A week or so ago a regular Moodscoper - David - told me about a journey across London he'd made. The gist of his story was that he thought he'd not allowed enough time for it, and was anxious all the way to his destination.
In fact he got there more quickly than he'd expected, so ended up with that wonderful feeling of relief you get when things have worked out better than you feared they might.
I reckon you can put this to good use, though, without the unpleasantness.
If the journey's going to take 30 minutes, why not allow 45? Leave home early and luxuriate in that 'on time' feeling, every time.
What's more, you'll probably enjoy the journey too.
A (mini) Great Escape. September 3, 2010
Things at Moodscope started to properly take off back in April when The Times in London carried a story about the idea. It was written by a journalist called Nick Roe who's a gentleman, and one of life's all-round nice people.
In addition to writing about stuff like Moodscope, Nick is responsible for superb travel stories, most of which you can see by following him as I do on Twitter. He's @ProTraveller.
When I got up yesterday morning, here's what he'd tweeted: 'An evening bike ride in Sussex lanes while overwhelming problems melted for an hour. Then they set again, of course. But that hour, that hour.'
And I really really loved Nick's idea that even when times are tough and things are difficult, you can still organise a mini great escape for yourself. It doesn't need to last long, and its effects may well be temporary, but simply taking an hour to do something just for you can make all the difference.
Nick said it.
Good to share. September 2, 2010
In the last few days I've been hearing some great things from Moodscopers about the way that sharing their scores is helping them.
If you have a Moodscope buddy (or even more than one) your scores go out to them the minute you record them. It's a way of connecting someone you trust into your ups and downs without having to tell them yourself.
But of course, not everyone wants to have a buddy. For some, the peaks and troughs of mood are a private thing, and even though there seem to be a lot of good reasons to share via Moodscope, some people just prefer not to.
However, not having a buddy doesn't mean you can't occasionally let someone in to what's going on in your life.
Although it's not documented on the site, you can print out your Moodscope graph by 'right clicking' on it (ctrl + click on Macs). This way you'll be able to show someone else how you're getting along. (Some people do this when they want to talk to their doctor for instance.)
Things changed dramatically for me when I began sharing my scores with buddies, but if you'd still rather not do this electronically, please do at least try it with a printed out graph.
Not always obvious. September 1, 2010
I seem to have a reputation for mending broken things. So there's a model car sitting on my desk, waiting to be fixed.
Although the friend who asked for my help was pretty sure the trouble was with its gearbox, I quickly discovered that this problem was actually being caused by something a long way away from it, right up in the front axle area.
To discover what really needs fixing, I had to stand back and look at it all from a distance.
This may feel as though it's rapidly becoming a mini engineering tutorial, but in fact I think it has parallels when it comes to sorting out mood problems.
Sometimes we get short-sighted, believing that the thing that's getting to us is the most obvious one, when in reality the real problem could lie elsewhere.
You might, for instance, get really cross about something happening at work, and want to dive in and kick up a stink about it. But perhaps the real reason you're getting cross is that you're just tired and need a day or two's leave.
When you're not tired, the thing that's making you angry could seem truly inconsequential.
So today, try to look beyond the obvious in order to root out the true cause of any dissatisfaction.
But if you've got a model car that needs fixing, I'm sorry I'm fully booked.
Peak performance. August 31, 2010
After you've been tracking your mood for a while, it wouldn't be surprising to look back and see troughs as well as peaks.
Our minds can be drawn to look at the downs, to try and work out what caused them. What went wrong?
Although it can be counter to your instincts, it's much more helpful to look at your highs (if you don't have highs as such, maybe you do have better days) instead. What went right?
A good sports coach clearly needs to work on preventing a player's mistakes. But it would be daft not to build on their strengths too.
When you're not feeling fantastic, it always helps to know what you can do to lift your mood once more.
The end of something good. August 30, 2010
When I was very young (probably 4 or 5) I can definitely remember crying - literally - when I went to bed at the end of my birthday or Christmas Day.
Not because the day had been anything other than fantastic. It was simply that the thing I'd been looking forward to more than anything in the world had come and gone.
Having talked to other people about it, I know I wasn't alone in feeling like this.
Now you'd think that this kind of thing would leave you completely, wouldn't you?
Fortunately the crying bit has.
But I can still feel a vestige of sadness after experiencing something particularly good, as I did by taking a day off to spend with little Louis. After it was all over I definitely felt at a bit of a loose end for a while.
Although it's probably only natural, it does remind me of Dr. Seuss's (Theodor Geisel) great line: 'Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.'
A much better way of viewing things.
Chicken and chocolate. August 29, 2010
Yesterday and Friday were really great days for me, even though I'm writing this dog-tired as a consequence.
Caroline's 5-year-old son Louis came to stay. We did an enormous amount, including digging out an old overhead projector to draw a four foot high Spongebob Squarepants which he's taken away to stick on his bedroom wall; taking three trips to the park; and visiting McDonald's where I was taught the joys of dipping your chicken nuggets in your chocolate milk shake. (Don’t knock it until you try it is my motto.)
Although there was an immense list of other things I was supposed to be doing, it was actually incredibly good to focus instead on giving little Louis a brilliant day. In so doing, of course, it helped me to feel tons better too.
