July Reflections: Patterns, Planes and Personal Growth
For most people, booking a summer holiday brings a burst of excitement. For others, it triggers a deep wave of dread – especially if it means getting on a plane. Fear of flying is more common than many people realise, and it can be incredibly limiting - affecting not just holidays, but work trips, family visits and spontaneous adventures.
The reasons behind flight anxiety are often more complex than a fear of heights or turbulence.
For some, it stems from a general sense of anxiety that gets amplified in the air. For others, it’s linked to a specific memory – a bad flight, a panic attack, or even a second-hand experience – that the brain has logged as a threat. The amygdala, which plays a central role in the fight-or-flight response, is often behind this reaction. Hypnotherapy helps by calming the nervous system and gently untangling the roots of those old patterns, creating space for new associations to form. One past client said: “In a matter of weeks I felt like a different person and wasn’t second-guessing getting on a plane.”
That idea – that our default templates are reinforced unless we break them – has come up in sessions a lot this month. Whether it’s fear of flying, chronic stress, self-doubt or emotional fatigue, so many of our responses are just well-worn pathways our brains have travelled again and again. Hypnotherapy helps interrupt that loop. It doesn’t force change, but creates the right conditions for it – inviting the nervous system to soften, the critical voice to quieten, and the mind to practise something new.
July has been full of powerful shifts like these – and I’m so grateful to each of you who’s been part of that, as well as immensely proud of the way your habits are changing for the better.
If you’ve been thinking about reaching out, now’s a good time. I offer a free 15-minute Discovery Call where we can chat about what’s going on and whether this could be the right support.
