Can Hypnotherapy help you overcome your Fear of Flying?
Is the cold weather getting you down? Are you fed up with the typical cold wet English weather we get year after year? Could you stand to think about yet another wet cold summer?
And so, you are looking forward to the summer holidays and saving up for that dream holiday break? Are you looking forward to flying off to sunnier climes to bathe in some warm sunshine on some exotic beach?
This is great news if you are confident flyer. Personally I love flying and have in the past, had the wonderful opportunity to take the controls of both a light Cessna aircraft and the UK’s oldest airworthy Tiger moth.
The experience was wonderful and something I will never forget. But what if you are like so many holiday makers or business travellers who quake in their boots at the thought of flying? It is a very real problem for many people and some people won’t even entertain the thought of getting on an aircraft because of their very real fears.
Statistically, there are far more road fatalities every year globally than there are aircraft crashes. And this is a fact that has been made available by the civil aviation authority for many years. However, understanding this yourself is very likely to be no reassurance to you at all if you have such a deeply entrenched fear of flying.
Now it is a fact that some people who have that fear of flying just put up with it and deal with it at the time and just get on that plane, but none the less, they will in all likelihood still be feeling absolutely terrified and not only can it spoil the beginning of their holiday, enjoying what should be an amazing and exciting experience, it can also make it difficult for family members and partners too as they may have to deal with trying to calm the person down.
Fear of flying is a very real emotion.
So what if you could get on the airplane without ever having to give the fear of flying a second thought because you didn't have any fear anywhere?
You can and hypnotherapy can help! But first let’s look at what is a fear and when it becomes a phobia.
Let’s start off by understanding what Fears are:-
A Fear is an emotional response to a known or definite threat. Fear is the inbuilt emotional response designed to protect us from putting our self in harm’s way. It is the fight or flight response that triggers a release of the hormone, adrenaline to take action. This fundamental physiologic response forms the foundation of modern day stress medicine. The "fight or flight response" is our body's primitive, automatic, inborn response that prepares the body to "fight" or "flee" from perceived attack, harm or threat to our survival. This is a response inbuilt into mankind from our most primitive of times to protect us from becoming the hunted.
Our fight or flight response is designed to protect us from the proverbial sabre tooth tigers that once lurked in the woods and fields around us, threatening our physical survival.
At times when our actual physical survival is threatened, there is no greater response to have on our side. When activated, the fight or flight response causes a surge of adrenaline and other stress hormones to pump through our body. This surge is the force responsible for mothers lifting cars off their trapped children and for firemen heroically running into blazing houses to save endangered victims. The surge of adrenaline imbues us with heroism and courage at times when we are called upon to protect and defend the lives and values we cherish.
Fear and anxiety are linked, this is something to understand.
Fear is the emotion you experience when you are actually in a dangerous situation.
Anxiety is what you experience leading up to a dangerous, stressful, or threatening situation. You may also experience anxiety when you think about something stressful or dangerous that could happen to you. Other words for anxiety may be "dread" or "apprehensiveness."
The difference between anxiety and fear can be illustrated nicely this way. Think about the last time you went on a roller coaster. Anxiety is what you felt when you were in line looking at the hills, steep drops, and loops, as well as hearing the screams of other riders. You also likely felt anxiety when on the roller coaster as you got closer to the top of the first hill. Fear is what you experienced as you went over the peak of the hill and started your fall down the first hill.
Fear is a form of stress. So what happens to us when we are under excessive stress?
When we experience excessive stress—whether from internal worry or external circumstance—a bodily reaction is triggered, called the "fight or flight" response.
When you are in a stressful or dangerous situation and experience fear and anxiety, your body goes through a number of changes:
·Your heart rate may increase.
·Your vision may narrow (sometimes called "tunnel vision").
·You may notice that your muscles become tense.
·You may begin to sweat.
·Your hearing may become more sensitive.
All of these changes are part of the fight or flight syndrome. As the name implies, these changes are preparing you for immediate action. They are preparing you to flee, freeze (kind of like a deer does when caught in someone's headlights), or to fight.
All of these are adaptive bodily responses essentially designed to keep us alive, and because these responses are important to our survival, they occur quickly and without thought. They are automatic.
There is a downside to this response. It would be great if anxiety and fear only occurred in situations where we were in immediate danger. Unfortunately, it does not always work this way. For example, many people have fear and anxiety about flying. As mentioned above, the statistics show that flying is actually safer than driving. So the situation is not dangerous in the sense that it doesn't threaten our survival. So, why might we have fear and anxiety in these situations?
We have fear and anxiety in these situations because of the way we evaluate these situations. Our body cannot always tell the difference between real and imagined threat. Therefore, when we interpret a situation as threatening, our body is going to respond as though that situation is dangerous and threatening, even if it really isn't in actuality.
This is where our fears turn into irrational fears which may in all probability turn into a phobia. There is a difference between a fear and a phobia. As mentioned earlier, a fear is based upon self-preservation and keeping one’s self safe. We all have fears and we all need them to keep safe. A fear of heights is a sensible thing as it keeps us away from the edge of the cliff. If your fear of heights stops you going above the third floor then this is a phobia. The fear is unneeded, unhelpful, and disabling to your life. Phobias occur when fears become unreasonable and seemingly unchallengeable. The good news is that a person can overcome their phobias through the intervention of hypnotherapy, often within just one or two sessions. I have had numerous success stories treating clients with phobias from all sorts of diverse issues from a fear of open spaces, closed spaces, panic attacks, fears of heights, fear of flying and most recently fear of birds.
Some time ago I helped a client from St Austell overcome his fear of enclosed spaces.
The family were planning a lifetime holiday in New Zealand and he needed some help to overcome his issues before jetting off in December. This is the feedback my client gave to me:-
Since childhood I'd had a fear of feeling trapped or confined. It wasn't quite claustrophobia as it could also happen outdoors in a crowd or even queues.
Until recently I'd managed the problem by avoiding situations like travelling on the back seat of two door cars or being in busy rooms with several people between me and the door. This strategy worked well until recently being invited to visit my relatives in New Zealand. Flying has never bothered me but the thought of being locked in that cabin did.
... A friend suggested hypnotherapy and recommended Trevor. After the first session I could feel a noticeable improvement. Now after the third session the problem has gone and seems is no more than a memory of a past life.
I wish I'd done this years ago. I'm well known for being very critical about anything that's new to me and being a hard man to convince. However having experienced such a clear and positive improvement in such a short time I am very impressed. Its feels like I've been set free at last.
My thanks to Trevor Wales
Clearly I was able to help this gentleman and I could also help you overcome your fear of flying. So if you have a fear of flying, you can do something about it and it may be simpler than you thought. You don’t have to suffer!
With hypnotherapy to overcome a fear of flying you can just sit back and relax and enjoy your holiday
Why not give me a call for a free 30 min phone consultation. Get rid of that fear for once and for all and enjoy a whole new experience around flying. Call Trevor Wales on 01726 69703.
Trevor Wales. Dip Hyp.GQHP.GHR.CRSST.CNHC.
