How your actions can improve your mood (Behavioural Activation)

When you’re feeling depressed, it is easy to not feel like doing anything at all. It’s so fatiguing that we want to stay in bed all day. However, as a result, we don’t get any of the benefits from these activities, which could potentially improve our mood. We feel guilty and end up even more depressed and the cycle continues. To break this cycle, we can start by introducing activities that can improve our mood, give us more energy, and result in more activities that can improve our mood even further. This activity helps you to organize your activities to help your mood! These activities don’t need to be major projects, but the key is to feel good and find meaning from these small steps. Ultimately, it’s good to have small achievable steps in order to progress to larger things.

Once you’re done, click submit and it will be sent to your email as a picture for you to keep. Print it out or keep it on your phone so you can see it every day. After you’ve done each activity, see how you feel and remember it. If you don’t feel the benefits immediately, don’t worry – keep at it!

CREATE YOUR LIST NOW

Step 1 of 5

Create a Behavioural Activation Plan

Noting your day-to-day behaviours

The first step is to remember some of the key things you do during your week. Try to remember as much as possible, write it down in the box below if you need to. For example, waking up, brushing your teeth, preparing breakfast, and importantly, things such as binge watching series, scrolling on your phone, spending time with friends, reading a book.

What behaviours should you avoid?

Sometimes, some behaviours we do can help us cope, but are unhelpful in the long run. For example, I often eat late at night when I’m stressed. While it may feel good for 10 mins, I end up regretting it! In another example, I end up sleeping all day, or watching series to numb the pain. Similarly, I end up feeling horrible after. What behaviours do you need to avoid?

What behaviours improve your mood or align with your values?

Just like how some behaviours make us feel worse in the long run, some activities actually do help! These behaviours may include things that:

- you can immerse yourself in and enjoy (e.g., painting or reading a book)
- you can improve and grow in (e.g., sports or learning a new skill)
- are things that are important or useful to do (e.g., washing dishes or taking a shower)
- are things that improve your physical or mental health (e.g., mediating or exercising)
- are things that make you feel productive (e.g., reading a page from a textbook or preparing a page for a job application)
- are aligned with your life goals (e.g., eating a fruit a day to be healthier)

Remember! It’s not about the end goal, it’s about taking one step at a time! The simplest and smallest actions can have big effects. It’s about setting small targets that you can achieve and coming back and revising it when you can do more. What is important is that you feel good doing it.

Here are three things I enjoy or I feel will help me:

Tips: Break activities down into smaller manageable steps (e.g., reading a page from the book vs. getting the book out, opening a chapter, and reading a page - can make a difference when you don’t feel like doing anything); reward yourself and celebrate your progress!

Great work!

Now submit and you will receive the list. Once you feel you have achieved these behaviours, you can come back and set bigger goals. Remember, if you aim too high to start, you might feel discouraged - its about the process.

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E-mail us at info@ehfa.id