CRyder Design

What Have I Been Up To?

Have you ever wondered what your emotions would look like at a glance? Well, this past week I took inspiration from Dear Data and kept a record of my emotions. I decided to chunk each day into three sections and record how I was feeling in the morning, the afternoon, and at night. I also kept a record of why I thought I was feeling this way, and what the weather was like at the time.

Weather’s Effect on Mood

Now, you may be asking yourself “Okay, I understand why you would keep a record of why you were feeling a specific emotion, but what does the weather have to do with all of this?” Have you ever heard of the term seasonal depression? Seasonal depression or seasonal affective disorder can be explained as, “… a type of depression. It’s triggered by the change of seasons and most commonly begins in late fall. Symptoms include feelings of sadness, lack of energy, loss of interest in usual activities, oversleeping, and weight gain” (Clevland Clinic). Believe it or not, the weather does have an effect on mood for some people, and I have always been a firm believer that I am one of those people. Harmon Bay Wellness also explains, “Rainy days are most often known to contribute to depression and sadness. This is due to the dip in serotonin levels caused by lack of sunshine.” Personally, I was interested in learning if there was indeed a positive correlation between the weather and my mood. 

Patterns

I set out, with my sketchbook at my side to test this theory, and the results were actually quite surprising. After the week was over, I noticed that there were a few patterns that were emerging.

Weather:

• On sunny days I was most commonly happy
• On cloudy days I was most commonly calm
• On rainy days I was most commonly both happy and excited

Time of Day:

• In the morning I was most commonly excited
• In the afternoon I was most commonly happy
• At night I was most commonly happy

Reason for Emotion:

• When I was happy it was most commonly because of my relationship
• When I was calm it was most commonly because of my relationship
• When I was nervous it was most commonly because of work
• When I was excited it was most commonly because of friends
• When I was sad it was most commonly because of work

What I Learned

As a result of this experiment, I realized that the weather does not have as big of an effect on my emotion as I had previously thought. However, I did notice that most of the positive emotions were caused by my relationship and friends, whereas the negative emotions were caused by work. This brought my relationship with my job to my attention, and I realized that a change in attitude may be necessary to improve my mood during work hours.

This week went by very quickly and I feel as though I have learned a lot about myself and my emotions. I would absolutely recommend this experiment to anyone who is interested in learning a bit more about themselves and their day-to-day habits, emotions, activities, etc. Take the time to learn more about you!