Both my sister and I both had a fear of flying. My sister still has the fear, but I was able to get over it by following the recommendation of a commercial pilot I sat next to on a small six-place plane flying in a thunderstorm. He told me to get my pilots license.
Within a year, I did just that!
But most people don’t want to take the time to go through the process!
I was at the airport in San Francisco and I started talking with a fellow traveler who was waiting for her flight. We were joking around about the weather and I told her about my rule in the 80’s to get off of any plane where the tarmac staff started to de-ice the wings.
She laughed and the confessed she was afraid of flying and like my sister, indulged in a two-drink minimum before getting on the plane and at least one more drink per hour to keep the nervous reaction under control. She said the down side was she had to go to sleep when she got to her destination and that wasn’t always an ideal situation.
After I explained the NESTing process she said she was game to give it a try.
It took about 15 minutes to take the intensity of her stress from a 9 to a 1. It had more to do with how she felt about letting someone else be in control of her than the actual process of flying.
Before we parted, I gave her my card and asked she email me the results of her flight going and coming back home.
Results: About a week later I received an email from her and she said she was able to get through her flight without a drink going to her destination and didn’t have a single drink on the way home.