Self Esteem Worksheet:
Mood Mural Interpretation Guide

by May Bleeker, 20 April 2010

Use this interpretation guide with the Self Esteem Worksheet: Mood Mural Self Awareness Activity.

To interpret your Mood Mural, first you need a colour key.

Colour Key

To create your Mood Mural Colour Key lets play a game of free-association:

You need

1. An A4 sheet of paper
2. The same coloured pens or pencils you used (or will use) to do your Mood Mural Cards

This is how you play the game:

Using all of your colours, one by one, draw a series of small coloured squares in a straight line down the left hand side of your page. It should look something like this (click on thumbnail for full size image).

Now take a few deep breaths to clear you mind, put on your intuition cap and imagination goggles.

Starting with the first coloured square, look at it and quickly write down next to it the first word or words that come to mind when you see that colour.

Without pausing or thinking too hard, look at each coloured square in turn and write down whatever it makes you think of.

Try not to pause too long between colours. Put a bit of pressure on yourself to do this quickly.

If you want to work to a timer, use the times set out in the timer guide, which depend on the number of colours you want to use.

Don't worry if you go a little over the times - they are just a guide. The point is not to mull things over too much, but to jot down your ideas as quickly as they arise.

Here are some examples from my own self esteem worksheet and the words that come to mind for each colour:

I have a lot of words that come up for each colour, but it is quite ok to just have one, if that is how it is for you.

When you have written something for each colour, go back to the top. One by one, check whether each colour has a mood, or emotion associated with it.

If not, look at the words you've written for that colour and try to figure out what mood it conveys. What are the feelings associated with your words? Write this down, alongside your other words for that colour.

Some of your colours will already have emotion words alongside them. When you see this, smile to yourself, because its working.

For those colours that don't yet have emotion words alongside them, conjure them up! Write them down! Play around with it! But make it true for you.

With my examples, some already have emotions words and others do not. I've highlighted them, look:

When you have some mood or emotion words alongside each colour, your colour key is ready.

And now you can interpret your Self Esteem Worksheet: Mood Mural

Self Esteem Worksheet: Colour Interpretation

Look at the colours you used on particular days.
Now look at your colour key to see the meaning those colours have for you.

What colours dominate? What does your colour key say about them?

What colours appear hardly at all? What does your colour key say about these?

Looking at the frequency with which you used some colours, are there any emotions that occur quite often in your life, or feelings that hardly come up at all?

Are there any colours (moods / emotions) you want more of in your daily life?

Are there any emotions you would like to have less of?

Colours have many associations. Similar to dream interpretation, the most significant interpretations of colour are those that are based on the associations that are personal to you.

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