Five Ways to Help Manage Your Moods

We all experience fluctuations in mood on a daily basis that are healthy and part of being human. From anxiety prior to an important meeting, to irritation sitting in traffic, followed by happiness having lunch with friends before feeling sad while reflecting on the end of a romantic relationship; these are all normal emotions to feel given the situation.

While some individuals experience more severe and impairing fluctuations in mood in the form of Bipolar Disorder or Borderline Personality Disorder, many people don’t but still want to develop strategies to manage their mood states more effectively. Maybe this means feeling your emotions less intensely or becoming less reactive to certain situations.

Regardless of which category you fall in, there are several ways to manage your moods better aside from, or in addition to, psychiatric medication and therapy. Let’s take a look!

Mood Charting:

Mood charts essentially keep track of your daily mood states, with dates indicating when such moods start and stop with additional information regarding sleep, any medications/supplements taken, life stressors, and your menstrual cycle if you are female.

I have worked with many clients who come in and say their mood drastically changes without any noticeable trigger. However, when we examine the days prior in more detail, we find out there is often a build up of emotions and a number of factors contributing to their mood that they initially believed were inconsequential.

If you have been diagnosed with a major mood disorder (ie: Bipolar Disorder, Depression, etc.), catching the subtle changes in mood early on can help you know when to implement various coping skills to prevent a full mood episode from developing. Outside of a mood disorder, increasing your insight into the fluctuating emotions you experience throughout the day and common triggers can help you be more mindful and intentional with your behavior rather than reactionary.

Here are a few of my favorite mood charts:

• Daily Mood Chart - Black Dog Institute
  

• Mood Charting
  

• Mood Fit (free app with options to upgrade)
  

• eMoods Bipolar Tracker (free app with options to upgrade)

Schedules and Routines:

Sticking to schedules and routines is paramount for those who have been diagnosed with a major mood disorder, as actively maintaining daily and nightly routines is one of the most effective strategies to maximize periods of emotional wellness. More extensive than mood charting, the Social Rhythm Metric is a chart that keeps track of your daily routines, such as when you eat, sleep, exercise, and socialize with corresponding mood ratings.

Planning your regular daily activities at predictable times of the day as much as possible can help individuals stabilize their mood by discovering the impact of changes in routines, levels of socialization, and sleep-wake cycles on mood. The link below provides an example of the activities you would track according to the Social Rhythm Metric.

Even outside of a diagnosable mood disorder, adhering to schedules and routines to a certain degree helps manage stress (which is often a trigger for mood shifts) by improving organization, time management, and feelings of control and predictability.

Try using a planner or calendar system that breaks down each day into hours so you can schedule accordingly and make the most of the time you have each day. We all have been guilty of saying there’s not enough time in the day but an hour-by-hour scheduler helps us find those hidden pockets of time.