Patient support
Emotional check-ins
A daily minute of honest noticing. Naming how you feel is not self-indulgent — it is clinical information about your own recovery.
Why a daily check-in helps
Illness compresses life into appointments, results and side effects. Feelings get postponed until they arrive all at once, usually at 3am.
A short daily check-in does three things: it catches a downward drift early, it gives your care team something concrete to work with, and it reminds you that a bad hour is not a bad life.
What to notice
- Mood — where you sit today on a 1 to 5 scale, without justifying the number.
- Body — pain, fatigue, nausea, breathlessness, appetite.
- Mind — what thought keeps returning today.
- Fuel — did you eat, drink and rest at all.
- Contact — did you speak to another human being today.
Reading your own pattern
One low day means very little. A run of low days, or a slow slide across two weeks, means something — that is when to raise it with your doctor or counsellor, or take a screening questionnaire.
Watch also for the opposite: days that lift. Note what was different. Those details are the raw material of your coping plan.
Try this
The 60-second check-in
About 1 minutes
- 1Sit down. Feet flat. One slow breath out.
- 2Answer out loud or in the app: how am I, really, on a scale of 1 to 5?
- 3Name one feeling in one word — no explanation required.
- 4Name one thing you need in the next hour: rest, water, company, pain relief, quiet.
- 5Do that one thing, or ask someone for it.
Where to go next
Afya Companion offers education and self-help support. It does not diagnose, treat or replace care from your doctor, nurse, psychologist or dietitian. If something in your health changes, speak to your care team.