How to use a mood diary
Using the MoodPanda app
A mood diary is designed to help you trace and monitor your feelings - and if you stick to it and use it regularly, you can begin to get a deeper understanding of yourself. This may not feel good at first, but the benefit is that after a few weeks you become more aware of your feelings and the things that upset you - one of the first steps in improving your mental health.
When you notice a shift in your mood or maybe at a certain time of the day, post a mood update in the app, logging how you feel (such as changing from neutral to sad) and rate it from 0-10 in terms of how happy you feel. Think about external circumstances that may be involved (what you were doing, where etc), and the internal feelings (what you were thinking about, daydreaming or remembering), and add these as the reasons for your mood.
Try to review the mood diary each day - see what patterns you begin to notice. If this routine helps you understand your feelings and listen to them you've already made great strides in improving your mental health.
MoodPanda goes beyond most Mood Diaries, as it provides graphical analysis of your posts over time, helping to find and identify patterns and to help you focus on what matters.
MoodPanda is also a loving community of people who can comment on your posts, if you let them, in order to support you