Sometimes we all get so diverted by the 'supposed to do' stuff that we forget all about the 'wow this is NICE to do' stuff.
Which will you remember having done on Monday morning?
Who are you? August 28, 2010
Thank you to the people who've volunteered to help us with our press coverage, and sorry it'll take a short while to get back to you personally but there's lots going on.
When we conducted a survey recently about the role friends play in helping us get better when we're feeling dreadful, one question asked for the main causes of our low mood.
Although I probably shouldn't have been surprised at the leading reason, I was. Work.
The number one cause of unhappiness is what people do for a living. (In today's dodgy economic times, I imagine this will include people who actually have no work too.)
For many people, what you do can so easily become who you are. And to some extent there's nothing necessarily wrong with this.
But it shouldn't become all you are.
Please try to remember this, this weekend. Do one thing - or two - to remind yourself that it's also very good to be able to say that you are who you're friends with. And that you are where you go.
And, especially, that you are who you love.
Interviewee needed. August 27, 2010
We're looking for a little help please. But there are a lot of if's attached, so please read on and my apologies to the people for whom this won't be relevant.
A Sunday newspaper in the UK is planning to write a feature about Moodscope, which is great news as it should help us reach out to more people.
The journalist wants to speak to people who've been using Moodscope and who feel it's had a positive effect on them. We've already got one or two lined up (thanks - you know who you are) but we need a couple more. Could it be something you'd think about doing?
Here are those if's. It'll only be right for you if...
* You live in the UK.
* You've been scoring your mood reasonably regularly for quite a while.
* You may have a buddy (but that's not totally vital).
* You feel as though it's been doing you some good.
* You're OK with a telephone interview by a reporter.
* (The big one.) You'd be happy for your name and approximate location to be published.
Thanks to anyone who'll consider this - it'll really help us, and help others too by giving them confidence to try Moodscope for themselves.
If you'd like to help, please reply to this email. It will take us a day or two to get back to you. Sorry that you won't get an immediate reply. And thank you.
Bright side of the street. August 26, 2010
Chatting to a fascinating Moodscoper yesterday, he told me a brilliant story which I hope he won't mind me passing on.
He and his wife were living in a place that meant they had to regularly walk up and down the same paved area outside their home. It struck them that everyone they passed had a tendency to look dreadfully miserable, so they resolved to conduct their own little social psychology experiment.
What would happen if they simply smiled at everyone and said hello?
As you might expect, the very odd person walked on by with their eyes glued to the pavement, but other than that the experiment was a total success.
Suddenly their little part of the world became Happy Street, and passers-by went on their way having had a definite boost.
It takes one person to start a movement (well, two in their case, but you get my point).
And it reminds me of one of the most delightful quotations I think I've ever heard - 'Happiness is like jam. You can't spread even a little without getting some on yourself.'
So what do you think? Could this be the day to begin your own experiment?
Thoughts uncovered. August 25, 2010
The other day David the psychologist and I visited the Wellcome Collection in London, a superb museum, exhibition venue and general place to hang out with friends - all sponsored by the Wellcome Foundation.
Their current exhibition Skin has much to recommend it. It's a mind boggling collection of everything to do with the amazing old stuff that covers your body and mine, only yours probably doesn't need ironing as much as mine does.
An fascinating little exhibit was a French anatomical illustration in a style called ecorche. (There should be acute accents on both e's which I won't type for fear of them getting mangled in the email system.)
Anyway, an ecorche is a body minus its skin so you can see all that lies beneath. More precisely the examples in the exhibition showed figures holding up their skin, like a set of clothing, so we could see everything under it.
Bit yucky, but they were engravings from the 16th century when people must have been made of sterner stuff.
David and I discussed this idea and agreed it would be pretty weird if we could do this with our minds: whip off the covers and let it all hang out.
Perhaps not eh?
No joke. August 24, 2010
A few years back, before the Moodscope project started, I was in a very deep hole.
I had a period of several months so low that I really don't like to recall them.
I kept a daily diary through that time, as I have every day since March 1997, but I can't even bring myself to read back through those pages.
One thing I do remember though, is that I drew an odd degree of solace from looking through books of cartoons. I picked up a few from charity shops.
In a time when laughing out loud would have been unthinkable, it was strangely good to flip through pages of cartoons.
They can be (obviously) amusing. They're often wry little slices of life. And helpfully they can be easily digested when you might not feel like reading anything more than a couple of lines.
Next time you pass a pile of second hand books, look out for a cartoon book.
Sometimes they beat the self-help books.
Seek the positive. August 23, 2010
Years ago I briefly met Professor Cary Cooper, a fascinating and downright affable occupational psychologist. He won't remember me but I certainly remember him.
In the latest issue of the British Psychological Association's magazine The Psychologist, he gives a tip for raising 'mental capital' (which kind of means your total thinking and emotional potential).
Professor Cooper says: 'Never put other people down, see their positive attributes and try to be kind and supportive.'
He goes on to add that Mark Twain got it right when he wrote:
'Keep away from small people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.'
There's something very true in that.
