Mood Trackers for Journaling: A Beginners Guide
Do you ever find it difficult to stay motivated and inspired when you’re stuck in a dull routine? Or perhaps your energy levels are consistently low and you need something new in order to get going again? Well, you aren’t alone. Most people experience these kinds of challenges from time to time. However, this doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything that we can do about it. In fact, there are many ways that we can support our creativity and increase our motivation by embracing the power of journaling.
You may be someone that already journals or maybe you are just starting to journal or tickling the idea to start journaling for planning or mental health reasons, whatever it is the process is kind of overwhelming at the beginning but don’t worry, it is possible and it brings great things once you get the habit. That being said before we go any further let’s take a moment to clarify exactly what we mean by “mood tracker” as well as how they are specifically used for writing and mindfulness.
What Are Mood Trackers?
Mood trackers are tools that are used to track your moods in order to gain insight into your emotions and how they impact your life. Mood trackers can be used in a variety of different ways, but the most common way is used as a journal.
You can keep mood trackers in a journal, on a piece of paper, on your computer or phone, or even on a wearable device. This can be helpful because it allows you to track your moods throughout the day, as well as note any triggers that may cause your mood to change.
If you decide to start using a mood tracker the best is to use a journal, you can either draw the tracker or get a printable version to insert into your planner or journal. If you create it, you can decide which moods you want to track as well as any notes you may want to add. It is best to do these days, it will take you just a few minutes and get a full picture at the end of the month.
You can also pair mood trackers with an app. Some apps include journaling features, but they also come with analytics that allows you to see how your moods change over time and see if there are patterns in your moods.
How to Use Mood Trackers for Journaling
So, you’ve decided that mood tracking might be something that you want to try out. Awesome! Now, the next thing you need to do is figure out how to use mood trackers for journaling. Luckily, this is an easy process.
First, you’ll want to pick out a journal that you’ll be using for mood tracking. You can either pick out one that’s already in your bedroom or one that you’ll keep in your car or at work, this can also be a digital journal as well. Whatever you choose, make sure that it’s somewhere that you’ll have access to it all the time so that you don’t have to worry about tracking your moods when you’re out and about.
Next, you’ll want to pick out a spot in your journal where you’ll keep your mood tracker. You can either write on the first page or keep the rest of the journal blank, whichever works best for you.
Now that you’re all set up, let’s dive into the different ways that you can use mood trackers for journaling.
- Daily Journaling: The first thing that you’ll want to do is journal in your daily journaling session. The reason why you’ll want to journal in this session is so that you can record your moods as they happen throughout the day. You can use a few different methods to journal in your daily session.
- Be it in your Mind Journaling: Another method that you can use for daily journaling is to journal in your be-it-in-your-mind session. This can be helpful when you’re stuck in a rut, feeling unmotivated, or simply needing a boost of inspiration.
- Trigger Journaling: Last but not least, you can journal in your trigger session to track your moods whenever you experience a trigger. Triggers are the underlying reason why mood trackers are so helpful, so journal whenever you experience one to keep track of your moods. You may not have access to your journal at these moments, feel free to track it on your notepad and then add it to your journal when the trigger is done and you can see better the situation and see the cause and what could be done to improve the situation.
Benefits of Using a Mood Tracker
There are great benefits that you will notice with time once you get the habit of tracking your mood, these take a while and you need to be patient with this process but they are quite worth it. Here are a few:
- Find Your Creative Flow: This is because they allow you to journal when and how you feel most inspired, which can be different from day to day. You can use this inspiration in different aspects of your life and help you remove any creative blocks you may have.
- Better Self-Awareness: This is because you’ll be able to observe and reflect on your emotions, thoughts, and behaviors with a more in-depth level of detail. It is important to be connected with ourselves and how are we handling our emotions and difficult situations that could help us have calmer day-to-day.
- Improve Emotional Intelligence: Part of becoming a more self-aware person is being able to identify and work through your emotions. Journaling with mood trackers can help you have not empathy for those around you and be responsible for how you communicate with others and share your emotions efficiently.
- Build Processes: One of the best things about journaling with mood trackers is that they can help you to build and maintain habits. This is because journaling is often a great method for remembering to do things and for creating structured habits.
Tips for Maintaining the Habits You’ve Developed
If you have been able to track your mood and keep a steady routine with it I want to say I am very happy for you, getting to this point is very difficult and it takes a lot of effort and willingness to improve, this is a great step for any great things you have a plan for your future. To continue on this amazing path, these are a few tips you may find helpful:
- Make Journaling a Daily Ritual: One of the most important things that you can do to maintain the habits that you’ve developed from journaling with mood trackers is to journal as part of your daily ritual. This can be done in any way that works best for you, whether that’s while you’re brushing your teeth, doing your yoga routine, while you’re cooking, or while you’re doing your chores, just do the thing.
- Don’t Judge Your Journal Entries: One of the biggest issues that people face when journaling is that they judge their journal entries, I know I am one of those. When journaling with mood trackers, you’ll want to journal without judging the entries that you’re putting down on your pages, especially if you are creating the entries like a graphic tracker or any sort of doodle, be gentle with yourself. This is because journaling is supposed to be a reflection of your raw emotions, not a way to express your polished thoughts and ideas.
- Keep Track of Your Progress: Another important habit that you’ll want to keep in mind when journaling with mood trackers is to keep track of your progress with a journaling habit. Try to make a space to reflect on how the process is for you, is it working or do you need to change something? This will help you adjust whatever you need to get on the right track for what works for you.
Journaling is a great way to get creative and unplug from the regular grind of your day-to-day life. You don’t have to be creative or write poetry to journal, you can just journal about your day, your feelings, and your thoughts. ood trackers are a great tool for journaling, they help you keep track of your moods and can help you identify any triggers that cause your mood to change. However you decide to track your mood make sure you are open to change and be vulnerable, I am happy you are taking this step to take care of yourself. If you need any help or inspiration you can check our mood trackers on our store and let us know in the comments which you like the best.
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