Imagine being able to book a plane ticket to New York, Mumbai, Paris, the Dominican or Tokyo. The days and nights leading up to the trip, you are calm and able to sleep soundly.

Once on board, ready for take-off, picture yourself sitting back comfortably and feeling nothing but calm. While in-flight, you look out the window and see the ocean, archipelagos, blue sky and clouds.

Although you are scared of flying now, these images WILL soon become a reality.

Think deeply about how your life would specifically improve if you conquer fear of flying.

Is it because you have dreamt of traveling somewhere faraway? Do you wish you could visit friends or family across the country? Is it for professional reasons? Do you wish to be freed by the grips of phobia?

Whatever your desires, let these be your inspiration to start your challenging, yet fulfilling, recovery from your flying anxiety.

What are Your Exact Fears?

If you are afraid of flying, chances are it is not flying in general, but something associated with boarding and traveling on a plane. It is important for you to explore this in depth.

Did you have a traumatic experience on board a plane? Do you feel closed in when sitting in aircraft seats? Are you worried about freaking out and making a fool of yourself? Are you scared that the plane will crash?

Fear of flying phobia sometimes develops out of having a panic attack on a plane or in a similar environment. Panic attacks are frightening.

They may make you feel like you are choking or having a heart attack. Your heart might start racing, you may tremble, feel dizzy or numb, have trouble breathing or experience an “out-of-body” sensation.

Your fear of flying stems from not wanting to have these uncomfortable panic attacks ever again.

But by acknowledging that they are indeed panic attacks, and not threats to your sanity or life, you can teach your subconscious brain that you are not in danger the next time you have one.

Exposure through Visualization

Fear of flying help includes exposing yourself to what you are afraid of. This does not mean you have to board a plane right away.

You can practice in the comfort of your own home, and visualize a plane ride. Specifically you can imagine the particular component you identified that makes you scared of flying.

Sit in a quiet place, close your eyes and allow all your senses to envisage yourself as a passenger. If you start to feel anxiety or panic, stay with it, because these scary feelings will eventually go away.

If you expose yourself to your triggers everyday, each exposure will become easier to deal with, and the less anxious you will become. This is one, of several, fear of flying tips.

After visualization exercises at home, you will eventually be ready to take actual flights, starting with short trips. This too will probably cause some anxious symptoms, or possibly a panic attack.

But you can be rest assured, just as your anxiety decreased during the simulations, it too will subside on a real flight.

Change your Focus

Another help for fear of flying is using diversion tactics. If you are experiencing anxiety aboard a flight, in anticipation of a trip, or in any area of your life that makes you panic, change your focus. This means to change or distract your anxious thoughts.

Let’s say you are sitting on a plane waiting for take-off. You could count how many people on the plane are wearing glasses or you could try to guess where everyone is from.

Do a crossword puzzle, write a poem or journal entry, sketch your destination or chat with your neighbor.

If you are panicking the night before your flight, you could call a friend, organize your movie collection in alphabetical order or go for a walk to take pictures.

It does not matter what activity you choose as long as it involves the conscious part of your brain. By concentrating your mind on another activity, there will be no room for anxious thoughts.

Modify your Body to Relax

Not only can you adjust your thoughts to relax; you can also modify your body. Breathing is a key indicator that tells whether the body is calm.

While sitting straight in a chair, see if you can inhale slowly, hold your breath for a few seconds and then exhale slowly. Keep count so you can completely focus on your breathing.

Try doing up to ten breaths at a time. If you still feel stress, continue breathing.

Further relax your body by doing a head-to-toe stretch. Start with loosening up your facial muscles and rolling your neck. Roll your shoulders, stretch your arms, and squeeze your hands and release.

Continue relaxing the rest of your body. Do a body scan and identify if any muscle is tense. Remove this tension.

By coupling breathing with stretching exercises, your mind and body can both become relaxed.

