What If You Measured Your Mood Before and After Doing Something Fun?
When you're depressed, your brain is pretty sure it already knows how things will go. That walk won't help. Calling your friend will be awkward. Nothing is going to make much of a difference.
The tricky thing is that you rarely check.
When I interviewed Jill Hasso, LPC, on October 2, 2026, about how she uses behavioral activation for depression, one of the simplest tools she described was also one of the most useful. She has clients rate their mood right before an activity and again right after.
That's it. Two numbers. But they can tell you a lot.
Why rate your mood before and after, not just after?
Because the starting point matters.
"Maybe their mood is a little bit lower ahead of time," Jill said. "Like, maybe they're not having that great of a day, and their mood is, like, three or four out of ten. And so then you can kind of see kind of the progress."
If you only rate how you feel afterward, a 5 might look disappointing. But if you started at a 3, that 5 is real movement. Depression is very good at rounding small improvements down to nothing. The before number keeps it honest.
The goal, as Jill put it, is simply "trying to increase your mood from what it was in the starting point." Not to feel great. Just to move.
What can the numbers tell you?
Which activities actually matter to you
"The bigger that jump is," Jill said, "the more that it aligns with their values and the things that they like." Over a week or two, you start to see which activities give you a real lift and which barely register.
Where your predictions are off
Sometimes the thing you dreaded gives you a bigger boost than you expected. Sometimes the thing you assumed would be fun does nothing. Both are useful to know.
That your mood isn't fixed
When you're depressed, it can feel like your mood is the same flat line all day, every day. Seeing a 3 turn into a 5 is a small piece of evidence that it can change, and that what you do can affect it.
This is the heart of behavioral activation. You're not waiting to feel motivated. As Jill described it, "we're choosing to do that activity first and then watching the mood kind of happen naturally on its own." The ratings are how you watch.
How can you try this yourself?
You don't need a special app or worksheet. A notes app or a piece of paper works fine.
Pick one activity a day. Something you used to enjoy, something that matters to you, or something a little out of your usual routine. Keep it small.
Rate your mood from 0 to 10 right before you start. Don't overthink it. Your first gut number is fine.
Do the activity. You don't have to feel like it.
Rate your mood again right after. Not an hour later, when your memory has already started editing.
Add one short note. Who you were with, or anything that stood out.
After a week, look back. What gave you the biggest jump? What didn't move at all? Is there a pattern, like people, being outside, or doing something with your hands?
What if the numbers don't move?
That happens, and it's not a failure. It's information.
Maybe that activity just isn't rewarding for you right now. Maybe it was already routine. Or maybe something besides depression is in the way. We wrote a whole post on this: I did the thing and still felt nothing.
Why do this with a therapist?
You can absolutely try this on your own. But in therapy, Jill uses these ratings every week. "When we come back the following week, I can look at each and every activity that you did for the entire week," she said. "Did you complete that? What were the barriers that were in place? How did it shift your mood?"
Then she uses what you learned to build next week's plan. We walk through that process in what behavioral activation actually looks like in a therapy session.
Begin Counseling for Depression in Missouri
At Aspire Counseling, we believe in doing what works. We don't just ask you how your week was every week for a year with no big changes. You can do that with your friend. What you're paying for when you come to counseling is our expertise, our knowledge, and therapy that moves the needle to really help you get out of this funk.
Different therapists in our practice use different treatment modalities to treat depression. Jill sticks really closely to Behavioral Activation. Jordan uses more Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Samantha uses Dialectical Behavior Therapy principles. But all of them have this element of how to help you stop just pushing through and get you re-engaging in life in a meaningful way. Any of our therapists who routinely treat depression will help you figure out how to use the very limited energy you have left in a way that will help you start to feel more like yourself again.
Start by calling our office at (816) 287-1116 (Lee's Summit) or 573-328-2288 (Columbia), scheduling a time to chat with our intake team, or emailing us through our contact page. We have offices in Lee's Summit and Columbia, or we can meet with you online from anywhere in Missouri.
About the Author
This blog post is one of a series that grew out of an interview on October 2, 2026, with Jill Hasso, LPC, one of our Missouri depression therapists who is especially passionate about Behavioral Activation. Jessica Oliver, MSW, LCSW, our clinic founder and director, who also has 15+ years of experience treating depression, led the interview and wrote this blog post. So it's a true joint effort, representing the expertise of two experienced Missouri therapists who are passionate about helping people get unstuck and make meaningful change when they've been depressed.
