Caroline here, with some news about our original co-founder Jon Cousins, who moved on from Moodscope in 2013.

It was Jon's personal battle with depression that led him to devise Moodscope. Jon has maintained his pursuit of tracking (and lifting) mood, and has just written a book called "Nudge Your Way to Happiness," that cleverly combines these two ideas.

I asked Jon to tell me a little about his approach to writing it. Here's what he said:

"First and foremost, thanks so much for allowing me back onto the Moodscope blog for a day. I also want to say an enormous "well done" to your brilliant team of contributors who keep it running seven days a week. I have to say, it's a huge pleasure to read the posts, which I still do just about every day.

Looking back to when we started Moodscope, it was mainly because a hospital psychiatrist asked me to keep a record of my mood for three months, but gave me no way to do so. I therefore turned an existing and respected mood test into a kind of playing card game I could carry round in my pocket, using it to rate my mood every morning.

In the book I tell the extraordinary story of taking these cards to an appointment with another psychiatrist at the same hospital, only to be initially greeted with what I can best describe as hostility. He implied I was doing something dangerous.

Wait, what?

Apparently he believed patients couldn't be trusted to play a part in managing their own mental health. I know he was the psychiatrist and I was the patient but quite honestly, it made me wonder who was the crazy one.

If you suffer from low mood, OF COURSE it makes sense to look after yourself.

Sorry for shouting, but if you don't do it yourself, who else is going to?

I've kept up my mood tracking now for nine years, and it still really helps. I've also been able to build up a range of actions I can take when I need to give myself a lift, and others that help me maintain my mood when - for once - it's better.

"Nudge Your Way to Happiness" is a 30 day workbook that combines a tracking system that enables you to rate and record your wellbeing every day with "nudges", some of those simple and practical actions I've learned. You can take them immediately and they're designed to really help you. Best of all, a bit like a "Choose Your Own Adventure" book, you're directed to a nudge that's been tailor-made for your current level of wellbeing.

With three possible nudges for each of 30 days, I've calculated that there are over 205 trillion combinations possible, just about guaranteeing that everyone who uses the book will get their own personalised experience."

We think Jon's book is great and could help many of our members. It's now available on Amazon:

Amazon.co.uk: http://amzn.to/24pBj3A

Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/1WLUzCC

Kind regards

Caroline

The Moodscope Team