Today, I made it past chapter 5 and realized I needed a journal for my mood, because it was one of the thing the book recommended. So I made the following below. This is something that I’ll continue developing as I refine it every day. But here it is.

Mood Tracker

Tip: For Mood, do your best to label the emotion (despair, frustration, joy, anxiety, contentment, confusion, hope, etc.)

Morning

Mood: Morning mood was sad and lonely, because I was alone without my partner. I understand she is with her family and I myself want to ensure she balances everything else in her life besides me. So I’m also happy that she gets to do that.

Mood Intensity (1-10): I’d say 6 for sad/lonely and 6 for happy, so they balance each other out.

Physical Sensations: I have a little feeling of not wanting to get up right away, because my partner wasn’t here. I did feel a little laziness.

Root Cause: My partner not being here.

Afternoon

Mood: A little more energetic then I went through feeling of unfairness and then back to being content.

Mood Intensity (1-10): My emotion when I was energetic was 7, which led me to run 8.5 miles. However, during the run, I felt unfairness as I thought about me and my partner’s situation. That was an 8. Then after thinking about it for a while, it went back to content, and my mood balanced out.

Physical Sensations: When I was energetic, I wanted to go run and get the day started. I was excited to move. As I was running and was remembering all the bad memories, I was almost furious at the unfair treatments. It made me sick to my stomach and I was losing energy and weak. However, as I kept thinking, I realize I’m not the only one who was feeling unfair and that the situation is worse than I thought and wanted to do better to fix the problem for us. So I went back to being content.

Root Cause: The cause is my partner and the unfair treatment

Night

Mood: calm and relaxed

Mood Intensity (1-10): 8

Physical Sensations: I am feeling much more calm and relaxed. I want to slowly work on myself and do things for others.

Root Cause: Realizing that this situation can be worked on.

Understanding Yourself

Tip: For thought patterns, try to see if there are any repeating or intrusive thoughts and write them down whether it’s positive, negative, or neutral.

Thought Patterns: There is a repeating pattern here for sure. There are many times when I think certain situations are unfair. I think every time we get in a fight, there seems to be this unfair situation where it makes me upset and angry. I think when that happens, I remember all the bad times and it spills over.

Tip: Describe the mood you’ve felt throughout the day and try to understand where it’s coming from.

Emotional Description: I never knew my emotion fluctuated all over the place like this. Keeping a journal really does show me that I have a problem. When I was running, I can tell myself be affected. I really wonder if I would be worse off if I was in a more stressful situation and there was no outlet like running. I really need to keep myself together..

Tip: Try to write down your behaviors or actions that resulted from your mood.

Actions/Behaviors: I was losing energy… I was getting lazy…. My emotions really do drive my actions and energy levels. I’m a bit scared to realize this! It’s a bit insane.

Tip: Write down any problems that you are facing right now that are unrelated to your mood.

External influences: I personally don’t think there was any external influences today. I kept to myself all day today. But, the weather was very cold. Maybe that contributed to me being a bit lazy? I was also slightly tired.

Self-Compassion

Tip: Write down everything you can do short (within a week), medium (within 3 months), and long (3 months to years) term.

Short: Eat healthier and exercise more. During the exercise, I tend to think more deeply about myself.

Medium: Keep writing this journal, so that I can see patterns.

Long: I need a long term strategy to talk with my partner about these deep issues.

Overall, I say this journal template is a success. I’ll share this with others and they can use it if they wish, but this is really for me. But hey, if it helps you, cool.