Fight Anxiety While Flying With This Simple Breathing Technique
Arming yourself with facts is one way to deal with your fear of flying , but if that doesn’t work, you get on a plane or sit in a chair and feel a familiar anxiety rise in your chest, try this meditative breathing exercise to relax a little.
This control technique helps you relax through targeted deep breathing. When you are in the landing zone or sitting on an airplane, close your eyes and breathe in in four counts and exhale in eight counts. Focus on expanding your lungs and stomach to fully experience the effect of deep breathing. If you have headphones or earbuds, this can help you listen to white noise or nature sounds to block out the passengers around you, or to ambient airplane noise so that you can more easily focus on your breathing.
This is a quick, simple, and hopefully beneficial exercise that will calm your nerves in a stressful situation. Return to this exercise whenever you start to feel anxious during the flight.
Relaxation Techniques: Controlling Breathing Helps Suppress Accidental Stress Responses | Harvard Medical School