Falling to pieces. August 22, 2010
If like me you agree there's something strangely fascinating about photographs of old abandoned buildings, take a look at some powerful images of disused psychiatric hospitals made by American photographer Matt McDonough.
People who were mentally ill (and many who were not) were routinely locked away in facilities like these.
Now 'care in the community' means they frequently have to make their own way in an often uncaring world.
I'm not sure which was worse, but you won't fail to be moved by Matt's oddly poignant photographs.
Penfield Mood Organ. August 21, 2010
The Penfield Mood Organ doesn't actually exist, but it would be great if it did.
It appeared in the opening pages of the Philip K. Dick science fiction book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, on which the Ridley Scott movie Blade Runner was based.
(I know. That is rather a lot of cultural references for a Saturday morning.)
Anyway, the idea of the mood organ was that you could choose your mood and quite simply dial it.
So, on the basis that you almost certainly do have more control of your mood than you might think, what would you like to dial up on your Penfield this morning?
Imagine it. Live it.
Face to face Friday. August 20, 2010
Practice what you preach, they say. So I'm sorry in advance that this email is definitely not a perfect example of this.
But first, my excuse. You and I don't really have another way of keeping in touch other than by email. I'm not sure you'd like it if I phoned you every morning to read you these messages. And making several thousand phone calls every day would be time consuming in the extreme.
But the point I'd like to make, which you knew I'd get to sooner or later, is that emails, text messages, tweets and Facebook posts aren't always the best way to communicate with people.
When you actually talk to someone (ideally face to face but over the phone can be almost as good) the interaction is immeasurably richer.
Emotions often don't get conveyed at all in written messages, and when they do they can so often be misconstrued. It's all too easy for someone to get the wrong end of the stick.
So let's make this face to face Friday. Rather than bashing out soul-less keyboard messages to someone nearby, go over and talk to them. If they're further afield, pick up the phone.
You'll feel all the better for it and so will the other person. I guarantee it.
All things considered. August 19, 2010
When you feel low it's common to believe there are no solutions, that you'll always be that way. At best you might hope for one magic answer, one piece of help that will instantly make everything better.
But of course it's rarely that straightforward and it's probably better to look for a 'basket' of smaller supports rather than one big one.
I was reminded of this recently when I chatted to a woman who runs the mental health side of a housing association, taking care of residents with special needs.
We were actually chatting about the manic side of bipolar disorder, in which I'm particularly interested at the moment, so she described how they care for someone in this state.
Not only do they adjust the person's medication, they also encourage them to listen to a relaxation CD, and to have a bath before bed time. All designed, holistically, to tackle the problem. A range of 'treatments' rather than just one.
Thinking about this yesterday when I found myself feeling a bit glum, I took myself out for a coffee, walking through a green and leafy park to get there, and helping a homeless man with a couple of coins on the way. Individually these actions might not have accounted for much but collectively they did give me a boost.
So what little selection of good things can you do today to get a similar effect?
Mappiness. August 18, 2010
How do your surroundings affect your mood? That's what researchers at the London School of Economics are setting out to explore via a just-launched (and free) iPhone app called Mappiness (thanks Dan):
Once you've downloaded the app, you choose how often a day it will prompt you by bleeping at a random time so you can tell it how you're feeling.
Mappiness uses simple slider mechanisms on which you indicate how Happy, Relaxed and Awake you are (from Not at all to Extremely) and uses the iPhone's GPS feature to pinpoint where you are.
Pretty amazingly it also measures the volume of the background noise in your current location and sends that, along with your location and mood ratings to the researchers' server, which then displays real-time results.
Although anyone in the world can download the app and use it, it's largely geared towards the UK at the moment.
They're aiming to recruit 3,000 users. I'm sure there are a few Moodscopers who'll be interested in helping them reach their target.
Nose dive. August 17, 2010
When, thank heavens, you return to feeling good again after you've been depressed, everything around you seems to have greater clarity.
Colours are more vivid. Music is more melodic.
And according to a report in New Scientist, smells will be stronger. (That could be good or bad depending on whether we're talking about the perfume of a rose or the whiff of someone's dodgy old trainers).
More specifically the article details research undertaken at the University of Dresden, showing that people's sense of smell diminished when they were depressed.
Amazingly this seems to happen because the part of the brain responsible for registering smells - the olfactory bulb - actually gets smaller. They detected this using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
It's fascinating to see the evidence building up which supports what I think we instinctively know. When you're depressed, you feel cut off from everything.
A cartoonist's view. August 16, 2010
If you want to boil an idea down to its very essence, watch what a cartoonist does with it.
A clown always has giant shoes.
A dog is generally called Fido and always lives in a kennel with a pitched roof.
And a hospital bed always has a clipboard with a zig-zag graph on it attached to its foot.
When someone's admitted to hospital with a physical condition we take it for granted that their temperature, pulse rate and other vital signs will be monitored and recorded.
So doesn't it seem strange that there's not been an objective mood tracker before?
How did mental health professionals know when someone was getting better or worse?
Just a thought.
Pearls of wisdom (ii). August 15, 2010
There's a clip on YouTube of the Managing Director of an engineering firm who took part in the BBC's Making Slough Happy series in which he declares 'I don't do happiness'.
I'm pretty sure he changed his mind after the happiness experts worked their magic on his business.
