Mood.
We all have it.
And I know mine goes in all different directions and quite honestly, despite much thinking about it, I often don’t know what causes it.
Do I not like Mondays?
Was it because I didn’t exercise today?
Not enough sleep maybe?
Well, a month ago, I decided to start tracking my mood using a simple app. I wrote about it here Post | Feed | LinkedIn
And I promised to share the results with you, good or bad, so here they are.
4 really bad days (the dark orange). A Saturday, a Monday, a Sunday and a Wednesday.
7 really good days. 2 Mondays, 2 Sundays, a Wednesday, a Thursday and a Friday.
I got curious and wondered if exercise was a factor. And I looked at my steps, because I track those too.
My average steps on those 4 dark orange “bad” days were 5,958 steps.
My average steps across those lighter “good” days, were 9,930 – hmm, so much higher, but not 5 times as good.
So then I go comparing, because that’s what you do with data, right? You look for trends and comparisons between time points.
When I compare my mood today to 30 days ago, I don’t think I’m in a much better mood. There was a patch in the middle of the month when I was in a really good mood, but alas, it didn’t last. And this past week I have been pretty grumpy.
The emotional whiplash is crazy. For me, and I am betting for those around me too.
But, and this was the point of my original post, I may not feel like I am in a steadier, more positive emotional state than I was 30 days ago, but I am in a far better place than I was two years ago. I don’t have any stats to prove that to myself, to my logical brain that craves the data, but I feel it deep in my body.
And that feels good.
And another but, I’m not sure it is very helpful to think of moods as good or bad. They are just moods, emotions, embodied. Being present to them, curious about them and conscious of them, is much more important. There could be some important clues contained within them.
And besides all of that, they change soon enough.
So, I’m sticking with the mood app, thanks again Gareth. And I’ll check in again in three months’ time, that’ll be my post for New Years’ Day 2023.
How’s your mood?
If you missed September’s edition of my Fenland Musings Newsletter, you can still read it here.
Fenland Musings – September (thewilljohnsonjourney.com)
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