Fear of Flying – Calmly Taking To The Air in a Boeing 737

Another busy weekend has passed and I’m back in the office ready for a whole new week helping people to overcome limitations and make progress with their goals. As with most other weeks, Saturday was a trip to boot-camp before a fully booked day of clients, and Sunday was a seven mile run before relaxing with the kids. I even found time to have a little go on my ten year old ‘original’ x-box because there is nothing like a virtual reality game or Star Wars to mentally switch off from everything else.

January has been manic with clients seeking to overcome anxiety, over-thinking, fear and worry. And whilst some fears are easier to approach in real life, such as overcoming driving fear by getting behind the wheel, fear of flying is much harder to re-create in real life (not many people have easy access to a plane!). Even though it is possible to overcome that flying fear, it is a little trickier to get the proof of change until the day of the actual flight (although most people notice they feel calmer and more relaxed beforehand).

That’s why last week I headed over to a flying simulator centre not far from me to progress our plans to create a course for overcoming fear of flying that combines the best of my psychological help with their knowledge and expertise of plans and flying, along with the opportunity to learn more and experience feeling calm and in control in the cockpit of a Boeing 737. It’s a pretty awesome piece of kit and uses virtual reality to fill that gap of overcoming flying fear before your actual flight.

Here I am in the cockpit having just experienced flying from Heathrow to Stansted to Luton, with my very knowledgeable co-pilot (who was holding the camera in this shot).

Now, I’ll be honest, when I first thought about getting in the cockpit of this Boeing 737 simulator, I really thought it would be like playing a flying simulator computer game (kind of like an advanced version of my x-box). But within minutes, being in that real environment and with the full window cockpit view of the airport and taxi-ing over to the runway, I was completely caught up in flying.

Logically I knew I was sitting still, yet my imagination and focus was so engrossed in what I was doing and hearing that it was as close to actually flying a plane as I could ever imagine being (without many years and thousands of pounds of training). And the whole time my ‘co-pilot’ Serena was there guiding me in what to do and in what was going on. In the same way that fear and anxiety are kept going with imagination and focus, here it was also about positively engaging the mind in a constructive fashion. It was awesome!

Fear of Flying

Most people with a fear of flying know, logically and rationally, that air travel is one of the safest types of transport. Yet that knowledge and perspective of safety gets swamped by all the fear and anxiety about flying. After all, their anxious brain says, they might be a passenger of that one flight that is involved in an incident and that would be catastrophic.

All that fear and anxiety will lead to many other troublesome anxious thoughts about flying that may lead to avoiding it altogether, and that ‘pit of the stomach’ dread can make what should be a calm or exciting journey from A to B seem like the most unpleasant thing imaginable.

Fear of flying is not just always just about the flight though. There can be elements of a fear around heights, or being enclosed, being in a crowded situation and feeling out of control.

There may be fears about flying in general with anxiety about anything to do with planes and flying, from seeing or hearing planes, to going to an airport even when you are not flying. The anxiety may escalate when preparing to fly, such as when planning the journey, booking tickets, packing and waiting to board the plane. And there will also be the flying fear and anxiety on the flight itself, from take-off, while up in the air and through to successfully landing at the other end.

When you experience anxiety and to what degree will vary from person to person. As will the physical symptoms which can include tension, nausea, sweating and chest pain, as well as the specific thoughts and scenarios that may run through your mind.

Our new course is being carefully designed to cover these factors and to give you the knowledge and techniques to ease flying situations.

Next Level Fear of Flying Treatment

I help many people with a fear of flying to deal with, and take back control over unwanted thoughts about flying and unnecessary feelings and anxiety about flying. Learning to be mentally calm and physically relaxed around aspects of flying can make the whole trip a more positive, enjoyable and relaxed experience.

By adding in the option of a simulated flying experience, fear of flying treatment adds in knowledge and understanding about planes and how the whole thing works, psychological techniques for calming fear and feeling more at ease, and the chance to experience and bring all of this together in an individually tailored package. One thing I love about the simulator is that the airport/journey can be individually tailored to you, along with many other variables such as the weather. Exposure to all of these things together really could be a game changer for someone who wants to feel more relaxed when flying.

As we continue to refine our fear of flying programme I’m sure I’ll have much more to say about it in coming weeks. Having had a fly myself I’m hugely excited about just how brilliantly this will help people to move from fearful flyer to embracing the flight as part of their trip.

More on all of this and fear of flying help coming soon!

To your success,

Dan Regan

Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Like to read more about overcoming your fear of flying? You can find more information here: Fear of Flying Help

If you are looking for help to overcome your flying fear and anxiety then you can book your Complimentary Hypnotherapy Strategy Session with Dan to learn more about how to achieve this now: Appointments

Find out what other people have said after their hypnotherapy sessions with Dan: What People Say

And check out these powerful hypnosis downloads that can start helping you feel better right away: Hypnosis Downloads