Anyway, as promised yesterday here are three more nuggets from the book that supported the BBC series:
1. Several studies have shown that the presence of a pet can reduce blood pressure and stress, promoting health and happiness.
2. According to a new look at a 40-year-old study on child-rearing practices conducted at Harvard, those children who were hugged and cuddled the most grew up to be the happiest.
3. People with strong social support and intimate friendships visit the doctor less often.
It all makes so much sense doesn't it? And you wonder why, if it's this easy, there's still so much low mood around.
Pearls of wisdom (i). August 14, 2010
Five years ago the BBC ran a short series called Making Slough Happy. I think they probably chose Slough because it has a reputation for being a rather glum place (apologies to all who live there).
There was of course a book to go along with the TV show (How To Be Happy by Liz Hoggard, BBC Books), and browsing through it yesterday I came across a few little nuggets about happiness.
Here are three for you:
1. If you do 20 minutes of exercise three times a week for six months, your general feeling of happiness will improve by 10-20 per cent.
2. People who rate in the upper reaches of happiness on psychological tests develop about 50 per cent more antibodies than average in response to flu vaccines.
3. Immigrants tend to acquire the happiness characteristics of the nation to which they move, not the nation in which they were born.
Interesting? I'll pop another three in tomorrow's message.
First things first. August 13, 2010
Do you sometimes find it difficult to prioritise things? I know I do.
There's always so much more to do than there is time to do it in, and even making a very comprehensive list doesn't always help. It can seem even worse when you see the length of it, knowing that there just aren't enough hours in the day.
But I think that getting someone else's perspective can help a lot, especially when they know you pretty well.
That's what happened the other day, talking through our Moodscope project with Adrian. After I'd taken him through my ginormous To-Do list (not something to boast about really) his view was that it would be best to prioritise on the things that are 'getting to me' the most. It gave me a much better sense of what should come first.
It's probably pretty much the same for you. You'll know that you can't do everything. But rather than ending up doing nothing (a common reaction to having too much on your plate) step back for a minute to ask yourself which of these demands are getting to you the most. And preferably do so in conversation with someone else.
Tackle those things first. The chances are that you'll then feel strong enough to knock off some of the others too.
Highs and lows. August 12, 2010
As you'll probably know, Moodscope itself gives you feedback when you record your score. It comes from a big 'construction kit' of content which is then assembled intelligently by a computer program in response to your latest results.
Like a friend would, it supports and encourages you when your mood is low and congratulates and praises you if you record a high score.
While I believe this is helpful and makes good sense for people who have reasonably straightforward 'unipolar' depression, it's been strongly pointed out to me by a couple of Moodscopers that praise for high scores is less appropriate for someone who has bipolar disorder, particularly if it's quite severe, as it could indicate that the person is in a manic phase during which they may behave in ways that could harm themselves and others.
Although Moodscope wasn't built to measure manic episodes (a system like that would need to ask quite different questions about things such as speeded-up libido, the wild spending of money etc) I know there are people using Moodscope who, like me, have bipolar disorder.
As soon as we can, we'll make changes to the automated feedback. But if you do have bipolar disorder and see bursts of high scores (rather than long periods of high stability) it would be sensible to ask yourself whether this might be an artificial high, rather than that you're simply and genuinely feeling very good.
Should it be the former, and until the feedback system is changed, please regard the written feedback as being for someone other than you.
By far the best feedback will come from the friends acting as your buddies, and their words are the ones you should be paying huge attention to.
A big thank you to the people who are steering me on this one. We have an incredible community here, who are pulling together to make Moodscope as good as it can be.
Mental wealth. August 11, 2010
Does having money make you happy? Well yes and no, according to Sonja Lyubomirsky writing in Scientific American:
Her article reports on a study suggesting that although wealth may give you opportunities to purchase things, it can simultaneously impair your ability to enjoy those things.
After describing a clever University of British Columbia experiment, Sonja goes on to present a list of good ways to spend money if you'd like to be happier:
Splash out on...
1. Activities that help you grow as a person, eg music lessons.
2. Activities that strengthen social connections, eg dinner with friends.
3. Contributing to your community, eg donating to the needy.
4. Activities and experiences rather than material possessions.
5. Many small pleasures rather than one big ticket item, eg weekly fresh flowers instead of a flat screen TV.
6. Splurging on something that you work extremely hard to get and have to wait for.
Overall in these ways I don't think it matters whether you have much money or not.
It seems to be how you spend it that counts.
A side order of depression? August 10, 2010
Depression is a pushy old condition. Not content with blighting people's lives on its own, it also muscles in on other illnesses. Unsurprisingly it's common to find that cancer patients, for instance, have depression to deal with on top of everything else.
Doctors call this a 'comorbidity', a term I only came across once I started to get into the mental health area a couple of years ago.
Comorbidity. What a horrible word, which doesn't even appear in my Encarta dictionary. Despite sounding as though it might have something to do with death, it doesn't. It simply means having more than one illness or disease at the same time.
The concept came up yesterday when I caught up with a good friend who's had breast cancer, most fortunately now in remission.
Although she couldn't speak highly enough of the treatment she'd received from the oncology people, what was painfully clear was that nobody had paid any attention to her state of mind through all her illness.
