With the upcoming update of our iPhone operating system, iOS 17, Apple surprises us with a new feature in the Health app: the ability to record and track our mood. This function promises to provide us with a simple and effective way to better understand our emotions and comprehend what triggers them throughout our daily lives.
How to record our mood in iOS 17
Following a few simple steps, we will be able to record our daily or specific moods, identify possible triggers, and observe trends over time. Assuming that we have already updated our iPhone to iOS 17 – whether it’s in beta or final version – the steps to record a mood are as follows:
- Open the Health app on our iPhone.
- Go to the Explore tab.
- Tap on Mental Health.
- Tap on Mood.
- Tap the Register button.
Once here, we can choose whether to record how we feel at the specific moment or how we have felt throughout the current day. Select the option that interests us and tap Next.
We will see an animation that, in some way, aims to summarize the different states in an image. Here we will use the slider at the bottom to choose the state we feel. The range spans from Very Bad to Very Good, with intermediate steps like Slightly Good or Just Good. Once chosen, tap Next.
And here comes the most interesting part. Now we can define how we feel with clear adjectives. Joy, calm, fun, happiness, surprise are some examples. We can always tap on Show more to see even more options. Once the adjectives are chosen, tap Next. If preferred, we can tap Skip to not define any.
The last step is to record what makes us feel as we have just indicated. It can be the social environment, current events, education, family, hobbies, health, money, or other situations. We can also tap on More context to write ourselves what is happening. Once selected, tap OK.
In fact, the process is very similar to what we would do on the Apple Watch, where we can also record our moods from the Mindfulness app. Here, we just need to find the option to Register Mood and follow the same steps we mentioned earlier to select our general mood, specific words, and the cause.
How to consult the records and see our evolution
Once we have recorded multiple moods over time, we can explore our data in the Health app. We will see graphs and summaries that show us how our mood has evolved over days, weeks, or months. This information will provide us with a more comprehensive view of our overall mental well-being. To access it, follow these steps:
- Open the Health app on your iPhone.
- Go to the Explore tab.
- Tap on Mental Health.
- Tap on Mood.
- Tap the Show Charts button.
Here, we can see a breakdown of all our recorded moods. Particularly noteworthy is the Vital Factors section, where variables such as exercise minutes, mindfulness minutes, sleep, or exposure to daylight are related in a graph directly below our moods. This allows us to establish a visual correlation and evaluate what we can do to influence our mood.
iOS 17, along with the mood tracking feature in the Health app, provides a truly effective way to monitor our emotional well-being and, above all, to become aware of it. Taking a few seconds each day to record our mood will provide valuable information to recognize possible patterns or triggers. Clearly, it’s a significant step in the right direction.
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