There is a strong link between our mood and our ability to be resilient in hard times. Unlike what we may intuitively think our mood is not only a reaction to external circumstances. It is within our power to proactively take care of our feelings and actions on daily basis.
The Yale Centre for Emotional Intelligence in the United States has developed a tool called Mood Meter. It helps us to recognize and to understand our own emotions and feelings better.
The Mood Meter contains four coloured quadrants – red, blue, green and yellow, each containing a different set of feelings. These feelings are grouped according to their pleasantness and energy.
Feelings in the RED ZONE include high energy and low pleasantness (e.g., angry, scared, and anxious);
Feelings in the BLUE ZONE include a low degree of energy and a low degree of pleasantness (e.g., sad, frustrated, and anxious).
Feelings in the GREEN ZONE include low levels of energy and high levels of pleasantness (e.g., calm, peaceful, and relaxed);
Feelings in the YELLOW ZONE include high energy and high pleasantness (e.g., happy, excited, and curious).
As we become more aware of our feelings, we begin to notice how they influence our decisions and behaviour. The Mood Meter enables us to more easily determine where we are in the present moment so that we can take action to improve our mood if necessary.
Our goal should be to be in the green and yellow zone about 70% of the time. This way we can increase both our own level of happiness and that of those around us. Scientists have already proven that happiness is “contagious” and when we are happy – the happiness of the people we are in close contact with increases by 15% and of those we have indirect contact with, it increases by 6 to 10%.
In the upcoming Practice Resilience programme, which will be available in February you will find ideas how to improve your resilience. Among them is for example this activity, based on the Mood Meter, which you can find below:
Choose from the Mood Square what are your feelings in the present moment.
Think about what thoughts and perceptions are causing or triggering your feelings.
If the majority of your feelings are in the red or blue zone – make a plan to do something today that can shift your feelings to the green and yellow zone.
Stay informed about the release of the new programme by following our webpage and/or Facebook page, or send us an email, stating that you are interested, so that we can immediately provide you with the programme when it is released.
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