I think a lot of conflict happens within us – it doesn’t even involve another person. Why do I feel this way?

I was at an exercise class last week and my instructor was talking about how stressed out she is – about, of all things, her May 2015 wedding. She talked about how complicated things were getting and that she was second guessing her decisions about her location, logistics etc.

Just coincidentally, I got home from class that same day I saw a technology post on the New York Times website about finding happiness though three apps. That really intrigued me and so, I listened to the video.

One of the apps was really interesting. It’s called iMoodJournal. Here’s how it works. You record your mood(s) on a daily (or more frequent) basis in one of these categories (forget that 1-10 scale stuff):

Insanely great
Great
Very good
Good
OK
So-so
Meh
Bad
Very Bad
Couldn’t be worse

Maybe you’re thinking, so what’s so great about that?

But here’s the really cool part. When you have entered in enough ‘moods’, the app will give you a graph that tracks your mood over time (see picture below).

Now to me, that’s the best part.

Once you see the data, you might be able to pick out a pattern. Does my mood change when you have to talk to your ex about the kids? Do things seem to be better on Fridays? Is it that job? Do you have a hard time over the holidays?

You get it. This is a terrific tool to help you understand what’s going on inside of you and that can give you more information what your triggers are. And once you see the patterns, maybe you can figure out what you may want to change in your own life.

So, this isn’t necessarily an ad for this app (it costs $2.00) – there are probably others out there. And you can still do this journaling the old fashioned way, with pen and paper.

But no matter how you wrap your arms around it, more data can help you to understand yourself better and affect your own change. And maybe my fitness instructor will decide to have her wedding in Reno and remove that stress from her life!

Jeanette