We agreed that Moodscope might well have helped.
So if you know someone who's battling with a serious physical illness, please think about mentioning Moodscope to them.
You'd be helping them, helping us and - thanks to that good old 'helper's high' - it might just leave you feeling slightly good too.
Patience, my friend. August 9, 2010
In a half-hearted effort to take a break from the computer I sometimes find myself playing patience/solitaire on the (oops) computer.
Here's the thing. Sometimes I have long strings of wins, but often it'll be lost game after lost game.
Now I'm not certain but I reckon these losing streaks are more often than not caused by simply not seeing cards that could be piled on top of each another.
I suspect that the solution's very often right in front of me but I don't see it, and just click to shuffle and play another game.
And this, I reckon, often happens in life generally. We have problems to solve but all too quickly give up, imagining that the answers are elsewhere when perhaps they're actually slap bang in front of us.
Try the nearsighted view today for a change. You might be surprised.
First half. August 8, 2010
Today marks the first six months that I've been writing these daily messages. (They go on to be archived in the Moodscope blog if you want to catch up with any you've missed.)
When I started writing them back in February I kept it all pretty low-key largely because I wanted to put a toe in the water - to see whether I'd be able to keep it up - before I made any big announcements.
I wasn't bothered about making the commitment. It was more a worry about whether there'd be enough to say day in, day out.
Turns out there was no need to fret. The whole mental health area is a rich seam to mine, partly because it's a big issue, partly because it affects so many people, and partly because I get such a lot of input and food for thought from many kind and thoughtful Moodscopers.
That February 8th message went out to just fifty people. Today's will be received by over three thousand.
Thank you for being one of those, a very important part.
Finding your way home. August 7, 2010
When I was about 5, one of my Christmas presents from my parents was a little black screw-top pocket compass made by the toy company Merit.
It went absolutely everywhere with me. I loved it.
When I was 40 I spent a year travelling the world and the pocket compass went with me, tucked into my wash bag.
Whilst it wasn't very practical (it was only a toy for goodness sake) it symbolised something very important for me. I reckoned that if I ever got lost, it would be a reminder that I could always find my way home.
Now I'm 54 it's beside the computer as I type this. I still treasure it nearly fifty years later.
Isn't it funny how an inanimate object can give you such comfort?
I bet there's something you have that has the same effect. If it's not already to hand, dig it out today and leave it out so you'll see it from time to time.
It's amazing what a comfort it can be.
Just the job (not). August 6, 2010
A lawyer in the UK is taking action against a big international law firm after it withdrew a job offer soon after she told the potential employer that she'd had time off work some years ago for depression.
Although 'Jane' (her details have been changed by the BBC) says she was informed by the firm that it had changed its mind because of a 'recruitment freeze', she had reason to doubt the veracity of this claim.
What a minefield. In the UK it's pretty certainly illegal to discriminate against a candidate for employment on health grounds, yet hand-on-heart I've filled in forms on which I should have mentioned my bipolar disorder but didn't.
I don't know if I was indirectly adding to the whole stigma thing by doing this, or just doing what I suspect a lot of us do at times. Don't mention it and hope nobody notices.
As I say, what a minefield.
Tame that lizard. August 5, 2010
Something a little different today with thanks to 'A', a kind Moodscoper who pointed me in its direction.
Jennifer Diebel is a psychotherapist in Boulder, Colorado with a nice take on tackling fear. The link below takes you to her PDF:
Essentially Jennifer reckons you can fool the part of your brain which registers fear into thinking happier, calmer thoughts.
Clearly this only makes sense in situations where there's no point in being afraid. At times fear serves a very useful purpose. For instance if a twenty-ton truck is headed directly towards you, you'll hopefully be frightened enough to leap out of the way.
But we're talking here about the unhelpful type of fear, the kind that keeps you from doing something good but scary.
The principle is that it's the oldest 'lizard' part of your brain that goes into fight, flight or freeze mode and this causes the more logical thinking part to have anxious thoughts.
I don't think this has been scientifically tested but Jennifer suggests sitting comfortably and inhaling/exhaling very slowly and steadily until you're breathing in on a count of 7 and out on a count of 7. And that, amazingly, can do the trick.
I'll leave it to Jennifer's wonderful turn of phrase to explain what this does to your lizard brain. She says it thinks, 'Dude, it's almost like I'm sleeping. Guess I can chill.'
Why not?
Liquid lesson. August 4, 2010
Why is it that we can learn so many lessons by observing the behaviour of small children?
Last week it was 'Oh dear' Boy (see July 27 blog). Yesterday it was Toddler In The Fountain.
In my local town centre they've installed a water feature which spouts up from the paving. Jets rise and fall in an orchestrated fashion attracting crowds of onlookers and plenty of small children daring themselves to get as close to the water as they possibly can.
Yesterday I watched one little lad venture dangerously close when the program was keeping the fountains very low, probably just about his waist height.
But then the inevitable happened. Up went the fountain and down came the water, leaving him rooted to the spot, howling and getting drenched. He stood there, hating it but not moving.
All was well when his Mum stepped in to retrieve him, but isn't it interesting that he was in a horrible situation and didn't know that he could take two steps to the side and be OK?
