Overview

Most people know when they are feeling down. But do you know what it means, where your mood comes from or how to move towards a happier mindset?

Understanding your moods may help you work out what causes them and how you behave when you are in different emotional states.

Your moods are a big part of how you choose to behave and think. A negative mood can be a useful indicator of a problem that needs to be addressed.

What affects your mood?

• sleep
• the news
• stress
• work
• family
• money
• diet and hunger
• other people
• the weather
• burnout
• hormones
• lack of exercise

Other causes of a negative mood can include:

• poor nutrition
• depression
• drugs, alcohol
• anxiety
• substance abuse
• medication
• dementia
• attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
• bipolar disorder
• physical illness
• chronic pain

Some of these are lifestyle related, some are health related. But your environment can also affect your mood in various ways, including:

• your local environment e.g. pollutants or chemicals
• seasonal climatic fluctuations
• noise pollution
• natural disasters

Monitoring your mood

Understanding your mood helps you manage your emotions and feel better.

If you are more aware of your moods, you may be able to better manage your lifestyle, make informed decisions, prevent or avoid triggers, and work towards a better quality of life.

The trick is to watch for changes in your mood, particularly any very high swings or very low dips. Self-monitoring your mood with MoodPanda takes hardly any time. And as you make it part of your daily routine you'll find it becomes very simple.

MoodPanda provides graphical analysis of your posts over time, helping to find and identify patterns and to help you focus on what matters.

MoodPanda also has a loving community of people who can comment on your posts, if you let them, in order to support you