Now that you’ve learned a bunch of new ways to manage your mood, it’s helpful to consider how you’ll use your new skills for days and months to come.
Here’s what you know how to do:
- Tracking your mood and activities so you can learn from your patterns.
- Planning and doing positive activities to improve your mood.
- Setting and reaching an activity goal to keep up with your positive activities.
- Anticipating, enjoying, and savoring the things you do.
- Expressing gratitude and focusing on what went well whenever you want to feel better.
- Taking a moment to notice your thoughts and feelings (positive and negative), and taking another moment to decide how to respond.
- Remembering—even basking in—good feelings as a way to boost your mood.
- Responding to negative thoughts and feelings with positive actions, mindfulness, or gratitude.
- Adopting healthier sleep, food, and movement habits to feel more balanced and open to all these cool, mood-enhancing adjustments.
Here’s how to create a plan you can use whenever you notice a downward change in your mood:
- Start by tracking and reviewing your mood and activities.
- Ask yourself the following questions as you look at your patterns:
- How helpful is it to notice and track my mood and activities every evening?
- What was happening on my low days? What events are mood-busting triggers for me?
- Which activities give me the biggest mood boost?
- How helpful is it when I notice my negative thinking traps?
- Which techniques work best for reversing a sunken mood? Positive actions, mindfulness, or gratitude?
- Which mood-boosting skills do I need to practice?
- What have I learned about myself while practicing these new skills?
- Write out a plan detailing how you’ll counter potential mood challenges. Keep it handy so you’ll remember to use it whenever you start to feel down.
- Use your plan to predict events that are likely to challenge you and your mood. Then plan how to handle them.
- Keep track of how you’re doing and try new techniques if you need them.
- If your mood goes down and stays down for more than two weeks—and you aren’t able to turn it around by using all your new skills—talk to a doctor, counselor, or therapist. They’ll be able to help you.
Keep in mind that it takes time for this stuff to become automatic, but if you stick with your small changes, you’ll find that you bounce back from bad moods much faster. In time, you may even avoid them altogether.