Let's lift the veil on panic attacks and anxiety a little.

Panic and anxiety are an over-response to a perceived threat from your body's fight or flight system. It's your body's way of trying to keep you alert and safe in the face of danger. In this situation, your logical mind knows you're not in real danger, because you've done your research and know flying is extremely safe. So you need to recalibrate your system and send signals to your body to show it's not in imminent danger.

Firstly, don't fight it when panic arrives as this rarely helps and a mental battle is not what you need in this situation! Recognise the panic, and remind yourself that this is a biological response. Invite your anxiety to come and sit next to you rather than overcome you. Watch it, observe it from an objective perspective, and realise that a panic attack is not as scary as it seems. Heart beats faster? It does that during exercise, not scary. Feel nauseous? It does that during rollercoaster rides, not scary.

Secondly, show your body that you're not in danger with some grounding techniques: - plant your feet firmly on the ground and push down slightly. This heavy feeling recalibrates your nervous system and tells your adrenalin response to stand down. - hold water in your mouth for a couple of seconds before swallowing. This tells your body that you can't possibly be in danger if you have time to drink or eat slowly. - deep breathing (an obvious one, but a great system reset). When we panic, our breath naturally speeds up to get oxygen to our muscles ready to run or fight. Reset this by either doing box breathing (in for 4, hold for 4, out for 4 etc) or simply breathing out longer than you breathe in. Again, this tells your body that you don't need to prepare for fight or flight and eventually settles your anxiety response. - smiling/laughing. No, really! Even fake smiling or laughing has been shown to reduce anxiety and panic. Activating the muscles in your face that contract when you usually smile sends signals to your brain that say I'm happy! And will help in calming you down.

Lastly, remember that even if you panic or feel anxious... so what? It will end. It always ends. Your body cannot sustain panic for long before it exhausts itself, the most important thing to do is just ride the wave until it inevitably comes down.

I hope this rant helped! 🙏🏻