You might say you'd never do that, and perhaps it's true that you wouldn't have been in the fountains in the first place.
But how often have you been in an unpleasant set of circumstances, and simply stuck it out when it would have been so easy to take those metaphorical two steps to find dry land again?
Where-you-are can have a big impact on who-you-are. So if the little gusher becomes a big one today, get the heck out of there.
Depressing news. August 3, 2010
I'd like to make a strong recommendation that you read a powerful article which was in the UK's Guardian yesterday.
Mark Rice-Oxley is an assistant news editor on the Guardian's foreign desk.
Depression struck him hard on the day of his 40th birthday party, and he writes vividly and movingly about his battle to just about successfully overcome his mental ill-health.
When I read the article online there were already over 200 comments appended to it, which shows how many people felt drawn to what he had to say.
But I have to confess to a small smile when he said, 'I kept a nerdy graph of how I was feeling, and took comfort in a general upward trend behind the violent peaks and troughs.'
We all know that principle. But hey Mark, there's nothing nerdy about keeping a mood graph.
What is normal? August 2, 2010
When does perfectly normal sadness - over the loss of a loved one for example - become clinical depression?
That's a question Tom Feilden, the science correspondent on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, asks on his blog.
And it's addressed in an interview with Professor Til Wykes of London's Institute of Psychiatry (audio on the blog) who is supportive of the Moodscope project to the extent that she has championed the Institute's independent research into Moodscope due to start soon.
Writing in the Journal of Mental Health, Professor Wykes claims new definitions of mental health being considered for the American Psychiatric Association's 'diagnostic bible' - the DSM-V - are so broad that in future almost no one will qualify as normal. She's worried about the implications of branding so many people, and particularly children, as mentally ill.
'It shrinks the pool of normality to a puddle' Professor Wykes says, 'there are going to be fewer people who won't end up with a diagnosis of mental illness'.
Check out Tom Feilden's blog and see what you think.
Happy Friendship Day. August 1, 2010
International Friendship Day is celebrated on the first Sunday of August, a tradition that began in the United States in 1935.
And, nope, I'd not heard of it either until quite recently.
So today's the day. Happy IFD.
It's as good a day as any to recognise the massively important role that our friends play in our wellbeing. Moodscope's recent research shows that for the majority of us, it's our lifelong friends to whom we turn if and when we get low.
But even though we almost certainly recognise this, sometimes when we need friends the most we retreat into our caves. We shut ourselves away precisely when being around friends could do us a whole lot of good.
But imagine for one moment what it would be like were the boot on the other foot.
If you discovered that a good friend had been down but hadn't told you, how would you feel?
It's difficult to do, but oh so important to 'come out' when you're down - to let your friends help you.
You'd do the same for them. Wouldn't you?
Pick a number. July 31, 2010
What are you like at reading minds? Your own to be precise.
Once you've been using Moodscope for a while it can be a good idea to pause for a second before you start the card flipping to see if you can forecast what your score is going to be.
While it's not always easy, it does make sense to train yourself to be able to get an instant feel for how you're doing at any moment in time.
You're not always going to be able to use the cards exactly when you want to, so it can help to self-evaluate your mood before you start an activity.
For instance if someone wants a serious conversation with you and you're feeling lower than you'd like to be, it can help to let the other person know so they make allowances. Or maybe postpone it a while.
It's not always easy to get it right though, which I guess is why Moodscope helps.
When I woke up yesterday I knew I was feeling a bit down, but Moodscope showed me that I was actually lower than I thought - with the result that I got great support from my buddies.
So before you use Moodscope today, see if you can estimate the score you're going to get. I hope it's a good one.
Stand up and be counted. July 30, 2010
Keith is a Moodscope member on a mission. He contacted me yesterday to see if you'd help him by signing a petition he's championing.
'One Voice' 4 Mental Heath Awareness is a global advocacy group which wants to ensure human rights for adults and children with mental health challenges.
As they say, each deserves support, respect, and dignity without shame, stigma, or fear.
The originator of the petition has set herself the monumental task of getting 100,000 signatures so it can be presented to the United Nations.
There's a long way to go. Please take a look and see if you can help Keith, who's determined to get things moving.
Our survey said. July 29, 2010
When I asked for help with our survey at the weekend I should have known our members would do me proud. Thank you so much to the 350 people who took part.
The findings are going out to media organisations this week to support International Friendship Day on Sunday August 1st.
Although most people agreed that there's great value in opening up to friends about problems, 9 out of 10 are reluctant to ask for help.
A third don't do so for fear of seeming needy, and another quarter worry that they'll waste their friends' time.
I was surprised to discover that work life is the biggest cause of people feeling down. 60% of people picked that. Women's second biggest downer is relationships, while for men it's worries about the future.
Most people tend to regularly confide in two or three close friends. Women prefer to unburden themselves to life-long friends. Men confide equally in either their partner/spouse or their life-long friends.
What's perhaps most interesting to me is that we all know that friends can help us, yet we're often reluctant to ask them.
It really supports the idea of Moodscope being a social connector, doesn't it? A way of getting help without directly having to ask for it.
