If your conscious mind starts to panic at the thought of stepping onto a plane, it's time to do some research and quell your fears. The media focus on plane accidents because so many people are involved. Yet they ignore auto accidents which regularly injure more people than flying does. If you're happy to drive then you should be able to rationalize your thoughts to accept that flying is even safer.
2. Find out your other fears
Sometimes the problem that we call flying phobia is actually a different problem in disguise. These could be the loss of control - in a car, you're probably either driving or close enough to the driver to be able to see what is going on. On a plane, the pilot is only a voice over the speaker system. This lack of control can be the root cause of your issues. Or it may be that you don't like being in an enclosed space for hours on end. It could even be a fear of heights that is the root cause of your aerophobia. Whatever the underlying cause is, identify it and then deal with it. There are lots of programs out there to help you with phobias - hypnosis works well and there are so many custom designed MP3s out there that you are bound to be able to find help for your issues.
3. Learn to relax
Your phobia could be as simple as not being able to relax. Learning a relaxation process such as yoga or meditation could be the key to being able to step on board an aircraft without turning into a nervous wreck. Start with a simple breathing exercise: take a long deep breath in, hold it for a couple seconds and slowly exhale. Doing this 4 or 5 times in a row will help you to relax. Maybe not enough to walk up those steps yet, but it's a start.
4. Use your imagination
If you're happy taking a rollercoaster ride, use your mind to turn the flight into a theme park ride. Of course, if the thought of rollercoasters fills you with dread as well then you'll need to decide on some other analogy. Whatever you decide to model your flight on, fill it with a sense of safety and adventure. If you were OK with flying as a child, go back into your memory and think about the eager anticipation you felt when your parents first broke the news that you were going to fly in the sky!
5. Use a hypnosis MP3
Hypnosis works really well for all sorts of things including overcoming your phobias. It's easy to do and works at such a deep level that you'll be "fixed" forever with just a few sessions. Get hold of a download or haul out your Yellow Pages for a personal session.
The main piece of advice we would give people with a fear of flying is preparation.
Maybe this sounds obvious?
The goal of travelling for anyone is to be as prepared as you can be. There was a saying in the military when I served which was that you are only as uncomfortable as you want to be.
This means giving yourself the best chances possible. I would divide the preparation into two parts practical and mental.
This article will give you a bit of the mental side to think about.
On the mental side, is it better to fill your head with positive messages you struggle to believe in or fill it with the latest information from Black Box or Crash Files?
Up to you of course. One thing I have noticed as recently as this weekend from people who fear flying is the following.
People with a fear of flying fill their heads with images of mass destruction. They have had years of practising watching how they die in their heads. It is quite a skill and takes a lot of practice but if you really apply yourself, you can really imagine the worst death possible.
If someone told you in the pub that they are rubbish at talking in front of people and it always goes badly. You then ask them how do you prepare for the public speaking then?
They reply that they imagine themselves standing up panicking, being lost for words, everyone laughing at them or their clothes falling off in front of the audience.
You would think them crazy to think about all that before and no wonder it does not go well with that mental preparation before hand.
One of the techniques we are trained in is NLP and we have a saying that you get more of what you pay attention to. In other words, the more that we think about something going wrong or us not coping with something, the more likely we get just that.
If you mentally practice anything enough times, you get better at it. Why not make your brain work for you instead and turn around the thought process.
You cannot afford the luxury of filling your mind with scary stuff. The more you seek out bad news to confirm that you have every right to keep your fear, the harder you make it for yourself to get over it.
I hope that you don't think me out of order. I am talking from watching people be scared and listening to what they say for over nine years.
Try an experiment if you like some convincing. Don't watch the news, listen to the news or read a newspaper for two weeks. If anyone tells you about some disaster in the public arena, say no thanks.
When your two weeks fast is up, watch the news.
I have tried this and I was shocked by how depressing the news is. 90 per cent of it will be bad news apart from the lighthearted story about the tap dancing labrador at the end of the news.
The scariest part when I tried this was not how depressing the news is but how easily I switch myself off to it. Bad news becomes the norm because we don't vet what comes into our heads. There has been some research into the Bystander effect when someone witnesses a disastor or accident and that someone does not step in to help. One reason put forward is that we have been desensitized to violence because there is so much on the telly.
How does this link to you?
The more you fill your head with the dire, the more you think it is normal.
Aircraft have incidents sometimes and when they do it is huge news. They don't crash often enough to justify fearing going on them unless you decide to be scared of every other form of travel too. Go and stand under the Heathrow Flight path and watch an aircraft land every 60 seconds and nothing will happen to any of them.
I was listening to the radio (breaking my own rules) and heard that 25 people are killed or seriously injured on the road every day.
Flying is safe. If things to happen it is so rare it is incredible.
Both Trevor Johnson & Paul Tizzard are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Trevor Johnson has sinced written about articles on various topics from Brain Power, Travel and Leisure and Web Development. Get more help and resources to and start to enjoy the thought of traveling on a plane again at. Trevor Johnson's top article generates over 165000 views. to your Favourites.
Paul Tizzard has sinced written about articles on various topics from Health, Insurance and Web Development. Paul Tizzard is one of the Directors of Virgin Atlantic's Flying without fear programme which puts people back in charge of their lives. If you want to hear answers to the top ten questions people have about flying, visit out website. Paul Tizzard's top article generates over 2900 views. to your Favourites.