Starting from scratch in an elite fitness-blog-world full of expensive gear, and Personal Records she couldn't beat with a car.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

...and how does that make you feel?

Anyone out there use (or try) a mood tracking app or program of some sort?

What do you think of the practice?

The theory is that memory encoding tends to operate on a negative cognitive bias, basically we are way better at remembering singular bad events than good overall feelings. That time you kicked the coffee table really hard in front of a hot date sticks around way longer than that awesome steamy bath you took four months ago.

It is likely that the baseline reality of the average person's life is a lot happier then they would necessarily report, so mood tracking attempts to provide a more accurate look at a person's general experience than their own memories
(sort of like a super fussy gratitude journal)


Fun fact - Mood rings suck when your baseline body temp is two degrees lower than average
Img source http://whitepagesevanstonilqdpk.wordpress.com/

I've been vaguely thinking about doing this sort of thing for a while, so my interest was definitely piqued when I read this article on the Expereal app from Greatest.


Of course if your life genuinely sucks you may want to pass, though by the same token this could be a great way to identify any hidden patterns in what may be stressing you.


On a related note: I've also considered the Thryve app (also found via Greatest) which has more of a focus on how food may be affecting our well being. I've had a history with some weird recurring stress triggered food allergies and an app like this could have saved me months of discomfort.

What say you?

2 comments:

  1. This Long Island weather is putting me in a real funk!!

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    1. I live in a basement apartment and my office has no windows. It could be raining entire heads of garlic and I wouldn't know if it wasn't for my commute.

      Though somehow I don't feel I have the advantage there. :p

      I'm pretty ok with this odd pseudo-Spring thing we have going on though.

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