Daily · Oct 23, 2026 · Find one scent

What to do during a panic attack: find one scent nearby

By Vernon B · Reviewed and edited by Vernon B · Updated Oct 23, 2026

A lot of grounding tools lean on what you can see or hear. But when panic is loud, your eyes can feel glazed over and every sound can feel like too much. Smell is the sense we tend to forget, and it can be one of the quickest ways back to the room you’re actually in.

The idea is small on purpose: find one scent near you, breathe it in slowly, and say what it is. That’s the whole tool. You don’t need to find a nice smell or a calming one. You just need a real one.

How to try it

• Look around for anything with a smell: your coffee or tea, hand lotion, a sleeve of your sweater, a lemon or orange, soap at the sink, a candle, a pencil, even your own wrist.
• Bring it a little closer. Breathe in gently through your nose, slower than you want to. No big gulps.
• Let the breath out through your mouth, a bit longer than the in-breath.
• Name it, out loud or in your head: “coffee,” “vanilla lotion,” “clean laundry.”
• Then add one more detail. Is it sweet, sharp, warm, faint, familiar? Where have you smelled it before?
• Repeat two or three times, or find a second scent and do the same.

Why it can help

Panic is good at pulling your attention into the future: what if this gets worse, what if I can’t get out. A smell is always happening right now. Noticing it and putting words to it gives your mind a concrete, present-moment task, and slow nose breathing gives your body a gentler rhythm to follow. Naming things also asks the thinking part of your brain to show up, which can take a little of the edge off the alarm.

It won’t make the feeling vanish, and it doesn’t have to. It’s one more handhold while the wave rises, peaks and passes.

Make it easier for future you

Some people keep a small “anchor scent” on hand for this: a lip balm they like, a tea bag in a coat pocket, a tiny bottle of hand lotion in the car. If you pair that same smell with calm moments, like your morning coffee or winding down at night, it can start to feel like a familiar signal that you’re okay.

A few honest notes

If strong smells give you headaches or make you queasy, go gentle: a sleeve, a clean towel, fresh air from a cracked window all count. If a particular scent is tied to a hard memory, skip it and pick something neutral. And if focusing on your breath makes you more anxious, just notice the smell without changing how you breathe.

Try it once on an ordinary day so it’s easier to reach for when you need it. For more free tools, keep our coping tools nearby.

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