Vacations are typically a time to relax and enjoy sans any worries. However, leisure usually gets overpowered by stress for those people who are afraid of flying while they decide to go out for a vacation.
It is important to start with baby steps
Flying is naturally a difficult feeling for humans. However, a little work and bravery could prove to be beneficial. It is a well known fact that smaller steps lead to larger ones and taking a single step at one point of time can help you in getting there successfully. This is popularly known as the exposure therapy. The exposure therapy focuses mainly on approaching one’s fear step by step until one overcomes it fully. One can surely start by taking a short flight of half an hour or even one hour duration to a nearby city. This proves to be beneficial before one opts for a transatlantic flight to Europe or any other destination for that matter. Visiting the airport prior to a trip also proves to be much beneficial for a traveler who is afraid of flying. This is because one becomes more familiar to the surroundings and hence, can travel comfortably later.
Keep yourself occupied
While on a flight, engage into something which shifts your concentration from flying in the airplane to something different. One can always bring some good reading material along-with. This could include novels, magazines and even newspapers. Such material could even be purchased prior to leaving for the airport. Newsstands at almost every airport have such interesting material available for the passengers. For people who are not in a habit of reading, engaging into different puzzle and crossword magazines would prove to be both interesting and beneficial. Such things always help in shifting the attention and reduce the fear of flying as one would no longer be completely occupied with the flying phobia. Once the fear gets reduced and you reach the destination safely, the flying experience for the next time would be even better. This habit would slowly reduce the fear of flying.
Choose aromatherapy
It is a well known fact that fascinating aroma reduces stress and always encourages relaxation of the body and soul. Aroma effectively reduces the travel stress and anxiety for almost everyone. Therefore, aromatherapy is one of the most effective ways to reduce travel stress and anxiety. One can always purchase a small quantity of lavender essential oil which is one of the popular oils used for relaxing the body. Once you are in a plane and ready to take off, add a few drops of lavender oil to your handkerchief or napkin and start inhaling deeply but slowly. Adding a drop or dab onto the pulse points can also prove highly beneficial. When one breathes in the soothing lavender scent, he feels relaxed more quickly. Various other aromas apart from the lavender one could be utilized for the purpose, depending upon the choice of the person.
Play some music
Music is definitely a natural source of relaxation and distraction. Listening to music can help in shifting the attention more quickly by relaxing the mind. Listening to the music mainly helps in lowering the heart rate, relieve stress and anxiety, ease muscle tensions and promote deep breathing. You can definitely select some classical music as it has harmonious and slow melodies to play. It usually provides a feeling of tranquility and can prove really beneficial for travels with fear of flying. Upbeat tunes, on the contrary, such as hip hop or even dance music also proves to be helpful. It actually depends upon the type of person listening to music. One type of music may relax some people more quickly than the other. Therefore, it is always advisable to choose the most appropriate music to start with.
Power of knowledge always works
If one is well acquainted with common noises and bumps while flying, the fear and panic during the flight and seat belt warnings could be reduced to a larger extent. Various facts related to commercial airline safety and passenger safety is really important to be understood and known. Therefore, educating oneself regarding such facts is really a good idea. It is a known fact that flying is always safer than driving but very few people are aware of such facts. According to various researches, the chance of an airplane crash death is one in seven million. Therefore, it is more than 19 times safer as compared to traveling in a car or bus. Therefore, learning and gathering as much information regarding such facts plays an important role.
