A few days ago I told you all about Rich Presta and how he finally helped me overcome the fear of flying. Well today I’m going to tell you a bit about Rich’s programme and what it did for me. If you want to have a look at Rich’s site before we start you can visit his website now.
I remember the first time I got on a plane. Everything was fine as we took off but then I made a mistake; I looked out of the window! As I looked down and could barely see the ground the terror started and I couldn’t breath. I started to sweat and felt like I was in a flying tin can that would crash down to earth any minute. The anxiety and fear I felt was unbelievable and possibly one of the most unpleasant experiences of my entire life. I think I might have been about eight or nine years old and I can tell you from that point on I never went on another plane.
When the question of a holiday came up between myself and my partner I always persuaded him to drop the idea, I’d get so upset at the thought of going on a plane that I’d work myself into near hysterics over it. The only time we ever tried to go abroad on holiday, I was prescribed Ativan and even then I got as far as the boarding gate and completely broke down. This was the last time that a holiday abroad was mentioned in our relationship.
Up until this point I had tried a couple of things to get over my fear of flying. I bought several books online that didn’t help me, I went to see a hypnotist and while it was relaxing still did nothing to cure my flying phobia, then I tried meditation and yoga that did nothing for me but give me a sprained back. I had given up hope, until something in my life changed my whole perspective and made me even more determined to cure my flying phobia.
My partner proposed to me one evening, completely out of the blue and unexpectedly. I was overjoyed and wanted nothing more than to be with him forever – he did ask me one thing though. Could I try just one more time to get over my fear of flying, so we could go on honeymoon. I didn’t know if I could, but I would try!
This is when I discovered Rich Presta’s Takeoff Today Programme. I found his website on google one night while I was frantically surfing trying to find the holy grail – a cure for my fear of flying. His site was very informative and he seemed to think that the best way of overcoming the fear of flying was to actually learn as much about planes as humanly possible and then to work on conquering your fear. This was an approach that I hadn’t seen before in other self help books, so I was intrigued and bought the course on his site that evening.
Click here to look at Rich’s site yourself
So what was the programme like? Fantastic is the only word I would use to describe it. I got a 100+ page manual explaining the course in easy to follow chapters, a two hour video that reviews the course and goes over what steps you can take to try to solve your flight phobia a bit at a time, the entire programme in MP3 format so I could listen to it wherever I was and finally the tactical kit.
The program walks you by the hand through all of the major things that can be causing your fear of flying. At this point in time I probably know more about planes than a lot of the airline staff do, it really tells you that much! Once I learned all about the planes, the infinite safety measures in place, all the controls that keep everything working the way they should I already started to feel better. In fact, that’s an understatement – I started to feel quite sheepish that I’d ever been afraid in the first place.
Once I got through this part of the course I was on the home stretch. Rich’s system then started working through what causes our fear of flying and gives some fantastic techniques to quieten down, if not stop completely these fears. As the day loomed of our wedding and honeymoon, I realised I was behaving normally – Like a normal bride only concerned with the wedding, not the fear of the plane!
The only downside of Rich’s programme is that you get so much information that it seems a bit overwhelming to begin with. Once you have sat with the materials for 10 minutes or so though, things start to fall into place and you can start your incredible journey into the realm of those not afraid of flying.
Finally the day came – I had an amazing day and the most beautiful wedding that you can possibly imagine. The night before the wedding I had packed my ‘tactical kit’ in my carry on bag to take on the plane. We went to the airport… guess what? Nothing – no concern whatsoever! Not when we went to board, or entered the plane – not a thing!
Once we got in the air I started to feel a little anxious so I grabbed my tactical kit and started reading. That was really it. I had seemingly crossed over to the other side – I had very mild anxiety on take off but apart from that I felt fine, finally I had overcome the fear of flying!
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