For most people, mood tracking sounds like keeping track of emotions, but it can be so much more.
Mood tracking isn’t meant to just simply journal about feelings; it’s meant to recognize patterns and triggers and plan for a healthier future. To get the most out of it, it’s important to see mood tracking as a way to plan for better health and not just keep track of what you’re allowing to happen to you.
Mood tracking can be useful for a number of different reasons. For example, it might help you identify external and internal triggers that cause mood changes or mood swings and learn more about how factors such as sleep, diet, and daily activities affect your moods [1]. Writing about your day might also help you create strategies to cope with negative moods and unwanted behaviors and better understand mood shifts and the not so easily noticeable things affecting your everyday life.
How to get started with Medified
If mood tracking is new to you, don’t worry. It was new to all of us at some point in time. The good news is that it really is not that hard. We have made it super easy for you to get started with our simple instructions. Once you get used to tracking your mood with Medified, you will start wondering why no one else has previously presented this tool to you — trust me.
You can use Medified and its features in a way that suits you best and starting small is sometimes the way to go. Even one mood logging session with Medified a couple of times per week can help to build the habit of mood tracking and have a positive impact on your life. However, it is still good to keep in mind that mental health is a marathon, not a sprint.
Sit down or go for a walk, whatever suits you the best. All you have to do is open the app and think about what went well and what went wrong that day, rate your mood, and answer a few questions. All this, logging your mood and answering the various daily questions, takes only a few seconds.
What feeling or symptoms affected your mood today and how much? Which things increased or decreased your mood, and is there something else worth mentioning? Add mood symptoms and describe your thoughts until you feel like you have a good picture of your current situation. If you feel the need you can of course log mood and symptom tags more than just once a day.
When diving into your daily mood tracking you start to notice patterns — You are happier on the nights that you’d made a good meal, spent time with friends, or cleaned the house. These simple things are a good start. The app also offers you feedback, encouragement, and insight to carry on.
Don’t forget to think about both your successes and failures. Honesty can be complex, but it’s super important because, after all, this is all about being honest with yourself.
What is the best time to use Medified
When we consider the right time of using Medified, there is no right or wrong. You can pick up your phone and log your mood whenever you feel like it. If you want, you can also set up a daily notification so the app can prompt you to log a new mood at the same time each day. However, it is not that crucial to do this always at the same time of the day. More important is that you do it; different points in time can even have various benefits.
Filling the query in the morning can clarify the upcoming routines and soothe your mind. If you don’t find time in the morning, also evenings can be great for the sessions. Logging your mood in the evening allows you to go through the past day and help you let go of the days’ experiences and tensions and to fully relax.
How can I benefit from using Medified daily
As mentioned, recording your mood and the factors affecting it allows you to spot triggers and gain more self-awareness. It is important to monitor our feelings to learn which factors might affect them. Later on, you can monitor your mood changes on weekly and monthly levels and evaluate more specifically the factors that have affected your mood.
It’s proven that when we learn to understand what affects our mood, we can improve our mental health more effectively and promote recovery.
Mood data to share with your health care professional
We are aware that health information is very sensitive, and we guarantee that all the things you saved and wrote down will stay safe in your app. However, at Medified, we work for increased well-being, especially for individuals living with mental health conditions, and in order to make this possible, Medified can also be used for a clinician purpose to help professionals provide more personalized mental health treatment.
Medified aims to foster shared understanding between professional and patient by providing professionals valuable insight from a patient’s progress. That is why there is a possibility to share your mood data with your therapist or another caregiver. Using Medified in mental health treatment and sharing mood data helps professionals get a comprehensive picture of how you’re feeling, which helps them to make better and personalized treatment decisions supporting your recovery progress.
SOURCES
“What Is a Mood Tracker?” Verywell Health, 2021. Accessed May 20, 2021. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-mood-tracker-5119337