Didn't Use Mood Sentry Until this Evening

I'm not sure why, but I think it was because I had a fairly clear picture of what I was going to do today.  My issues at work were on my mind for most of the day, but I managed to get in a short hike, some reading, and I've gotten back to working on the next update to Mood Sentry.  It will be a while before it comes out, because I'll be touching just about every module in the app, on both versions (android and iPhone).  I also spent some time documenting some thoughts regarding my work challenges and then e-mailing them to myself at work.  Sometimes, just doing something like that can take a load off my mind and help me relax.  Other than that, I just read the Evening Reminder and set some goals for tomorrow.  I'll probably go into the office for a bit to get one thing off my plate, which should really help me prepare for Monday. We'll see.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Trying Something Different

I've mentioned that I've been having some challenges recently.  After meeting with my therapist yesterday, I'm capturing my thoughts in an effort to help me identify what thoughts are really driving my mood, or perhaps driving my mood lower if the real culprit is my depression asserting itself for some reason.  Rather than using Mood Sentry, I've gone back to the pen and paper approach.  One thing I like about this approach is the ease with which I can write.  It's just as handy as the app, but the format feels a bit better for this exploratory mindset I'm in right now.  I could use either the observation or essay tool, but for some reason using pen and paper just feels like the best way to document what is going on in my head these days.  I'll see how this works.  Once I start narrowing down which thoughts are doing the most damage, I expect that I'll go back to using Mood Sentry to capture the thoughts and counter thoughts.  We'll see.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Did Better Today

Using the Daily Goals tool helped today. I had a lot of little things to accomplish today, and I hit just about all of them and then some.  The ones I didn't hit required other people to get back to me, which is something I can't control.  I've added another item and I'll hit that after this posting.  That other item has to do with preparing for a therapist visit tomorrow.  I may even do some light preparation for work if I have the inclination and time.  I've really been in a funk for the past couple of months.  I feel like I'm coming out of it and am not sure if it's because external influences are improving (mostly work related) or because something internal is improving (body chemistry?).  In either case, I'm feeling more like my typical depressed self rather than the really stressed out and anxious person I've been.  I believe working Mood Sentry has helped, but I have to admit that it gets tough to motivate myself to use the app when I'm really stressed.  I'll set some goals for tomorrow and prepare for my therapist visit.  That usually helps me manage my thoughts for Monday.  We'll see how things go tomorrow.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Had an OK Day

I had a bunch of things I wanted to accomplish, but ended up "vegging" in front of the TV for about 3 hours which really impacted my motivation (negatively) and the amount of things I could accomplish.  I found myself thinking that I Should be working on other things rather than watching TV and feeling a bit depressed.  So what did I do?  I remembered that just getting started doing something can help defeat thoughts like this and nudged myself to get one thing done.  I picked up a magazine that I wanted to skim/read through and did just that.  Then I picked up another and read a couple of articles.  I only got to about half the things I wanted to get to, but that's OK.  I actually got several things done today and that was good.  I also made it a point to use my Daily Goals tool this evening and set some goals for tomorrow, which usually helps with things like this.  Having things written down is more effective than just trying to keep a list in my head.  We'll see how things go tomorrow.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

A CD Cocktail

I was just reviewing "My Experiences" with my day in mind and identified multiple distortions.  All or Nothing, Overgeneralizations, Magnification, Should Statements, Personalization, and of course Emotional Reasoning.  They seem to build on each other, so identifying which one came up first is not easy.  I don't think that matters because I was able to address each based on my entries in "My Experiences."  Note that I didn't eliminate the thoughts nor the associated feelings, but I was able to reduce their impact on my mood.  That's good enough for me and better than suffering in silence.  I'll next review some of my "Event" entries and maybe some entries in the other tools to see what I have that's related to my current situation.  After more than two years I'm sure I'll find something relevant.

Customer Concern

Had one of my customers contact me today with a concern that there appears to be a lack of progress on the project.  I've had the same nagging feeling about the project myself.  At first I was thinking that I've failed somehow and the the customer thinks the same.  But, I spent some time speaking with him and learned that this is partly due to how we're reporting things on our bi-weekly meetings.  My customer gave me some guidance on what we could do differently, and it meshed with some suggestions I received from the team yesterday.  I was feeling a bit better, but I still have these thoughts that I won't be able to get the team on track and that I'm doomed to be a failure.  I can address these thoughts, in particular the failure thoughts (how can I be a failure when the project is nowhere near complete?).  The main thing I need to do is seek help, from both my team and from other project leads.  Seeking help may lessen the forecasts of failure, primarily because I'll be actively trying to fix the situation rather than just feeling bad about it.  We'll see.

If you'd like to contribute one of your experiences, reminders, any tool entry or just your thoughts to possibly help others make better use of Mood Sentry, please consider e-mailing the item (or your thoughts) to 4theblog@moodappsllc.com. I'll protect your privacy and keep the source anonymous.

If your therapist would like to contact me with questions or suggestions, have him/her contact me at info@moodappsllc.com.

Never Set any Goals for Today

I intended to, but never got around to it.  I guess I didn't use Mood Sentry at all today.  I did pretty well in any case because I had an idea of the goals I intended to set today, which helped.  Regarding my thoughts, this was my first day back after my vacation and I had forecasts that things would get out of hand.  What I did was press on with the things I needed to do.  Accomplishing things is one of my best defenses against tainted thoughts.  That's something I've learned over the past couple of years.  Note that in retrospect, nothing got out of hand.