The cats out of the bag…I love to travel, but not a fan of flying. In fact, it takes me a few days of mental preparation before actually getting on a plane. I wasn’t always afraid of flying, it just started a few years ago when it starts to kick it.

When I was younger, me and my family always traveled to Iran, which takes about 24 hours of flying to get there. I’ve even flown to Dubai with just my little brother & I. Now, that was a 16 hour flight and not once did I get anxiety while we were up in the air. I wish I knew why and how this fear started.  I have a few techniques on how I get myself through a flight and I hope these help anyone else who has the same struggle as me!

• Music! Music helps me SO much. I even dedicate a song that really gets me going during take off. I call it my “take off” song. I pick a song that really motivates me and have it on replay during the entire time taking off, until the captain gives the go to “roam about the cabin”. This really helps me focus on how the song makes me feel rather than how my fear makes me feel.
• Movies! Download a movie on your phone your computer that you’ve been waiting to watch or have already watched but puts you in a good mood. Once, for a two hour flight, I downloaded the movie Girls Trip on my phone, and by the time the movie ended I was in tears (from laughing) and we ready to land! Time flew by and I barely felt the flight.
• Breathing! Simple meditating technique, breathe. Big deep breathes to calm you down if you start to feel the panic. Tense up your muscles and then release while inhaling. It will ground you and bring you back into the moment!
• Take cool Instagram photos! I love to fly during the day time because I can see outside and use the window seat and an Instagram photo op. Take cool photos of the view and clouds. This helps distract me and have me look forward to my trip and landing so I can upload the photo. Woohoo!
• Read! I like to bring magazines on flights and read those rather than books. Having anxiety while flying keeps me from concentrating on a book, but short entertaining magazines keep me flipping through the pages and visually entertained. I suggest magazines to keep your mind moving.

These are my secrets to flying with anxiety. Sometimes, I do all of them during a long flight to keep myself relaxed. I love to travel and don’t like to let my fear stop me from traveling and seeing the world!

Let me know if you have any techniques to calm your flying fears! I’d LOVE to try them.

xx