Simple Ways to Conquer Your Fear of Flying
OK, you’ve seen the statistics. Flying is safe. Real safe. But deep down you’d still rather drive or take the train.
If the idea of catching a plane makes you start making excuses of why you can’t make this trip, start by deciding which of the common flying fears below is the one that affects you most and tackling that first.
1. Fear of heights
Yeah, planes really do fly high - usually above the clouds and well above any stray birds. Their cruising height of around 10,000 meters is well up there on the chart of high-ness. But inside a plane, it’s really more like a noisy bus most of the time, even more so if you’re not sat in a window seat. If your height fear is the strongest part of your fear of flying then it may well pay you to work on that first.
It’s unlikely you’ve always been afraid of heights. So chill a bit and download a fear of heights hypnosis MP3 which will do all the hard work for you and dissolve your fear.
2. Fear of confined spaces
When they’re asked to actually think about it, a lot of folks figure that it’s claustrophobia is actually the biggest part of their fear of flying. Beacuse you’re going to be locked in a fairly small space for possibly hours and hours. Maybe also squashed in by people sat on both sides of you. You’re not a factory chicken but you’re being treated like one. Again, because it works at a deep level and is cheap, hypnosis should be your first technique to ease your fear.
3. Lack of control
Now that’s a biggie as well. Most of us like to be control of a situation (or at least think we’re in control) that delegating that control to a stranger and an in-flight computer, we get worried, big time. Unless you get a pilot’s licence, you’re not likely to be flying your own plane. Despite all the disaster movies you’ve seen. So, for once in your life, relaxing and accepting that the guy at the front in that smart uniform wants to keep his job and fly you there safely. Let yourself relax and let someone else have all the hassle for a change.
All the fears above (and many others) can be removed or reduced by hypnosis. Get hold of a hypnosis track for the fear that’s grabbing you most or you can get a specially designed fear of flying hypnosis MP3 here.
Comment by Capt Tom Bunn LCSW on 2 October 2008:
First, by way of introduction, I’m both an airline captain and a licensed therapist. Working with people who have trouble with flying has been my specialty for twenty-eight years.
I understand the idea that hypnosis is the first thing to try is something a person selling hypnosis will tell you. I’m thoroughly trained in hypnosis and have tried it extensively for fear of flying, and have found that if it works at all, it works only temporarily or on a “hit or miss” basis.
Anyone can claim to be a hypnotist; there is no licensing involved. That is unfortunate, because a person who is highly trained, experienced and skilled in Eriksonian Hypnosis can often achieve amazing pain control and alleviate obsessive disorders. Unskilled practitioners can, though, clause people to give up. When they don’t get relief, they think nothing can be done.
If you can afford to take the chance that it will not work, try hypnosis. But if you don’t get good results, don’t give up. Help is available if you look in the right place.
There is a great deal of misunderstanding about the cause of fear of flying. It is not caused by a bad flight; most people on a bad flight don’t develop fear of flying. Also, the fact that you fear flying should - in my view - not be a reason to doubt your faith. Fears are triggered automatically, and since faith is faith and not just some automatic knee-jerk response, it may have no effect on something that is.
Research since the advent of the functional MRI just eight years ago has helps us understand how the brain works. We now recognize that the ability to regulate feelings is learned and that the part of the brain that does this regulation requires stimulation of the right kind during the first two years of life. The right kind of stimulation requires a caregiver who is empathically attuned to the infant and responds to the infants signals, rather than simply providing for the infant according to an agenda set by the caregiver.
If the child is afraid, the caregiver needs to tune into the child’s fear in a way the child really knows the caregiver feels the same way. Thus the child knows he or she is not alone.
Then, the magic happens; the caregiver then lets the child know that — though the child’s fear is 100% shared — the adult has an additional point of view, which is that it is not the end of the world; it will work out alright.
Many of us, obviously, didn’t get such optimal early development. Thus, when facing uncertainty, we control our anxiety by being in control of the situation, or by having a way to out of it.
I have tried to give a good understanding of the cause and cure of fear of flying in a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcx6ZsvKHSA&feature
Also, at
http://www.fearofflying.com/video_hs.shtml