Using AI to Improve Mindfulness
Make Mindfulness More Accessible with AI-Driven Prompts
The ability to “know thyself” isn’t new, there are a handful of tools that have been available and useful for previous generations seeking to understand themselves better.
Meditation - A practice that allows you to either turn inward, or learn to turn off your thinking. For ADHD brains, it’s easy to think this is an impossible pursuit. It isn’t, but it might not be the place to start.
Journaling - A practice that allows reflection on your thoughts, letting you pour your thoughts into an externalized format which you can reflect on, both while writing, and then after the thoughts are recorded.
Therapy - Talking to someone else about the thoughts you have, allowing someone else to reflect them back to you, and make suggestions or help you understand yourself better.
The connective tissue between these methods of reflection is the intent to better know what you’re thinking, and become more mindful of your behavior in the future.
For ADHD brains, understanding what’s happening, and why, and being able to learn methods to work with your executive dysfunctions is vital. I’d argue that the best skill you can learn, and practice, is mindfulness. It’s the starting point for self-improvement.
All 3 of those things are still important resources, but with AI, there’s a new contender.
Let’s explore what makes AI work for ADHD brains and becoming more mindful.
“Mindfulness is hard”
“Mindfulness” or being “Mindful” is already somewhat ambiguous, so I’ll simplify it real quick:
To be mindful is to be in the present moment, neither worrying about the future nor regretting the past. Mindfulness is letting yourself sit with the world around you.
Mindfulness comes from self-awareness, which is nothing more than knowing your mind when it comes to how you perceive and react to the world.
Mindfulness can be learned and practiced more easily once you know how you and your brain work.
So, you start with becoming self-aware, and let it shape your future behavior.
Self-awareness comes from self-reflection
Until you know who you are, all you can do is record your thoughts, and try to learn from them.
That’s where AI becomes your best friend!
Using AI to learn who you are
Artificial Intelligence isn’t self-aware. It isn’t a therapist, or a point of insight that comes from experience. AI is a collection of information, a Large Language Model (LLM) that has a vast body of knowledge, the ability to pull from it, and the ability to use it to find and create a solution for it’s user.
With deliberate intent, you could get it to lie to you, for better or worse.
It can also create the answer it ‘thinks’ you want to hear, in its effort to provide those answers.
What you’ll be doing is using AI like a journal, so the only misinformation to contend with are the words you’re recording.
Establish the Tone and Intent
When using AI in this manner, start with a clear expectation of where you’re at, what you want to hear back, and how you want it to behave. Here are some starting points:
If you’re feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated:
Respond in short, simple sentences.
If you’re feeling low-energy, say:
Be extra gentle and encouraging.
If you want deep insight:
Ask follow-up questions to keep me reflecting.
Write as much, or as little, as needed
If you’re prone to over-sharing, this is a great place to do it. Open a chat conversation and start typing.
When writing lengthy interactions, you can press Shift+Enter to force a carriage return, this way you can write multiple paragraphs or delineate thoughts. While AI doesn’t care, it can be easier to review what you’re writing when there’s whitespace in your writing. It also allows you to get your entire thought down before the AI starts to interact.
Note, ChatGPT will immediately respond when you hit enter, it can help to tell it at the start.
When I hit enter, don’t immediately respond, wait for me to prompt you for feedback.
Have the AI pull answers out of you
I refer to this type of usage as “Journaling++”, the ++ is a programming shorthand to increment something. It’s often used to indicate it’s something, but better.
When journaling in this manner, reflection is what you want from AI. You can start your prompt with “Always reflect my thoughts back to me before proceeding” and it will restate what you said and give you a slightly different perspective.
If you’re feeling so overwhelmed, or don’t know where to start, say that… and then push the AI to guide you.
You can have ChatGPT create question, but without directing it, you may get 5 questions or a hundred. You might get questions that are abstract, or too focused. If you simply ask it to interview you, you may get overwhelmed really quickly.
When asking to be interviewed, explain what you want it to interview about, but more specifically you want to tell it to ask one question at a time, using your answer to guide the questions, and to stop when it understands, or thinks it has insight about your request.
“My day has been overwhelming and I feel stuck. Ask me questions, one at a time, to help me think through where I’m at, or what I’m struggling with. Once you think you understand, or have a suggestion, let me know and ask how to proceed. If I realize something on my own, I’ll let you know.”
Practice makes perfect
As I said at the start, mindfulness doesn’t always come quickly, or easily, but the more often you spend time exploring your thoughts, the better you get at it, the more automatic it becomes, and eventually you’re able to respond ‘in the moment’ without needing to understand why you’re doing it.
Example Prompts
I’ve included some prompting templates below to help you start using ChatGPT as your intelligent journal and become more self-aware, or to get you through a tough spot.
Grounding Prompt: "Help me slow down and check in with myself."
Prompt:
I’m feeling overwhelmed and want to ground myself in the present moment. Please ask me 3 simple questions to help me notice my body, my thoughts, and my emotions. Keep the tone calm and non-judgmental.
How to Adapt:
If you’re low on energy, change “3 questions” to 1.
If you want extra depth, add: “Offer gentle observations after my answers.”
You can also ask it to repeat this check-in daily at a certain time.
Reflective Prompt: "Guide me through untangling my thoughts."
Prompt:
I’m stuck in my head and need help sorting my thoughts. Please ask me one question at a time, based on what I’ve shared. After each answer, reflect it back and ask the next question. Stop when you feel you understand my struggle and can offer a suggestion or insight.
How to Adapt:
To keep it light, add: “Keep your questions short and easy to answer.”
For deeper reflection, add: “Push me gently to clarify if my answers are vague.”
Problem-Solving Prompt: "Help me identify my next step."
Prompt:
I’m stuck on [insert task/situation]. Please help me figure out the next smallest step I can take. Start by asking what the task is, then ask what’s making it feel difficult. Help me break it into something manageable, and confirm with me before wrapping up.
How to Adapt:
If you already know the task, skip ahead: “Here’s what I’m stuck on: [describe].”
To pair mindfulness with action, add: “Once we define the next step, ask me to pause and notice how I feel about it.”
Final Touch
These prompts are just starting points, make them yours. The key is to treat ChatGPT like a conversational journal: a place to spill thoughts, find clarity, and build awareness without pressure.
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