Understand Your Emotions and Live Better MoodBook

Your emotions become a visual display!

We all have good and bad days, and sometimes, when things are not going so well, we stop and wonder just why that is. Oftentimes, it’s easy to pick out exactly what went wrong on a particular day, or what triggered a bad reaction. When we feel good, it is always easy to decipher why so. With our lives entrenched in busy schedules, pulling our time this way and that, it is easy to fall into frustration without knowing why. Imagine if you could see the signs coming and be able to pull away from the path that will lead you to an emotional pitfall.

Now you can. The creative geniuses at Black Flag Software have taken the innate fun that comes with an app and applied it to what could be considered an electronic diary. MoodBook allows you to make quick entries of how you are feeling throughout the day, with or without details. By journaling these blips of feelings, you are building a database of emotional ups and downs that can be digested and studied, so you can see how your mood swings from day to day.

You can monitor how your emotions stack up as the week progresses, and make note of incidents that provoke emotions you’d rather not discuss. When you first open the app, you are taken to the main screen which shows a simple happy face. Swipe your finger up and down to change its look. It can be crying, sad with a frown, unsure, neutral, smiling, really smiling, kind of laughing, and really laughing. The sad faces are in blue, the neutral face is pale yellow, while the happy faces are all bright yellow. In all, there are nine different faces to choose from to show how you are feeling.

At the very top of the screen, you can choose a subject matter on which you want to post your mood. Choices are: Outward Things, Business, Friends, Love, and Health. At the very left, you can also choose to see a Summary Chart that shows your mood across all areas, over time.

The beauty of this app is that is allows you to keep notes on your emotions with fun and interesting labels, so you can separate yourself from the emotion and see it as an observer. As an observer, it becomes easy to look at why you have these different emotions and what events do they stem from. Your emotions become a visual display – right before your eyes. This app not only serves as a tool for you, but you can share what’s going on in your life with others through Facebook and Twitter.

The only downside to this app was that it was very confusing to use at first. When I started making entries, they would not save. Also, when I went to view the Summary Chart, I only saw one logged event for the day in only one category, not all the categories in which I logged events. There is no in-app help, so it can get frustrating, which is something this app is supposed to be helping you control.

Overall, however, MoodBook is a fun little app that can serve a might purpose if you figure out how to use and actually take the effort to monitor and journal emotional events, so you can see pattern that will help you live better.