Cars, Planes and Trains … the Fear of Flying

We have an acquaintance who has been very successful. She works directly for the CEO of her organization, has a great family with three children and is quite a socialite. Yet this super lady has a big problem. When she has business meetings or conferences far away, she will not hesitate to drive there 10 or even 15 hours to get there. If she goes on vacations, she might even drive two days with some family members and stay overnight on the way. It’s not that she doesn’t have the money to fly. Her company would gladly pay for her plane fare on business trips. No that’s not the reason, the reason is that she is totally terrified of flying.
 
Fear of flying is quite a common problem which many people experience, some more, some less. Interestingly I’ve met very few people who have a fear of driving a car. And I have never met anybody who’s afraid of riding in a train. In my book on stress management I talk about the various stages of the fear of flying, because I’ve worked with quite a few people to help them alleviate that issue. They are now comfortable flying and can even enjoy the trip.
 
Here’s one of the cases to show how the SciStress techniques can make life easier if someone suffers from a fear of flying. In my office set a large well-dressed gentleman, let’s call him Joe. He told me how he would deal with this extreme discomfort traveling by plane. If he had enough time in the airport, he would have a drink “to relax”. Often, he was on a tight schedule and didn’t have time for the drink. He had to walk on board feeling increasingly tense. He’d squeeze into the narrow 17-inch seat which many planes still have and buckled up immediately. Now came his mental exercise of “I’m strong, I can deal with this”. But underneath Joe would feel very uncomfortable. Joe had a very tough time using the word “anxious”, but that was what the feeling was, he admitted.
 
The brain is amazingly flexible and powerful. Therefore, I asked Joe to imagine that he had to go now to the airport for a 4-hour flight to Phoenix. You could see his discomfort as his face and posture changed. Now I taught him the basic SciStress technique. As he began to use it, he immediately began to relax and look more at ease. We went over the basics one more time. Now Joe felt comfortable enough to imagine going to the airport and walking up to the plane. At this point he told me he began to feel some dread. Again, I guided him to use the simple steps of basic SciStress.
 
In a few minutes Joe was ready to step into the plane and walk to his seat, in this imagined trip. I encouraged Joe to sit in the middle seat, which he hated obviously the most. Again, Joe used the technique a few times, maybe for five minutes. Now he could imagine the situation in reasonable ease. Nobody “likes” a middle seat. Now his plane rolled to the starting position. At this point there was a little discomfort to take care of. But now the engines roared, the plane accelerated on the runway, Joe could feel the vibrations of the takeoff. Even though this was just imagined, Joe could feel the sudden panic of leaving “solid ground”.
 
I worked with Joe to use the technique by himself to reduce the panic feeling and get to a point of comfort on this imagined trip. He said he was thinking as soon as the cabin staff would come with their carts, he would order a scotch. But even without the scotch he said he would be comfortable continuing his trip.
 
A few weeks later Joe reported on his progress. He had a short trip from Detroit to Washington, DC and everything went fine. He said he used SciStress briefly at home for a couple of minutes before he took off for the airport. He felt fine walking through the airport and getting on the plane, this time he had a real seat by the window. When the engines went to full power on takeoff, Joe said he again use the technique all the way down the runway.
 
Now he said came the real miracle, he felt totally comfortable being up in the air. He also said that SciStress helped him stay calm and focused in difficult business meetings. He liked the fact that he could use the technique discreetly without anybody else noticing a thing.
 
Like the fear of flying, the technique empowers people to help themselves with many other fears and anxieties and negative feelings of different types.
 
You can Use the Method to enhance an amazing number of areas of your life:

• Increase life energy and results – less inhibitors and stress, better focus and energy
• Improve communication – eliminates even fear of public speaking
• Strengthen relationships – take stress out of existing ones, open new possibilities
• Support family and work – get the communication and decisions you need
• Prevent and resolve conflict – deal with difficult situations, reduce having your ‘buttons pushed’
• Manage change and crisis – remove barriers to innovative thinking and decisive action
• Enhance health and wellbeing – health issues are aggravated or caused by stress
• Ease travel – less fatigue, jet lag, fear of flying; better sleep, adaptation to climates and cultures
• Improve physical performance – do better with exercise, sports, golf

 
This may sound too good to be true. However, the neuroscience of stress management shows why and how this is possible. You can read about these new powerful insights in the book “The Girl who Couldn’t Laugh: The Neuroscience of Stress Management” written in easy to understand language. And you can do so free of charge with Amazon’s “Look inside” feature to read the first few chapters:

Want to experience similar results?
If you or someone you love have issues to resolve, we would be happy to help. Our coaching may not “fix” all problems, but we have helped many people reduce stress in most situations. Check out our free initial consultation. They also will learn the techniques to help themselves any time and any place. You may recommend our book, which explains the brain science in easy to understand terms and teaches the techniques thoroughly.
 
With warm regards,                    Fred & Judy
 
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng., Chief Stress Coach, Performance & Productivity Specialist
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Scientific Advisor, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
 
PS: Create a daily routine of managing stress. Check Appendix 2 of the book for quick help with stress.