Once you begin to learn your cognitive skills, it’s essential to make your techniques ‘portable.’  I think the best way to do this is to create a ‘cue card,’ with some key words or phrases to remind you of your most powerful tools and techniques.  

A  4 x 6 index card works beautifully.  It’s easy to fold and keep in your pocket.  Your  cue card can be a very powerful reminder of all you have learned, whenever the "panic monster" – who, like a 5-year-old, whines and flails his arms, trying to get your attention – makes you momentarily forget.

I spent a lot of time developing my special 4 x 6 card.  I found that I carried my tools with me wherever I went.  As time went on, I learned my tools so well, I rarely even had to look at my card.

It’s important to make your ‘cue card’ your own, with words or phrases that are especially powerful reminders for you.

Here is a cue card that I used when I was healing.  You are welcome to use all of it or any part of it.  I used the acronym “ACTS,” with each letter representing an aspect of my healing:

A:   Allow anxiety and panic.  The fear of panic is all there is to this condition.  (See The Attitude of "Allowing")

C:  Cognitive work:

            Observe my anxiety level (from 0 to 10)

            Identify the sensations and scary thoughts: get specific

            Challenge the scary thoughts:
                        “What are the chances that…”
                        “So what would happen if…”

Each sensation is harmless.
            Each scary thought is completely false.

T:   Truth:

            Panic is not dangerous. (See Education)
            Panic is only an emotion, and it only lasts a couple of minutes.

S:   Success:

Any experience of panic is a success!  (See Re-framing Panic as a Success)

 

I called my practicing “ACTS of gratitude.”  This phrase reminded me of my gratitude for my healing path.