How To Overcome Stress When Travelling
Everything about planning and travel management was going great until you came across a friend’s ordeal in a foreign country. Now, your wonderful anticipations turn into nightmares and source of paranoia regarding aspects of travelling.
You packed everything in your luggage, checked online for cheap flights to your destination for several days – months even and now you are ready to board a plane. By recalling somebody’s painful experience, your body succumbs to mental pressure in the form of getting dizzy, throwing up, clutching your seat harder until your knuckles turned white and more.
When you take your seat and notice your seatmate looks concerned about you, your seatmate gives a clichéd advice: Take a deep breath and relax! Does it work? The answer is it does distract you from thinking badly about your flight or negative things which are in store for you at your destination. But it will be ineffective if you don’t do it properly and keep saying that it is futile.
Source of Anxiety
Your anxiety is possibly driven by irrational thoughts because of boarding a plane for the first time or being alone on this flight. In other cases, you can identify your fears but just go through with it without thinking about its solution. Things like agoraphobia, claustrophobia and paranoia regarding plane crashing etc. can make you uncomfortable throughout your flight.
Whether you know what is troubling you or not, start thinking and jot down your anxiety triggers. Then come up with logical conclusions. To start off, there is no means of transportation which is free from any hazards. But this doesn’t mean you give up flying altogether! As far as seeing an improvement is concerned, don’t impose challenging milestones upon yourself. Take baby steps and then slowly you’ll recover by leaps and bounds.
When you try to deal with small things which are bothersome and then recover, you gain the confidence to handle bigger problems. It is similar to coming out of comfort zone.
Sense of not being in control
Why does everyone get gripped so strongly in their worries? It is because the major part of stress has something to do with you not being in control of the situation. Yes, it is understandable and here is how to deal with it. If you are worried about something leaving at home or your home being vulnerable without you, take precautions before you visit the airport. If you feel that you can’t have a smooth flight without bringing something, make sure to bring it along with you. Drive your efforts to things you CAN control and you’ll be more relaxed on the flight.
Obviously, you can’t take charge of a flight by asking the pilot or co-pilot to let you steer the massive tube. You won’t be helping with the situation!
Comparison leads to misery
Like everything in life, when you struggled, dedicated your time and effort and finally achieve something, you come across somebody who has transcended your now ‘mediocre accomplishment’. How disappointing is that; a straight blow to your self-esteem. The idea about travelling abroad is to enjoy yourself (even when you are on a mission to globetrot around the world). If you want to get rid of anxiety and take control of your fears, you have to stop comparing yourself with others by checking out what they have seen and done in their travel blogs.
In order to get better, you have to place milestones on yourself and aim to achieve them gradually. This does not have to be a competition.
THINK ABOUT THE POSITIVE SIDE
You feel helpless that you can’t control the plane which is flying about 40,000 feet. Unlike in a car, you should be glad you’re not in the pilot’s seat. Instead of steering a plane and knowing that getting the passengers safely to their destination is YOUR responsibility, you can rest in your chair knowing everything is taken care of and flight attendants can assist you. You don’t have to be in control see?
Moreover, if you are so anxious that you have decided to never fly again, think about the amazing, once-in-a-lifetime experiences you are missing out. This is helpful to those who are not rich and don’t fly frequently. Consider flying as just a way of moving from place A to place B; don’t associate it with your journey. This will assuage your travelling concerns. As mentioned previously, all this anxiety started because of your friend’s bad experience. You can take this as a valuable lesson. This will help in making right decisions and not make the same mistake your friend did. Maybe, this will help in generating alternate solutions around a problem or circumstance.
In the end, the answer to solving your worries lies within you. No matter who is sitting with you (an air marshal who has massive flight experience, a seatmate who has gone through turbulent times, or a motivational speaker who you listen to everyday), nobody has tremendous influence as much as you. You can channel your thoughts, turn a negative into positive and grab your fears by the collar to experience greater endeavors.
Remember, take a deep breath and relax!
