Do you stop sometimes and think “Can I make sense of it all?” All this stuff about MH. The various types of conditions, the psycho terminology, the best self treatment, the best things to do and avoid etc.

There is so much information out there and here on the Moodscope blog.

Sometimes it makes your Mind ache, right? Information overload.

We all have different MH challenges. These depend on symptoms, diagnoses , our environment, living conditions, financial constraints etc.

What do we have in common? I suggest we are all trying to live with (manage) our MH so that we can have a “normal enjoyable life”. This will mean different things to different people.

So what will help to give us the best chance of living the life we want? Do we need a plan? Any plan needs to be kept simple (beware information overload).

I suggest concentrating on how we are feeling. This is random, variable and to some extent out of our control.  How do we know what our feelings will be when we wake tomorrow?

What we need is a certain level of self awareness. If we have been living with the same or similar feelings for a long time this should not be difficult.

If you are feeling bad, what can you do to improve your mood? How can you begin to move out of low gear?

Do you have a plan? Drawing on my own experience a simple plan may be:

      Mood                        Action                     Notes

     Anxiety                      1.  Walk

                                       2.  Listen to music

                                       3.   Converse

     Depression                1.   Read

                                       2.  Garden

                                       3.  Write

    Anger                          1.   Meditation

                                       2.   Deep Breathing

                                       3.   Bowling

You can devise your own plan selecting various actions you wish to try for a given feeling/mood.

The plan is really a permanent draft as it will need to be modified as time goes by. The “notes” space is for optional use but can be used to record information such as; How effective was each action in changing your mood? and Were there any unusual circumstances causing the mood?  

You can keep the plan personal or discuss it with others (buddies?).

Teg

A Moodscope member.