Sharon Kingsley, a bright middle-aged woman from Edinburgh loves to travel and go on trips abroad with her friends. But to my surprise, she had only visited two countries in her lifetime. A highly sociable travel enthusiast who had only been abroad twice in her life? I wondered why so little, as an enthusiast of anything makes time to do as much of an activity they love!
To my surprise, it is common for people to avoid travel due to aviophobia or aerophobia (fear of flight). According to recent statistics, around 20% of the population suffers from this fear and Sharon was one of them. She feared flying so much that she avoided going on countless trips with her friends and even going to visit her brother in Canada. But all of this suddenly changed. Not in therapy or by reading this blog, although it may have helped, but on an aeroplane. This is her story of how she conquered her fear of flying while soaring over the North Atlantic.
Sharon received a call from her brother and was delighted at the news of him getting married. Although she was ecstatic, she knew she would have to now catch a flight to Canada which was unavoidable. To make matters worse, this was not a short plane ride either, it was a full 8 hours away. To her dismay, she bought her ticket and was counting down the days with dread, losing countless hours of sleep each night due to the fear she was feeling. With bags under her eyes, the day finally came when it was time to head off to the airport and catch her flight.
Although the takeoff was smooth, she felt her anxiety shoot straight up when the plane experienced a bit of turbulence. Tim, a passenger to her left noticed this and asked her what was wrong. "I'm terrified!" she yelled. "I have a fear of flying and know the disasters that can take place during flight" she explained. Well, although Tim couldn't deny that there's always a possibility of a fatal flight, he did share some statistics. He told Sharon that there are around a hundred thousand planes that take off and land daily, of which an insignificant number ever go down. In addition, most of the planes that go down are either small aircraft or non-commercial jets. And out of the billions of people that have flown, the number of people who have been killed is nearly 0%, which includes all those who flew decades ago, and as times went on aviation has become much safer. "With this in mind, why would God choose you out of everyone to die flying? If you have managed to wake up every morning, not be murdered in broad daylight and survive every car journey to date, why worry about flying? The risks of flight are infinitesimal in comparison to everything you do on a daily basis", said Tim. Sharon looked around and saw everyone relaxed and enjoying the flight, with the flight attendants smiling and conversing with passengers. She realised that all those on the flight were not immortal, they were all exposed to the same consequences as she was. And if they could relax and have a good time during a bit of turbulence, so could she. Air hostesses fly hundreds if not thousands of times a year, and they're still working fine. And if flying was so dangerous, nobody would do it as no one wishes to die. If flying was dangerous, even remotely, the governments wouldn't allow it either.
This realisation gave Sharon much relief and after many days of worry, she found her calm and slept through the flight. All the sleepless nights for nothing, a lesson well learnt!
"The best things in life are on the other side of fear." - Will Smith
Well done Sharon, you not only conquered your fear of flying using The Law of Averages but realised worrying about something extremely unlikely can give you poor mental and physical health. I am happy to say that she has now travelled the majority of South America, and learnt some Spanish along the way. She not only attends trips abroad with her friends but now looks forward to planning them. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Sharon's book and apply The Law of Averages to our worry problems. I sure did!
Коментарі