Do you fear flying? Anyone who can ease those fears or give advise on how they cope?
Monday, December 3rd, 2012 at
8:05 pm
I have a terrible fear of flying. Even though I have flown dozens of times the fear never goes away. (without the help of a little pink pill or glass of wine at 7am! lol)
Tagged with: dozens • fear • glass of wine • lol
Filed under: Fear of Flying
Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!
Fear of flying is perfectly ok. Flying is for us an unnatural act. It stands to reason that it might create some anxiety. But the real issue is control. You can control your car, you cannot control what the airplane does. You may feel trapped and helpless, at the mercy of a large complex machine and a handful of skilled crew. You have to start by acknowledging the fear, accept the anxiety, and also forgive yourself for feeling nervous. Then make a promise to yourself to get through it and reward yourself after you arrive.
Advice about distracting yourself is sound. Have something to keep your hands busy, sit in an aisle seat, and have something to sip on. You may also find striking up a conversation with someone nearby helpful. No one wants to talk about flying when you’re on the plane, right? It will also relieve the loneliness as usually you are fixated on yourself and your fear alone. Human contact can be valuable.
When you start to feel anxious, do what I used to do. This may sound a little silly but bear with me. Before I got on the plane I would always look at it through the window at the gate for several minutes. I would give it a name and think of it not as a complex machine that might fail, but as a freind that would never let me down. I would think of it as the toughest,meanest, smartest friend I had. Someone who would always protect me and never let me down. Somehow that always worked. Seated inside I would feel protected, not vulnerable. And when I started to feel a little anxious I would think outloud "how’s it going, Phil?" Imagining the plane would answer back "going great, don’t worry about me.". It was a little trick I played with myself but it always worked. And eventually I found myself not needing to do that anymore. Might be something you want to try.