Build a personal calm-down toolkit for anxious moments
A pocket-sized toolkit of grounding, breathing, and thinking techniques matched to how anxiety shows up for you.
The prompt
Help me build a personal toolkit for calming down when anxiety hits.
How anxiety shows up for me: [BODY - e.g. "racing heart", "shaky"; THOUGHTS - e.g. "what if..."; ACTIONS - e.g. "avoid", "check repeatedly"]
Common situations: [e.g. "crowded places", "before work", "at night", "after reading the news"]
What's helped a little before: [ANYTHING]
What I can do discreetly vs. only in private: [e.g. "I'm often at my desk"]
Create:
1. Body tools (3): e.g. paced breathing with exact counts, muscle relaxation, temperature or movement. Explain each in 2-3 steps.
2. Grounding tools (3): e.g. 5-4-3-2-1 senses, describing the room, holding an object.
3. Thinking tools (3): short questions or phrases to loosen anxious thoughts, written for my situations.
4. Action tools (2): small things to do instead of avoiding.
5. A one-screen "toolkit card" I can save on my phone: the 5 tools that best fit my answers, numbered in the order to try them.
6. How to practice these when I'm calm so they work when I'm not.
This isn't a replacement for treatment. If anxiety is frequent, intense, or stopping me from daily life, or I have panic attacks or chest pain I'm unsure about, tell me to see a doctor; for thoughts of self-harm, contact a crisis line (in the US, call or text 988) or emergency services.
Highlighted [brackets] are blanks to replace with your own details.
Fill in the blanks and use this promptMore Personal Life & Wellbeing prompts
What to fill in
- ANYTHING
- e.g. "I'm often at my desk"
How this prompt is built
This prompt follows the Few-Shot structure (Few-shot prompting). A few-shot prompt includes one or more worked examples of the input and the output you want, so the model can copy the pattern instead of guessing it.
Related prompts
- Fix a computer, phone, or app problemPatient, step-by-step tech support for everyday device and software problems.
- Fill out a confusing official form correctly the first timeWalks you through a confusing form section by section, explains each question, and flags the mistakes that cause delays or rejections.
- Get unstuck on a government website or online accountTroubleshoots login, identity check, and navigation problems on a government or official online portal, with safe workarounds.
- Name what I'm feeling and figure out what I needHelps you put precise words to a confusing mix of feelings and work out the need underneath and a next step.