Mood mapping. July 28, 2010
You might never have wondered what an animated map of the USA would look like if the states were coloured according to the mood of messages posted on Twitter, and the size of each state was adjusted according to the number of tweets sent.
Ah, but someone did.
Researchers at Harvard and Northeastern University analysed 300 million tweets sent between September 2006 and August 2009, then produced a 'cartogram', a map where areas represent values (in this case the number of tweets) rather than the land area.
Once sent, tweets are viewable by anyone and it's possible to some degree to look for mood-related words automatically, which is what the researchers did. It ends up looking a bit like a lava lamp.
Fascinating, but I shouldn't plan on using the map for your next cross-country road trip.
Oh dear. July 27, 2010
The London train was pretty full yesterday morning, partly because the school summer holidays are now underway.
In the seats in front of me sat a Mum and her little son of about 18 months, who was very talkative.
What made me smile was that clearly his favourite words were 'Oh dear'. His head kept popping up over the back of his seat so he could 'oh dear' me. Again and again. And again.
He'd picked it up from his Mum, I'm sure. And I don't think he quite grasped the full meaning of it. He probably just liked the sound of it and it was actually quite endearing.
But are there things you say yourself, automatically and repeatedly, which could be having a big impact on your demeanour?
Go round saying the equivalent of 'oh dear' all the time and you're likely to see things in a glass half empty kind of way. Switch to mainly 'oh goods' and your whole outlook could change for the better.
Song a day. July 26, 2010
When you're feeling less than sparkling, the tasks and projects around you can feel insurmountable.
That's when it's time to break them down into small chunks. I was prompted to think about this when I read about an American singer-songwriter called Jonathan Mann who's set himself the task of writing a new song every day. So far he's managed 571 days.
He says his theory is that '70 per cent of what you write is going to be mediocre, 20 per cent is going to suck, but 10 per cent is going to be genius.'
The point is, Jonathan could have sat around for years thinking about writing a hit, but instead he just got on with it.
Little and often. Doesn't matter if today's result isn't earth-shattering, there's always tomorrow.
Now while you may not have ambitions in the music department, exactly the same strategy works on, say, tidying and organising your home.
So take five minutes to make a start on that monster task. That's all. Just 300 seconds.
Then the same again tomorrow, and the day after. Before you know it you'll have made real progress, and that will feel great.
Chemical confusion. July 25, 2010
It's official. Moodscopers are awesome.
Yesterday morning I asked you to help me with our questionnaire about friendship and a superb response got us pretty close to the target we needed to reach.
We deliberately didn't keep a record of who'd filled in the questionnaire so a big thanks to everyone who did, and a tiny last reminder to those who didn't that there's still time to help here:
On another note, New Scientist carries a report which adds fuel to the fire that quite honestly nobody has a clue what goes on with people's brain chemistry to cause depression.
Many would have had us believe that depression is caused by low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
However this new research now inconveniently suggests that it's actually the fault of high, not low, levels of serotonin in certain parts of the brain.
It's not really one of those things that you can have both ways, is it?
What friends are for. July 24, 2010
I really need your help please.
I've been asked to gather some statistics about the part that friends can play in supporting people when they're down.
For these to be meaningful I need a whole lot of people to complete the questionnaire below.
Now when I say a whole lot, I mean it's going to make one huge difference to me if you do your bit. Every single response will count.
It's just a short single page of questions which I hope will win Moodscope some publicity next Sunday August 1st, International Friendship Day.
You should be able to complete the questionnaire in no more than a couple of minutes, so why not go there right now rather than leaving it until later?
I know it's asking a lot for you to do your Moodscope score as well as answering the other questions, so a big thank you in advance.
I'll show you the results during the course of next week.
Ouch. July 23, 2010
You do nine things right and one thing wrong. So why do you dwell on the one rather than the nine?
99 people compliment you. One criticises. So why do you lose sleep over the one?
You answer 999 positive emails, then get one hostile one. So why do you feel sick to your stomach about the one?
It's what happened yesterday. I reckon I've personally replied to at least a thousand charming, heart-felt, well-meant emails about Moodscope over the last couple of months.
Most have been completely encouraging. A few have taken me to task a little about the Moodscope idea but always in a constructive and helpful way.
Yet when I received just one attacking (actually, I take my hat off to him for being so eye-openingly vitriolic) message yesterday it was for a minute as if the other 999 hadn't happened.
Why is it that we're so much more affected by life's blows than we are by its plaudits?
Adrian reminded me of the Parenting 101 lesson that you should give children ten times as many encouragements as admonishments.
Makes you think. Perhaps in some ways we never really grow up.
Apparently sticks and stones, they hurt your bones, but words they never hurt you. But they do sting, don't they, those silly snipes?
Moodscope supporters. July 22, 2010
I'll be recording a high score for Proud this morning because Moodscope now has three high profile supporters who've each been kind enough to say a few words about the project, which you can read here:
Libby Purves writes a weekly column in The Times and has presented Midweek on BBC Radio 4 for the past 27 years. She makes a fascinating point about the Moodscope cards, suggesting that they're 'oddly impossible to lie to'.
