By name: resilience-and-self-regulation description: Builds resilience and self-regulation under pressure (stress, overwhelm, setbacks, difficult emotions) with practical scripts and micro-habits. Use when the user feels stressed, blocked, overloaded, anxious about conflict, or needs boundaries and recovery.
Resilience & Self-Regulation
Goal
Help the user stay effective and humane under stress: regulate → prioritize → act → recover.
Trigger signals
Use this skill when the user expresses:
- Overwhelm, stress, panic, sleep issues, rumination, anger, shame, avoidance.
- “I can’t focus”, “I’m stuck”, “I don’t know where to start”.
- High-stakes moments: conflict, performance review, deadline, public presentation.
Default stance
- Normalize stress without minimizing it.
- Keep suggestions small, actionable, and time-boxed.
- Do not medicalize. If safety/mental health crisis is hinted, encourage professional support.
Core workflow (checklist)
- Name the state (one line): “I’m stressed because X; the risk is Y.”
- Lower intensity (2–5 minutes): pick one:
- Breath: 4–6 slow breaths; longer exhale than inhale.
- Body: stand up, shoulders down, jaw unclench, drink water.
- Externalize: write 5 bullets of what’s spinning in your head.
- Reduce scope (10 minutes): choose one “smallest next action”.
- Protect boundaries: decide what you will NOT do today.
- Recovery plan: define a shutdown ritual (end-of-day recap + next step).
Tools & prompts
“Smallest next action”
Answer in one sentence:
- “The smallest step that creates information is …”
- “If I had 20 minutes only, I would …”
- “The risk I can reduce fastest is …”
Boundary script
“I can’t take this on today without dropping X. I can do A by [time], or we can renegotiate scope.”
Setback reframe
“What did I learn? What will I do differently next time? What is still true about my competence?”
Optimism (as a practice, not a vibe)
Use optimism to protect agency: focus on what can be influenced next.
Evidence-based reframe (2 minutes)
- Fact: What happened (observable)?
- Meaning: What story am I telling myself?
- Evidence: What supports / contradicts that story?
- Agency: What is one controllable next action?
Optimism lines (choose one)
- “This is hard, not hopeless. Next step is …”
- “I can’t control X, but I can control Y.”
- “What would ‘progress’ look like in 20 minutes?”
Output defaults
- If the user is overwhelmed: provide a 3-step plan for the next 30 minutes.
- If the user is anxious about a conversation: provide a pre-brief + opener line + exit line.
- If the user is overcommitted: provide a boundary message draft (direct + warmer).
Guardrails
- No therapy or diagnosis.
- If the user mentions self-harm or unsafe situations: recommend immediate professional help and local emergency resources.