Let’s find out if it is safe to fly. This may be hard to believe, but each day in the world, according to Travel and Media, there are approximately 102,465 flights per day. Take a look at the graphic of the US on the number of flights happening daily. Astounding!!!!! Especially when you consider how few accidents actually happen to those who fly. Are you grounded when it comes to enjoying your life due to fear of flying? With the recent lost planes and crashes, it is hard to escape some worry and anticipation about the safety of flight. Anxiety can make your world smaller and smaller because you begin to avoid vacations, business trips and now develop anticipatory anxiety about even thinking abut something bad happening. So you avoid what seems like too great a risk or fear laden. Last week a client came in saying, “I don’t want to fly because ,I am afraid to die.” Fear of death is only one of many reasons people become phobic of flying. My contention is that the real fear is of really living or letting go. What is there to do?
What many people do is avoid flying or use alcohol to self-medicate away the anxiety. There are much better methods. Logic and understanding the engineering of how a airplane flies doesn’t typically provide much comfort, because flying phobia is an emotional problem. The Amygdala in the brain, an almond sized organ in the middle of your brain is actually the “fight or flight” center releasing stress hormones causing dizziness, nausea, sweating, shaking and typical stress response reactions. The good news is, anxiety and panic are very fixable. problems with Cognitive Behavioral Techniques (CBT) of thought stopping, reframing, relaxation, proper diaphragmatic techniques, mental imagery and relaxation training. These techniques can minimally create calm, confidence and comfort with practice. Desensitization to the fear triggers helps minimize the anxiety. You can learn to relax and fly comfortably. Retraining your brain is possible to open up your life to feel free again.
