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    About Us
    How CTC Was Created
Travel Tips and Tricks
    Top 10 tips for planning an elopement
    Searching for Flights? Tips on Where To Look
    Israel to Jordan Border Crossing
    Getting to London Airports
Blog
    The Power of Manifestation
    Follow the Signs From the Universe… It Knows The Way
    Strangers Who Become Friends
    The Power in Repeating Positive Affirmations
    The Importance of Setting Goals… Then Taking Action!
    Sending Love to Palestine
    Breaking Through the Fear
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    The Best of Jordan
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    Virgo New Moon Workshop
Contact Us
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  • Home
    • About Us
    • How CTC Was Created
  • Travel Tips and Tricks
    • Top 10 tips for planning an elopement
    • Searching for Flights? Tips on Where To Look
    • Israel to Jordan Border Crossing
    • Getting to London Airports
  • Blog
    • The Power of Manifestation
    • Follow the Signs From the Universe… It Knows The Way
    • Strangers Who Become Friends
    • The Power in Repeating Positive Affirmations
    • The Importance of Setting Goals… Then Taking Action!
    • Sending Love to Palestine
    • Breaking Through the Fear
    • Control and the Beauty in Letting It Go
  • Deals and Offers
    • October Relaxation Session
    • Conscious Conversation with Oracle Guidance
    • Group Travel & Sight Discounts
    • Car Rental
    • Flight Bookings
    • Discounted COVID-19 Tests for Travel
  • What to do in…
    • Kos, Greece
    • Kefalonia, Greece
    • Hvar, Croatia
    • Visiting Israel: The Holy Land
    • The Best of Jordan
  • Organised CTC Events
    • Girls Gone Wales!
    • Lake District, UK
    • Budapest, Hungary
    • Salisbury, UK
    • Interlaken, Switzerland
    • Split, Croatia | Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
    • Malta, Malta
    • Rhodes, Greece
    • Norfolk, UK
    • Albufeira Coast and Lisbon, Portugal
    • Connection to Self Relaxation Session
    • Virgo New Moon Workshop
  • Contact Us
Browsing Tag
planes
Blog

Breaking Through the Fear

As crazy as it sounds (you know, having a travel business and all) I actually had a massive fear of flying. Here’s my story and how I’ve been working through it…

As life passes by, it’s so interesting what pieces of information our body holds onto and what it disregards, what we are aware of and what lies dormant in our subconscious, waiting to be acknowledged. 

For me, my first trip to Italy at 16 was filled with wonder and excitement. However on the flight back to Australia, I went through what people have nightmares about. 

I’ve heard all the statistics, it’s safer to fly in a plane than to drive in a car and yeah I guess I’m still here to tell the story but at the age of 16, the traumatic experience of an emergency landing left me living in fear, in constant fight mode and enduring countless panic attacks and vomiting from extreme anxiousness, on every flight and even in the days leading up to my flights I was a complete mess. 

From what I remember, I didn’t have a fear of flying before my flight from Milan to Japan. Towards the end of the flight we began to encounter extreme turbulence. Like nothing I have ever experienced to this day (and as you know I fly weekly). The lights began flickering and then the feeling of us literally falling out of the sky which then turned into shaking and what felt like inside down loops (but not the fun thrill-seeker type). Everyone was in sheer panic, including the air hostesses with a sea of vomit all over the isles and not a single dry eye on the plane. The announcements were in Japanese so it was unclear what was going on. This ordeal not only happened once. The pilot flew up higher again then about 10 minutes later, put us all through the experience again (that was just to get the lesson, thanks universe). 

I remember being so still, scared to move. Silently praying, holding hands with my friends but also trying to come to terms with the fact that this might be the last living day I have. It’s traumatic thinking about this but read on (I promise it gets better). 

We eventually did land. I’m not even sure if it was an airport or a field as it was dark and really late. We had to wait hours before they took us to another airport where we slept on the floor until the morning. We later found out we flew through the eye of a category 4 typhoon with winds up to 155km that also caused a landslide killing over 90 people (so I am thankful to be alive). 

You can probably understand why this might have “triggered” my fear of flying. I have never allowed it to stop me pursuing travel but what a dichotomy right? The girl with a travel company had a fear of flying! 

Sometimes it’s hard to focus on the gifts of different situations in traumatic experiences and up until a few months ago I thought I was going to carry this fear forever. 

Over the past few years I have done so much work on myself around what this trigger brought me to realise. Funny enough, it’s never about the actual plane trauma but what feelings and emotions it bought up for me and what decisions I made about life in that moment. Themes around the fear of strangers and trust, which are all pretty common have been worked on but the main most recent one a few months ago was actually acknowledgement. 

See, when we finally landed I called my mum hysterically crying, shaking and in total shock. She calmed me down and said “it will all be ok, you’re fine”. She was calm, didn’t really want the finer details but it was comforting to hear her voice. 

But in that moment, with her calm voice, I made the decision that she didn’t care if I died. That even if things were so traumatic and terrifying for me, that it didn’t matter to her. Do I still love my mum? Of course I do! Did I know I was carrying this feeling? Not at all! 

I made decisions around my mum and linked them to flying all those years ago. I had been carrying that fear, laying dormant in my subconscious, waiting for it to be acknowledged. 

In May 2019, on the way to Greece with the help of 2 amazing friends, I got the realisation that this was in fact the link. I did call my mum, shared my realisation as stupid as it sounded and of course she cared. She said “isn’t it funny what your mind decides to make up?” And that’s exactly it. My mind created this decision based on the unsaid, when in fact my mum explained, she tried to stay calm to help me relax and calm down (of course she did)! But my logical mind didn’t take that on board. My ego, my subconscious mind made decisions and when I was on a plane, it reminded me of that fear, sneakily through creating all different scenarios that might happen. 

I don’t know if I’ve “cured” by fear but I have worked bloody hard to overcome it. Since this realisation, I have taken 12 flights, not all have been sunshine and rainbows but for the first time I felt excited about taking off. My internal dialogue was like well this is a new feeling! Is it real? What’s going on?! I can sleep on planes without medication to numb the pain, I feel calm and relaxed and time goes way quicker when you’re not in fear the whole time! 

I will of course continue to work on myself and what fears come up around flying, what feelings I feel on the plane (or before) but I hope this gives you some inspiration that trauma and triggers are all just feelings to be acknowledged and with work things can shift and change.

I don’t think it was “bad luck” to be on that flight. The universe is always trying to give us lessons and feelings to acknowledge and after we have those lessons, we can choose to let go of the fear and with awareness change your perception of the situations around you. 

I’ve shared some strategies I use on the plane to help calm myself down in Conscious Travel Community Facebook Group. Check them out!

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joshandtessaHi, Tessa and Josh here! We are an Australian couple (aged 30 & 31) who are friendly, outgoing and love to travel. We have created a community of like-minded, positive travellers who love to share tips and tricks, travel advice and are passionate about self-awareness called Conscious Travel Community.

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