I've been using Moodscope for a couple of years, and one thing I have found very useful to keep scores high, and mood strong, is maintaining balance in my life. Just as the cards remind me each day to look at both positive and negative aspects of emotion in life, I aim to ensure I actively build things into my life that are positive and help me to increase my positive emotion scores.

One of the ways I do this is by building an 'Artist Date' into each week. This idea, from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way (which I highly recommend whether you consider yourself an 'Artist' or not), is about creating a space each week to 'fill the well' of creativity. This is done alone, and is a sort of 'play date with yourself'. The 'Date' can be anything – from colouring for an hour, to visiting a museum and creating a fantasy life for yourself. Or just listening to a loved album all the way through, doodling your thoughts as you do and letting the music fill your mind. For more ideas, see '99 ideas to bring play into your life': http://tiny.cc/39hwdx

Creating some alone time for myself, to do something that I wouldn't normally take the time to do, is part of showing myself I am worth nurturing, worth taking time to look after, just as I do with others. And it also creates lots of wonderful memories to sift through when I'm having a 'bad day', to remind me not all days will be like that – it helps me to find joy in the everyday. Plus, there are good scientific reasons which show that play is joyful and energizing – and involved with human development and intelligence.

Take a look at this talk:

http://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_brown_says_play_is_more_than_fun_it_s_vital.html

Uma

A Moodscope member.