Wellness

7 Self-Care Strategies to Soothe Emotional Distress

Depression, anxiety, and other mood disorders can knock your life off balance. Stress can intensify moods, making it harder for you to feel safe and like life is manageable. 

Without some sort of deliberate action to change, feelings of instability and negativity can dictate your life and keep you from reaching your full potential.

The good news is that there are many self-care strategies you can use to help soothe emotional distress. But first, you need to know about one oft-overlooked, proactive step you can take today that will help you smooth out your mood and feel back on track:

Track your mood trends.

You see, by keeping on track of your mood trends, you’ll know when your mood starts sliding too far in one direction. Even better, tracking can help you stay one step ahead of a negative change so you can then take focused self-care actions to keep your emotional health in better balance.

mood trends

What Are Mood Trends Anyway?

Mood trends are a measure of how your mood changes over time. For example, if you generally feel ok but have been feeling down for the past few days, that would be considered a downward mood trend.  Alternatively, if you've been feeling a little off, but had a good day yesterday, that would be considered an upward mood trend.

Mood trends can help you understand when your mood is starting to shift, which can give you time to take action. More importantly, tracking your mood can also help you identify patterns in your emotions, which can be helpful for figuring out what might be causing your distress. 

For example, if you notice that you always feel bad after work, then it might be helpful to look at your work schedule to see if there are any changes that could be causing your stress.

How To Track Your Mood Trends

If you’ve been struggling with your emotional health, you know how hard it is to do anythin