Clare Dolman is a Trustee of MDF The BiPolar Organisation, with which I know quite a few Moodscopers are familiar. Clare believes the buddy system is 'a wonderfully simple way of having friends and family look out for you without intruding into your life too much'.
Simon Brett knows a thing or two about writing, with more than 80 books to his name. But he's achieved this while battling with bouts of depression. Simon likes the fact that 'at a glance you can view your mental state over an extended length of time'. He has been kind enough to let us publish an article he's written about being a writer with the black dog, which can be read via the page above.
On behalf of the rapidly growing Moodscope membership, a big thank you to Libby, Clare and Simon.
Psst, got five minutes? July 21, 2010
What one small extra thing could you do in the next 24 hours that might make you momentarily happier?
I'm not thinking about things that are already planned, or things that are going to happen on a routine basis.
And I'm not thinking about something that's going to bring you profound joy.
I'm thinking about something small and additional that you can do that might make you smile. Or at the very least make things not so bad for a while.
At times we can all think that nothing we do will make a difference, but that's not true.
It could be something as simple as sitting down for a coffee. Or it could be taking a slight deviation on a routine journey to go past or through somewhere nice.
The thing is you do have the power to step out of normality. Even if it's just for five minutes.
Go on. Give it a go.
Hard labour. July 20, 2010
It wasn't a huge dip but my own mood wobbled a bit yesterday after spending a tiring day doing some construction work.
I'm pretty desk-bound these days so I've got out of the habit of doing that heavy-lifting kind of physical work, and I must admit that rather than pacing myself I did push things a bit.
Funnily enough a friend was in the same boat yesterday, feeling a little out of sorts mood-wise after completing some strenuous chores at the weekend.
Why should this be? After all physical exercise is good for you, increasing levels of feelgood neurotransmitters like endorphins.
But like most things, too much of it isn't good for you. In fact over-exercise can actually lead to depression (the very thing you'd think it would alleviate) along with muscle fatigue and sleeplessness.
I guess it's all a matter of balance. And fortunately a relaxing bath and an early night can work wonders.
Ukulele mood boost. July 19, 2010
It's not often that you get an unexpected ukulele lesson.
On Saturday I went for a coffee with my Italian friend Vince who with his wife runs a thriving tearoom in our local park.
While I was there a friend of Vince, John, turned up with what looked suspiciously like a violin case but which actually turned out to contain a ukulele. John sat there playing it and singing for about twenty minutes.
I guess he must have spotted me watching avidly because the next thing I knew he offered to teach me a couple of chords.
It was fun, but I wasn't aware of just how much fun until Vince said I'd had a massive grin on my face when I (just about) managed to switch back and forth between the chords.
Learning something new can be hugely enjoyable, and it doesn't need to be anything terribly complicated. I'm not necessarily suggesting a ukulele lesson (although why not?) but see if there might be a new skill that you can persuade someone to teach you this week.
When someone gives you a lesson, it's often a two-way gift. I could see that John enjoyed it nearly as much as I did.
Well he said he did anyway.
Spread a little happiness. July 18, 2010
According to research reported by Wired (thanks to Mind Hacks for spotting it) happiness and sadness seem to be contagious.
The researchers looked at data from the Framingham Heart Study, which has been amassing a wealth of continuous social and medical data on the inhabitants of Framingham, Massachusetts since 1948.
Wired says: 'Happiness proved less social than sadness. Each happy friend increased an individual's chances of personal happiness by 11 percent, while just one sad friend was needed to double an individual's chance of becoming unhappy.'
The researchers warned that their findings suggest possible dynamics for the spread of emotions, stressing that they are not intended to guide personal decisions, such as withdrawing from friends who are having a hard time.
'The better solution is to make your sad friends happy,' said researcher David Rand.
Mind control. July 17, 2010
I know, it's not fair. I had a head start. But I've just passed 1,200 Moodscope scores, representing well over three years of daily records.
Although I do still get my down days, I'd say I've pretty much learned what to do when I spot the signs, and can usually take action to keep things on the straight and narrow.
To a great extent I'm managing my moods.
For an amazing visual demo of the power of the mind, though, I can heartily recommend a couple of minutes watching a video on the freshly re-designed BBC news site:
It shows a fabulous headset called the Emotiv Epoc which enables the reporter to manoeuvre a cube on a computer screen in front of him, simply by thinking about it.
At $299 it's a pretty cheap piece of kit considering that sets of medical EEG sensors run into the eye-watering thousands.
And thinking about it kind of gives you faith. If a man with a plastic spider on his head can rotate a cube by thinking about it, surely we have the power to influence our moods.
Don't we?
Weighing it all up. July 16, 2010
We're influenced by the strangest things.
In a wonderful piece of recent research, when participants were asked to interview 'candidates' for a supposed job vacancy they were handed the prospective employee's details on a clip-board.
The clip-boards came in different weights.
And guess what? The heavier the clip-board, the more important the candidate seemed.
It seems we connect the physical weight of something we're holding, with the 'weight' of someone's character.
Unfortunately like so much of today's scientific research the full paper is behind a pay wall but you'll get the gist of what was done by the researchers from MIT, Harvard and Yale from their abstract.
Moral? At your next job interview take your resume along on a clip-board. Made of sheet steel.
