To me Moodscope is one of the Lilypads of Life, a safe stepping stone in the stroll, or struggle, through the day. It's part of my ritual and routine, as important and arguably as useful as brushing one's teeth. This we do to attempt to avoid the horrors of the dentist, and to avoid having breath that slays at 5 paces too, I guess. However, if not done thoroughly and regularly we are deceiving ourselves, and we might end up suffering anyway. Routine is a significant part of my mood management, because one can step from one lily to another, and avoid the dark depths in between.

In the latter years of my Moodscope use it's become clear that it's not necessarily the score, or the buddy system, useful in their own ways, but the challenge offered by scoring each card brutally honestly, and by making full use of the diary function to back that up, being equally honest with oneself about what aspects need work. Sometimes I'll just work on one tricky blighter for a while. This is in an attempt to use the measuring aspect of Moodscope in order to manage the troublesome emotions.

For unless we are honest with ourselves about our frailties and strengths, working on the one to improve, and not allowing the other to make us arrogant and complacent we fail to progress. It's sometimes easy to blame nurture or nature, circumstance or fate for our ills, and expect a magic wand to bring joy and clarity. Sadly life's not like that, we are obliged to help ourselves, and help others to help us by working on our tendency to hear but not listen, read but not understand and speak without communicating.

Am I preaching to the masses, or is mine a lonely voice in the wilderness?

Mortimer

A Moodscope member.