If you are afraid of flying, read on and take note. These 10 tips will help you overcome your fear of planes.
Authentic travelers of soul and thought see their desire to discover every corner of the world restricted by their fear of flying. The fear of flying or the fear of airplanes is fear like any other, something totally irrational that completely paralyzes us and deprives us of satisfying our great desire to discover other places and cultures other than our own. But, like any phobia derived from anxiety, there are tricks to overcome it.
Try To Understand What Awaits You
The human being tends to be afraid or suspicious of the unknown. So the more information you can gather before you get on the plane, the better. Ask friends who travel by plane daily to tell you about the experience. Among other things, he can tell you stories about turbulence – one of the main fears – which, obviously, always ended with a happy ending.
On the Flying without a fear website, you can access a large amount of free content that includes even the sound of the engine at takeoff. Knowledge is the first step in overcoming the fear of flying.
Understand Why Flying Is Safe
The statistics are there. The plane happens to be the safest method of transportation. The fear of flying usually stems from the fact of knowing that, on the one hand, if there is an accident, we have very little chance of telling about it, and, on the other, that we do not control the device. These two theories are quickly dismantled: even when we drive our car we do not have full control of the situation (most deaths are determined by the maneuver of another vehicle) and the number of air accidents is negligible compared to the number of annual flights. Maybe the numbers won’t help you… But flying is the safest way to travel. If you want to overcome your fear of airplanes, repeat after me: flying is one of the safest means of transport in the world, if not the safest.
Plan Your Trip Well
Today there are many ways to plan your trip. Flight meta-search engines, such as Skyscanner, will offer you dozens of alternatives to get from point A to point B. Different prices, different planes, stopovers, schedules, etc.
This allows you to organize the trip in a way that makes you feel safest. In this case, it is better to take direct flights and in planes of the largest possible size. It may also be better to choose a night flight and get to the plane tired to try to sleep. A good aerial experience will help to remove the fear of airplanes and, consequently, the fear of flying.
Choose Your Seat Well
If you are afraid of flying, the worst thing you can do is choose a seat in the back of the plane. Experts agree that these are the ones that transmit the greatest sensation of tremor to the passenger. In this sense, they recommend sitting as close as possible to the wings, as this is the area of the plane with the greatest stability.
Feeling boxed in doesn’t help the person with a fear of flying either. A certain panic effect can be produced by thinking that they cannot move if something happens during the flight. To avoid this, it is best to try to take an emergency exit seat or the front row, where the space for our legs is greater. And better next to the aisle than at the window. Going comfortable on the plane will help you relax and, therefore, take away your fear of planes.
Imagine You Are On A Bus
Imagination to the power! If you close your eyes or put on your sleep mask, you can imagine that you are in a bus traveling on roads that extend down there, where everything is beautiful, earthy, and safe. Sit back in your seat and if the plane shakes a bit, just imagine that the bus has just hit a typical regional road bump. If you are able to visualize yourself in another place, little by little you will remove the fear of flying.
Think About The Good Things That Await You At Your Destination
Endless white sand beaches next to crystal clear seas; cocktails of exotic flavors; forests, mountains, rivers, and lakes through which you will wander with your backpack or bicycle, carrying your kayak with which you will live the emotion of avoiding rough waters, etc. Try to draw in your mind the beautiful and evocative images of the things you expect from your vacation. By concentrating on them you will tend to forget that you are heading towards the goal mounted on a metal bird. By dint of seeing and enjoying the positive side of traveling by plane (you get to many places very quickly!), hopefully, you will end up removing your fear of planes.
Focus On The Entertainment Offer On Board
Whether the plane you’re traveling on has a small screen that will act as your personal tablet during the flight, or you brought one yourself from home where you downloaded the last two seasons of Game of Thrones, the effect is the same: distraction can be the solution to how to overcome the fear of flying. Being focused on a movie, series, documentary or game will make you forget about the rest and time will pass much faster. By the time you know it, the programming on your screen will be interrupted because the pilot will be announcing that he is initiating the landing.
Engage In A Conversation With The Neighbor
If there is no inflight entertainment or you can’t focus on it, you will always have your next seat neighbor. Maybe he (or she) agrees to do the good deed with some annoyance, but it can also happen that he (or she) is just as bored or scared as you are and it ends with good new friends. A good conversation about the vacations that each one has planned in destination or more transcendental or trivial things, will make you forget what happens in the rest of the cabin. Hopefully, it will make you forget your fear of flying. At least for a while.
Have A Drink Or Two
Why not? A glass of wine or two always helps to fall asleep. And just like “if you drink, don’t drive (and less a plane)”, “if you sleep you don’t know”. Of course, we must remember that the effect of alcohol is enhanced when we are at these altitudes, so we must avoid letting it go out of hand and end up suffering the opposite effect to the desired one. Alcohol in moderation may help with your fear of flying.
Take Sleeping Pill
What to do if everything else doesn’t work. This technique was infallible to the members of the famous television A-Team. The great MA Barracus turned out to be more afraid of flying than a small puppy. The only thing that worked to convince such a bigard to enter the plane was to puncture him, in his absence, with some kind of substance designed by Morpheus. It is not necessary to go that far. Go to the doctor telling him about your problem so that he can prescribe you some mild or moderate strength sleeping pills. You won’t know about the trip, but you won’t know about the fear of flying either!
And you, are you afraid of flying? And, if you do, how have you overcome your fear of flying? Or maybe you’re still at it? Tell us your experiences and tricks in a comment, I’m sure other travelers will find them very useful.
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