Moodometer Graph

As I've described elsewhere, I use a little gauge I call a Moodometer to track how I'm feeling over time. The reason why I do this is because I tend to forget the cycles of my moods when I'm feeling really down. It seems then like I've always been down, which is not the case. Also, I figure I would be able to learn other things from the data.

My Moodometer is a graph-paper index card that I keep in my pocket. I use three columns for AM, MID, and PM to track how I felt during that time period on a scale of 1 to 9. On that scale, 5 is the baseline. Five is also the score I'm always hoping for, since reveries, though fun, must be paid for in troughs. Like Buddhists, I seek the middle path.

This morning, during a short WiFi blackout, I entered my Moodometer scores into a spreadsheet and compared them to a similar time period from last year. Here is a graph of the scores:

Click to enlarge

Here's what I notice about this graph:

• I'm making significant progress over time. There are fewer peaks and troughs this year compared to a year ago, which means that I'm on the whole more emotionally steady.
• I'm a morning person. Well, at least I am emotionally a morning person. I'm much more likely to have a peak or baseline scores in the morning (pink lines) than afternoon (yellow) or evening (blue).
• I'm becoming more down than up. I had a high proportion of peaks to troughs this time last year because I was just coming out of numbness and heavy grief, and as you start to come back to life, everything is more exhilarating and more depressing. In short, I'm not as susceptible to the false highs, though still prone to times of sadness.