Who has genuinely gotten over a fear of flying?!
Question: And how did you do it?
Answers: And how did you do it?
YES! The first few times I flew, I had panic attacks so bad I thought I was having heart attacks. Now after a few years of flying frequently, I have learned to let go and allow myself to enjoy flying. Here are a few things that helped me:
1. Prayer to a loving God, explaining to him my fear, the love of my life, and asking him to protect me because I was overcoming such adversity just being on the plane in the first place.
2. Flying with children who needed my attention and my stability more than I could spend time obsessing about my fears.
3. Setting mini goals for myself from the beginning of the flight until the end of the flight. "Yea, I got on the plane." "Yea, I closed my eyes and focused on breathing through take off." "Yea, I sipped a soda and ate peanuts and forgot for one moment I was up in the air." etc.
4. I was actually on an extremely turbulant flight and a woman next to me talked me through some of my fears. She said, "flying is kind of like being in a boat, you move in all directions. Air has substance--you hit clouds and you really feel them." I gave myself permission to just feel the movements of the plane without attaching any fear to that. I overcame a lot of fear on that flight--It was baaaad!!!!
5. I tried to think of myself as being out from the earth's surface rather than up above it. It weirdly enough comforted me to think of myself on the side of the earth in its rotation rather than up above it so high.
6. I noticed that when I was able to, I could look out the window on descent and actually enjoy looking at everything in a new perspective up so high.
Those are just a few of my thought processes. I don't think I'll ever get on a plane without some anxiety, but i assure you that I have moments of sheer joy now when I fly.
Practice and frequency definitely help you overcome this fear!
i still have trouble with looking out a second-story window!! Flying isn't in my future!!