10 Ways to Prepare a Positive Mindset for Flying

It’s starting to feel like summer now and we’re heading in to that time of year when people start to think about their upcoming holidays that they booked in the depths of winter. We seek sun (although as I type this it’s pretty hot and sunny here), adventure and time away from the stresses and strains of every day life.

Typically, once the holiday is booked, most people count down the days, so excited about their upcoming holiday but for others the time between booking that ticket and getting on the plane can be fraught with anxiety, negative thoughts and fear. And for some people just the thought of getting on a plane stops them from booking a holiday in the first place. Is this you?

Fears and phobias of flying are very common and can really take the enjoyment out of holidays. Flying phobias effect people in a number of ways and can range in severity from slight feelings of anxiety and discomfort to a full on panic attack and losing control of the situation. Some people decide not to holiday abroad in order to avoid flying and the anxiety and fear that accompanies it but this only reinforces the problem.

Here are 10 top tips to help you to prepare the right mindset for flying so that you can have a better experience of it:

1. Imaginal exposure. Spend some time imagining taking the flight. Not all the worse case scenarios nor your perfect flight but a more realistic representation of what happens. Imagine it as if you are actually there. It’s important that you are nicely relaxed while you do this. Notice the discomfort that you’re experiencing as you imagine it, how it plateaus and then starts to diminish the more you imagine the scenario.
2. Focus on how you would like things to be. Typically when we are fearful of something, we tend to worry about every possible thing that could go wrong. I am certain that when you think about flying, you are thinking about the worse case scenarios. When we think in this way, we create unnecessary stress for ourselves and the anxiety builds which makes us think more negatively. We get trapped in a cycle of negative thinking. So be aware of the thoughts that you are having. Start thinking about how you would to think, feel and be in the lead up to and during the flight.
3. Share concerns with others. Discuss your fear with your friends and family, especially those you are travelling with. Quite often, people keep their fears to themselves but this can make things a lot worse especially as you can start to worry about how you might appear to everyone around you and being “found out”. When people around you are aware of how you feel, they can support you through it.
4. Looking forward. When you’re scared of flying, everything becomes about the flight. More often than not, the place you are visiting, the things you’re going to do, and all the fun that can ensue, is put aside. Readdress this balance by spending time thinking about where you’re staying, what you are looking forward to seeing and doing, the food and drink you want to sample, discovering things about a place you’ve never been before and learning about the culture.
5. Be prepared. Do everything you can to minimise stress on the day of your flight. Ensure that you have packed your bags and have everything you need ready at least the day before you are due to travel. Have a relaxing bath and do other things to help you relax before getting a good night’s sleep. If you have time in the morning, have breakfast. Leave plenty of time to get to the airport so you don’t have to rush or worry about whether you’ll miss your flight or not. These are all simple things to support you physically and mentally, helping to take the load off for when you travel.
6. Avoid alcohol and caffeine. Some people have a few drinks before or during a flight to give them a bit of Dutch courage, to help them through. This is a bad idea. Alcohol is a depressant and can lower your mood, make you more anxious, and reduce your ability to control your thoughts and feelings. Caffeine can make you feel jittery and more anxious so it’s best to avoid it before and during your flights.
7. Occupy your mind. Some people are inclined to just sit and not do anything as they feel that they need to focus all their attention on not falling to pieces. Unfortunately this tends to have the opposite effect than intended. My advice is to do things to occupy your mind in order to reduce the introspection and rumination about the flight. So when you are waiting for your flight at the airport, browse the shops and duty free, go have something to eat or drink, and spend time chatting to the people you are travelling with (or anyone that will listen if you’re travelling alone). Make sure you take a book, magazine, phone and/or tablet with you so that you can entertain yourself during the flight. If you are going on a long haul flight then you will have the inflight entertainment as an option so spend some time browsing what’s on offer. If you have a relaxation audiotrack, make sure you have it loaded on your phone along with earphones so that you can listen to it.
8. Be present. When we are worried about things, we can lose ourselves in our thoughts and all manner of crazy things can come up. By shifting your focus outwards, to your environment, you start to focus on what is actually happening rather than what you think is happening. Focus on your senses, what you can see, hear, taste, touch and smell. Focus on things that are positive and neutral though.
9. Relax. Spend some time tuning in to your body and releasing any tension that you might have. A favourite technique of mine is tensing the muscles in your feet then relaxing them off, and systematically working your way up through the rest of the body. By tensing the muscles first, it makes it easier to relax the muscles afterwards.
10. Breathe. Breathing techniques help to trigger the relaxation response. Even if your breathing is fine, they are excellent, simple tools that you can use to help you feel more in control. 7/11 breathing is a popular one, whereby you breath in to the count of 7 and out for the count of 11 but there are others too which you might find more suited to you.

These top tips can help you feel more prepared and in control when you fly. Hypnotherapy is also very effective at helping you to change how you think and feel about flying. When I work with flying phobia clients, we delve deeper in to the tips I’ve given above and explore other avenues too. I help you to identify negative thinking errors about the flight, and teach you how to dispute the thoughts and beliefs that you hold about flying and reconstruct them in to something more positive that brings down your anxiety and fear. Imaginal exposure and desensitisation forms a huge part of the work I do with clients. These techniques have been used in clinical practice for over 50 years to help people overcome anxiety and fear and have an incredible evidence base supporting them. I will also teach you methods of relaxing as well as how to control your feelings helping you to reduce those physical feelings typically associated with anxiety and stress such as heart palpitations, rapid breathing, and sweating, among others. Flying phobias vary massively from person to person so I tailor my sessions specifically to you.

