you are feeling. While you may not be mindful of your feelings, they often influence what you say and do. Mood tracking helps you take the necessary pause, tune in, register, and attend to your feelings. Think of those moments when you felt overwhelmed but did not know if it was out of happiness, excitement, sadness, or shock. The ability to name your feelings helps you stay more perceptive and lucidly expressive. That is not all; it also ensures that you develop the courage to accept thoughts and feelings that make you feel uncomfortable. For example, after an emotionally devastating phase in their lives, some people avoid acknowledging the feelings of loss, emptiness, perhaps guilt too. With an app to help you, you can reflect on how you are feeling and put a name to it discreetly. It is significant to feel all your feelings because numbing the difficult emotions manifests later in uglier ways. Research has shown that emotional repression leads to decreased immune system function and aggravation of mental health conditions, such as stress, anxiety, and depression. 

A surprising fact is that leaning into positive feelings is equally challenging for some people. As soon as something good happens, they begin worrying about losing the happy moments instead of experiencing them. With a digital pal by your side, you can let those positive feelings sink in instead of letting them slip away.

Become expressive and empathetic

Staying connected to yourself can help you express yourself better. Besides, it also makes you empathetic as a listener. Mood tracking can be empowering as it gradually teaches you to assess and control the impact of other people on you. If you observe that someone is making you feel gloomy, you can minimize your contact with them. Similarly, expressing gratitude, showing love, creating healthy boundaries, everything gets a tad bit easier when you are on the path of becoming emotionally intelligent by monitoring your mood.

Manage your health conditions and treatment better

The digitally available record of how you have been feeling over a period and when may work wonders for managing your health conditions.

You can quickly show the record to your physician, psychiatrist, or therapist; without any misses and fumbles. It also helps your mental healthcare provider give you a more accurate diagnosis. Let us take an example. For how long someone has had the condition also defines mood swings and anxiety issues. If the symptoms of a patient indicate depression, a mood chart can help the therapist know the duration and assess the severity of your moods, and how fast they switch. If the tracker shows that you have been crying, not showing interest in day-to-day activities, and feeling perpetually upset for several weeks now, they can take it as evidence, diagnose depression, and start treatment at the earliest.

Once the treatment has begun, a mood tracking app also enables monitoring the progress and result of your treatment. A few well-researched and feature-loaded mobile mood trackers have medication reminders and activity prompts as added features. You may use these to ensure the adherence and efficacy of your treatment or therapy.

How to use mood tracking apps?

Most mood-tracking apps are available on Google Playstore and Apple Store. Choose one based on features and user interface, and start putting in your information (honestly). If you want a suggestion, you may download one of the apps or refer to this site for more clarity on how a mood-tracking app works.

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