How to Log and Customise State of Mind and Mood Reflections on Apple Watch in watchOS

Tracking mental health and emotional awareness is just as vital as recording physical workouts and resting heart rates. In watchOS 10 and watchOS 11, Apple introduced a comprehensive mental wellbeing tool called State of Mind inside the Mindfulness app on Apple Watch. This feature allows users to log both momentary emotions and overall daily moods, categorize specific feelings, and associate them with lifestyle factors like sleep, exercise, and work. This guide explains how to log, configure, and customise State of Mind reflections on Apple Watch.

Understanding Momentary Emotions vs Daily Moods

The Mindfulness app distinguishes between two distinct types of emotional logging:

• Emotion (Momentary): A snapshot of how you feel right at that exact instant (for example, feeling anxious before a major presentation or elated after receiving good news).
• Mood (Daily Reflection): An overall assessment of your general emotional state throughout the entire day, typically recorded in the evening.

Both types use a visual multidimensional valence slider ranging from Very Unpleasant to Very Pleasant, accompanied by multidimensional shape animations and tailored descriptive adjectives.

How to Log Your State of Mind on Apple Watch

To record an emotional entry directly from your wrist:

1. Press the Digital Crown to view your installed apps, then tap the Mindfulness app (represented by a series of overlapping teal and turquoise petals).
2. Tap State of Mind.
3. Choose whether you want to Log how you’re feeling right now (Emotion) or Log how you’ve felt overall today (Daily Mood).
4. Turn the Digital Crown to scroll through the valence scale:
   • Very Unpleasant (Deep purple, jagged geometric edges)
   • Unpleasant (Dark violet)
   • Slightly Unpleasant (Dusty mauve)
   • Neutral (Slate blue/grey)
   • Slightly Pleasant (Light seafoam green)
   • Pleasant (Warm gold/amber)
   • Very Pleasant (Vibrant yellow, smooth circular ripples)
5. Tap the tick icon in the upper-right corner to confirm your basic valence rating.

Refining Descriptive Words and Identifying Impact Factors

After selecting your primary valence, watchOS prompts you to add context to your emotional data, which helps Apple Health correlate patterns over weeks and months.

1. Choosing Descriptive Words

Turn the Digital Crown to review curated emotion labels corresponding to your selected valence:

• If you selected Pleasant or Very Pleasant, options include Grateful, Confident, Excited, Peaceful, Passionate, and Proud.
• If you selected Unpleasant or Very Unpleasant, options include Overwhelmed, Stressed, Sad, Frustrated, Anxious, and Exhausted.
• Tap all adjectives that apply, then tap the checkmark icon.

2. Associating What Has the Biggest Impact

Next, select the environmental or lifestyle factor driving this emotion:

• Work, Family, Relationship, Friends, Health, Fitness, Money, Identity, Weather, or Current Events.
• Tap your primary influences and tap the checkmark to save the log entry into Apple Health.

Configuring State of Mind Reminders and Custom Schedules

Consistency is crucial for recognizing longitudinal emotional trends. You can configure Apple Watch to gently prompt you to reflect at regular intervals.

Enabling Reminders Directly on Apple Watch

1. Open the Settings app on your Apple Watch.
2. Scroll down and tap Mindfulness.
3. Under the Reminders section, toggle Start of Day and End of Day.
4. Tap Add Reminder to set specific custom times (for instance, 14:00 during the afternoon work slump).

Customising Notifications via the iPhone Watch App

You can also adjust notification behaviour using your paired iPhone:

1. Open the Watch app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the My Watch tab, then select Mindfulness.
3. Enable During the Day to allow watchOS to prompt you during quiet or transition moments based on your daily activity patterns.

Adding a State of Mind Complication to Your Watch Face

For one-tap access without browsing the app list, place the State of Mind complication directly on your primary watch face:

1. Press and hold the active watch face until the customisation screen appears.
2. Tap Edit, then swipe horizontally to the Complications screen.
3. Tap any available complication slot.
4. Scroll down to Mindfulness and select State of Mind.
5. Press the Digital Crown twice to save your new layout. Tapping the complication now launches the reflection slider instantly.

Viewing Trends and Mental Health Insights in the Health App

All recorded State of Mind entries sync securely to the encrypted Health app on your iPhone or iPad running iPadOS 17 or later:

1. Open the Health app on your iPhone.
2. Tap the Browse tab at the bottom and choose Mental Wellbeing.
3. Select State of Mind.
4. Review interactive charts displaying your valence distribution over Weeks, Months, or Years.
5. Tap Show More State of Mind Data to view correlations with your sleep stages, exercise minutes, time spent in daylight, and mindful session minutes.