Hypnotherapy gives you the necessary tools for you to be able to board that plane, take off, be at altitude, experience turbulence and land in a calmer way where you are in control of how you think, feel and behave. I'm not saying that you will go from having an intense fear of flying to absolutely loving it but hypnotherapy can help you to cope with it effectively so that you can enjoy your holiday more thoroughly.

If you would like to find out more about how hypnotherapy can help a flying phobia, check out my phobias page on my website.

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Creating a Pathway for Positive Thinking

Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The Research - Part 2

It is IBS Awareness month so I thought it would be an apt time to write a couple blog posts on Irritable Bowel Syndrome and how hypnotherapy can help with it. In the first post I talked about a number of research studies which have been conducted over the years which show the efficacy of hypnotherapy for IBS. I purposely left out the details of the research conducted at Manchester by Dr Whorrel et al. In this post, I will be talking about the approach used within this research. I utilise many of the methods outlined in the research with my clients and they have benefited greatly from it.

The researchers in Manchester have studied gut-directed hypnotherapy for many years now and it has shown some great results. It led to the inclusion of hypnotherapy in the NICE guidelines so that GPs and Consultants can now recommend IBS patients have hypnotherapy to help with their symptoms.

The rationale behind using hypnosis for IBS was to help participants learn mental skills and techniques to develop control over the physiological mechanisms influencing the gut that they are not normally under conscious control of.

In 2009, a German researcher called Karin Meissner gave eighteen healthy volunteers a placebo pill on three occasions together with different verbal suggestions depending on which pill they received. One group were given a placebo pill and were told “This pill is a stimulant to your stomach. You will feel your stomach churning within the next 5 to 10 minutes, and this will reach a peak in about 15–20 minutes, at which time you may feel some heavy stomach contractions. Then it will wear off gradually, and be gone after 30–40 minutes”; the second group were given a placebo pill and told "This pill is a relaxant to your stomach. You will feel your stomach full and heavy within the next 5-10 minutes, and this will reach a peak in about 15-20 minutes, at which time you may feel bloated. Then it will wear off gradually, and be gone after 30–40 minutes“; and the third group were given a pill and told “This pill has no effect. We use it as a control, a mere sugar pill, to see the effects of just taking a pill on stomach activity. You won't feel anything.” The research showed that those who took what they thought to be the “gastric stimulant”, experienced an increase in movement through the gut, while those who took what they were led to believe as the “gastric relaxant”, experienced slower movement through the gut. Although not directly studying hypnotherapy or IBS, this piece of research does illustrate the power of the mind and how it can be used to control the physiological mechanisms involved in digestion and gut motility and therefore help with the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

One of the things I love about the Manchester approach is that they emphasise the importance that participants take an active involvement in the process. They are taught a variety of techniques that they develop by practising them daily over the course of the therapy (typically up to 12 sessions over a 3 month period). Gonsalkorale et al state that they “emphasize that the person is becoming in control of the gut. This would seem to be a crucial part of our approach, since so many patients do feel out of control, and it has been shown in general that a sense of self-efficacy and an internal locus of control are vital in the success of any psychological intervention. It is generally our experience that a particularly passive, helpless patient does not do well. We also emphasize the importance of practice in order to develop these hypnotic skills, just as one would have to in learning a musical instrument, for example, and that it is not the therapist doing all the work.”

The sessions that the participants received focused on a number of techniques to help with stress reduction, a known trigger of IBS symptoms, in addition to confidence building so that they felt able to feel in control of their condition. More specific techniques aimed at controlling and normalizing how the gut is functioning were also taught to the participants, such as creating warmth in the hand which can then be used to sooth and comfort the stomach area as well as using imagery to regulate and control the flow of the gut. Participants also spent time mentally rehearsing themselves in situations that in the past they might have feared or avoided due to their IBS symptoms but now with normal gut function. Other aspects were looked at too depending on the individual.

The rate of progress for the participants differed as you would expect, but most reported some initial benefits after a few sessions and of course a more significant improvement throughout the course of therapy.

Participants of the gut-directed hypnosis at Manchester, as well as my own clients, have derived a considerable amount of benefit from learning these techniques. They have experienced improvements in their bowel symptoms of IBS, their mental wellbeing and quality of life. Hypnosis is not a cure for IBS and cannot guarantee that you will never have symptoms again but you can definitely achieve a good reduction in symptoms and gain more control over the condition and life generally.

I have seen a number of clients over the years who come to have hypnotherapy for their IBS thinking that it will miraculously get rid of their symptoms without them having to put any effort in to it at all, just like popping a pill. It doesn’t work like that unfortunately and as you can see above, the patients who benefit most from this approach are those which put in the time and effort to learning and practising the techniques taught to them during the process. Hypnotherapy can be a real game changer for those suffering from IBS if they choose to engage fully in the process.

If you are suffering with IBS in Bristol and would like to find out more about how Hypnotherapy can help you, please visit my dedicated IBS webpage on my website.

Related Posts: Hypnotherapy for Irritable Bowel Syndrome: The Research - Part 1
Hypnotherapy Provides Support for Irritable Bowel Syndrome Sufferers

References: - Gonsalkorale, W. M. (2006) Gut-Directed Hypnotherapy: The Manchester Approach for Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, 54:1, 27-50
- Gonsalkorale, W. M. & Whorwell, P. J. (2005) Hypnotherapy in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol 17:15–20
- Gonsalkorale, W. M., Toner, B. B., Whorwell, P. J. (2004) Cognitive change in patients undergoing hypnotherapy for irritable bowel syndrome. J Psychosom Res. Mar;56(3):271-8
- Meissner, K. (2009) Effects of placebo interventions on gastric motility and general autonomic activity. Journal of psychosomatic research 66 (5), 391-398