Stats
Actions
Tags
From self
Use when the user is blocked by fear, avoiding something important, catastrophizing, or wants to understand what's really holding them back. Suitable when someone has insight about what they want but stays stuck — this almost always has a fear structure underneath. Triggers on: "두려움", "fear", "무서운 것", "걱정", "못 하는 이유", "두려움 직면", "시작이 무서워", "실패가 두려워", "거절이 두려워", "판단받는 게 무서워", "최악의 경우". Best for: naming fears precisely, distinguishing protective from limiting fears, designing the smallest experiment. Not for: anxiety disorders or phobias requiring clinical support — recognize the limit and refer when needed.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/self:fear-inventoryThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
**Use when:**
Use when:
Not for:
MCP note: If sequential-thinking is available, use it — the protocol collapses when users skip to "what can I do" before fully mapping the fear.
Work from surface to core — don't stop at the first named fear.
| Layer | What to find |
|---|---|
| Surface fear | What the person says they're afraid of |
| Underlying fear | What would be true if the surface fear came to pass |
| Core fear | The fundamental driver — usually one of a small set |
Core fear taxonomy:
| Core fear | Description |
|---|---|
| Inadequacy | I am not enough — not smart, capable, or worthy enough |
| Rejection/Abandonment | I will be cast out or left alone |
| Loss of control | Things will spin out and I'll be helpless |
| Meaninglessness | My effort and life won't matter |
| Death/Nonexistence | I or those I love will cease to exist |
| Entrapment | I will be stuck and unable to escape |
| Humiliation | I will be exposed and publicly shamed |
For the full taxonomy: see ../references/root-motivations-and-fears.md
Before analyzing: is this fear protecting something real?
Some fears don't respond to probability assessment — they touch irreducible conditions of existence (Yalom):
When these are present, name them directly. Wisdom and meaning-making are more useful here than probability analysis.
Fear Inventory
--------------
Surface fear: [what was named]
Underlying fear: [what would be true if surface fear came to pass]
Core fear: [the fundamental driver]
Protective or limiting: [assessment with reasoning]
Fear-setting:
Realistic probability: [low / medium / high — with reasoning]
Worst case (realistic): [concrete and specific]
Survivability: [can you recover? how? in what timeframe?]
Cost of inaction: [what staying stuck costs, concretely]
Fear experiment: [smallest test of this fear's accuracy]
Existential layer (if present): [which of Yalom's four, and how it manifests]
Key insight: [single most important thing this analysis reveals]
Next action: [concrete, specific, small]
| Claude | You |
|---|---|
| Peels from surface fear to core fear | Name the fear as specifically as possible |
| Distinguishes protective from limiting fears | Confirm whether the core fear resonates |
| Runs fear-setting analysis with honest probability assessment | Face the cost-of-inaction question honestly |
| Designs the smallest experiment | Commit to the experiment — the actual exposure |
examined-life — when fear is part of a broader life direction questionidentity-explorer — when the fear is about identity threat ("if I do this, who am I?")motivation-explorer — when blocked motivation has a fear structure underneathnpx claudepluginhub newkayak12/claude-skills --plugin selfDefines fears explicitly in three columns (define / prevent / repair), calculates the cost of inaction, and transforms diffuse anxiety into a specific manageable problem. Useful when a decision feels paralyzed by vague fear.
Applies cognitive reframing methodology to identify and correct distorted automatic thoughts causing disproportionate distress.
Creates, edits, and optimizes skills for Claude Code, including drafting, evaluating with test prompts, iterating on performance, and improving skill descriptions for better triggering accuracy.