The Wellness Toolbox is the cornerstone of developing a WRAP and a key wellness resource. It is an ever-expanding list of tools – actions, activities and behaviors – that you can use to develop the action plans that are part of each section of WRAP. For many people, the Wellness Toolbox is their first introduction to the idea that there are simple, safe things they can do to help themselves.
In addition to using your Wellness Toolbox to build your action plan, use it on a daily basis for ideas of things to do that will help you feel better to enhance and enrich your life. Have your Wellness Toolbox easily accessible. Hang a copy on the refrigerator or on a bulletin board. Have it on your desk. Use it for daily planning and even moment-to-moment planning.
Add new tools whenever you notice or discover them. Carry a small notebook with you. Every time you notice a Wellness Tool, jot it down. Use available WRAP materials such as Building Your Wellness Toolbox with Mary Ellen Copeland to help you create your Wellness Toolbox. This audio program leads you through an intensive process of uncovering your personal Wellness Tools. It includes many Wellness Tools that you can put in your own toolbox if you think they would work for you.
Listen here for a sample:
Some ideas for Wellness Tools that you can do every day to help make you feel better are:
- Brushing your teeth
- Taking a shower
- Wearing something you like
- Cooking or having a potluck supper
- Painting or Drawing
- Working outside in a garden
- Walking in the woods
- Getting together with friends
- Bird watching
- Connecting with friends on Facebook
Your Wellness Tools also serve as a helpful list of suggestions when you are trying to decide something to do. Your list might start out as a very short list, but over time you will discover more and more tools to add.

Mary Ellen Copeland, PhD, developed Wellness Recovery Action Plan (WRAP) with a group of people with lived experience who were attending a mental health recovery workshop in 1997. She is the original author of the WRAP Red Book, as well as dozens of other WRAP books and materials. She has dedicated the last 30 years of her life to learning from people who have mental health issues; discovering the simple, safe, non-invasive ways they get well, stay well, and move forward in their lives; and then sharing what she has learned with others through keynote addresses, trainings, and the development of books, curriculums, and other resources. Now that she is retired, and that, as she intended, others are continuing to share what she has learned, she continues to learn from those who have mental health issues and those who support them. She is a frequent contributor to this site.