A mood tracker is a visual tool you can use to help you increase self-awareness by gathering data on your day to day emotional experiences and factors that may affect your mood.
Are you someone who likes to see more concrete evidence that you are making progress? Is it difficult sometimes to tell if therapy is working for you? Do you tend to be forgetful and then feel unsure how to describe how your week went to your therapist?
Here are examples of mood trackers you could use or you could create your own:
| Emotions, rate on scale of 0-10 | Sadness 0-10 | Anger | Anxiety | Shame | Guilt | Fear | Joy |
| Monday | |||||||
| Tuesday | |||||||
| Wednesday | |||||||
| Thursday | |||||||
| Friday | |||||||
| Saturday | |||||||
| Sunday |
Behavior (Y or N) |
Applying for work | House chores | Mindfulness practice | Positive activities | Substance use | Procrastination | Isolating behavior |
| Monday | |||||||
| Tuesday | |||||||
| Wednesday | |||||||
| Thursday | |||||||
| Friday | |||||||
| Saturday | |||||||
| Sunday |
Negative thoughts |
Something bad might happen. | Something is wrong with me | I can’t do anything about this. | Other people are suffering to a much larger extent. | I’ll end up in the hospital. | Negative predictions | Self-criticism or negative comparisons with how things used to be. |
| Monday | |||||||
| Tuesday | |||||||
| Wednesday | |||||||
| Thursday | |||||||
| Friday | |||||||
| Saturday | |||||||
| Sunday |
Behavior |
# of meals I have eaten | # hours of sleep | Self-harm beahvior (Y or N) | Suicidal thoughts (Y or N) | Taking medications (Y or N) | Attended support group (Y or N) | Practiced skills from therapy (Y or N) |
| Monday | |||||||
| Tuesday | |||||||
| Wednesday | |||||||
| Thursday | |||||||
| Friday | |||||||
| Saturday | |||||||
| Sunday |
Positive things |
Accomplishments (completing assignments, making a new friend, using a new skill, setting a boundary) | Affirmations (I am grateful for…, I am worthy, I am loved, I am learning, I can overcome this) | Signs of progress (decreased symptoms, more energy, getting positive feedback from others, reacting differently than before, more positive thoughts, etc.) |
| Monday | |||
| Tuesday | |||
| Wednesday | |||
| Thursday | |||
| Friday | |||
| Saturday | |||
| Sunday |
Other Things |
Triggering situations (stressors, events that reminded you of past trauma, loss, abrupt change) | Interpretations or assumptions about the situations | Reactions (crying, walking away, shut down, blew up, ruminating for hours, blamed self, used maladaptive coping) |
| Monday | |||
| Tuesday | |||
| Wednesday | |||
| Thursday | |||
| Friday | |||
| Saturday | |||
| Sunday |
Choose emotions you want to track and put them in the first row. Each day, rate your emotions in terms of intensity with 0 being having no emotion and 10 being having the most intense emotion.
-You can track behaviors and thoughts that may be impacting your mood.
– You can also track your accomplishments each day, write down your affirmations, and describe signs of progress. You can connect your behaviors, thoughts, and emotions and see how they impact each other.
-You can describe triggers that occurred, identify how you interpreted the situation or what assumptions you made, then go into details about your reactions.
You can then bring the mood trackers into your session to have more details to share and more information to help find the right therapy approach.
If you are looking for counseling support with your mood or worry that you might have depression, a therapist at Star Meadow Counseling is available to help! Reach out today to schedule an appointment!

How to Ruminate Purposefully
Do your thoughts ever end up stuck in the past, replaying a conversation or event in your head? Susan Nolen-Hoeksema from Yale University describes ruminating as “a mode of responding to distress that involves repetitively and passively focusing on symptoms of...
Negative Thoughts are Like Country Music
Imagine for a moment that the negative thoughts running wild in your brain played like a country song on repeat. Would any of the songs have titles like these? “She Don’t Think My Beard Is Sexy” “All Alone Again (In My Truck)” “My Guitar Only Has Three Strings”...
10 Places to Relax around Vancouver, WA
Are you exhausted by the burden of responsibilities you’ve been shouldering? Do you need a break or a breather, even if it’s just for a few moments? Self-care is an essential component of survival in this busy world! All of us need moments when we can slow down and...
THOUGHT DEFUSION: An Alternative Approach to Handling Intrusive Negative Thoughts
Automatic negative thoughts are a natural part of the human experience. For the most part, we don’t conjure them up or think them on purpose. They happen instinctively. Negative thoughts get directed toward ourselves (“I can’t believe I’m running late again today!...
Quotes to Inspire Self-Acceptance
“You either walk inside your story and own it or you stand outside your story and hustle for your worthiness.” “The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.” “The most beautiful people we have known...