You do not only have to practice this during a flight or airplane simulation; make it an everyday practice to avoid anxiety in all situations.

Conquer Fear of Flying

There is a fear of flying book that fully describes the above techniques as well as a plethora of others. It is called The Take Off Today Program and it was developed by Rich Presta.

Presta used to be scared of flying and avoided it at all costs. But, through sheer will, research and trying different treatment approaches, he overcame his flying anxiety.

His program outlines exactly what he followed to eliminate his phobia forever. It is now used by mental health professionals around the world to treat their patients with similar fears.

Just think of the range of possibilities that will be available to you once you conquer your fear of flying. The airways are waiting.

Those who suffer from a social phobia disorder have an amplified mind-sight. This means they are constantly thinking about how others view them.

This causes anxiety in a variety of situations, like introducing yourself to strangers, engaging in small talk, attending parties or social gatherings, talking in front of a group, revealing your true self, making small talk, and using the washroom or eating in public.

Do you experience social phobia symptoms, such as trouble breathing, trembling, blushing, a racing heart, shaky voice, negative self-talk and feelings of insecurity, while interacting with others?

If you have a social anxiety phobia, your heightened mind-sight, not only causes you to panic, but also worry that others will notice these symptoms, which will cause you to panic even more. It is a vicious cycle.

You have created an unrealistic expectation that everyone has to like you.

Furthermore, you are prone to misinterpret that people are showing cues that they disapprove of you, when a lot of the time these cues are non-existent.

To start overcoming your social phobia anxiety, you need to tell yourself that it is impossible to be liked by everyone and it is perfectly acceptable to disagree with someone or to make mistakes in social situations.

Consistently adopting this positive self-talk is just the beginning of conquering your fear.

Learning to be Assertive

Many people who struggle with social phobia anxiety disorder attempt never to disagree with others. Can you relate to this?

Is it difficult for you to voice your own opinions and stand up for yourself?

Is it hard to tell a cashier that they haven’t given you enough change or to say no to someone even though you really want to decline?

Chances are you avoid confrontations for the same reason that you have a fear of social situations.

You are scared that you will look ridiculous, that someone won’t like you or that the panic symptoms you are experiencing will be obvious to those you are interacting with.

You probably leave these situations thinking “I should have said that…”

To overcome this shyness social phobia, you need to learn and practice assertiveness. You need to be able to say out loud what you wish you could have said.

To get comfortable with assertiveness, role-play with a friend you trust. Ask him or her to debate over a topic with you, where you each take a different stance.

This is a dress-rehearsal for actual scenarios and you will gain confidence to express your own valuable opinions.

As you interact with friends and then acquaintances in real-life situations, tell yourself ahead of time, and during conversations, that you will say what you actually mean, even if it is an opposing view.

Reaffirm that you will not apologize for disagreeing. The key is not to be emotional or aggressive, but assertive and calm.

Most people that do not have a social phobia disorder will respect you for your genuine dialogue. Debate is a healthy activity and most people will not be offended if you have a dissimilar view.

Keep telling yourself these things and do not back down. The more you expose yourself to these situations, the less anxiety it will be for the next time.

Getting to the Core of Your Fears

Another part of overcoming your social phobia disorder is through understanding your anxiety and getting to the core of your fears.

Think about each type of situation where you experience social phobia symptoms.

One scenario could be making small talk with a stranger at a party, for example. Now ask yourself, why this situation is uncomfortable.

For instance, “Making small talk with a stranger causes me to talk in a shaky voice”. Keep on asking yourself why each step bothers you.

First you might say, “He will notice I am talking in a shaky voice”. Then, you may say, “He will think I am strange or socially incompetent”.

Finally, you may conclude “He or nobody else at the party will want to talk to me and I will never be able to make new friends again.”

If you now, rationally, look at your surface fear, which was being anxious about talking in a shaky voice, it seems to be a far cry from the fear of never meeting new friends ever again.

The conscious part of your brain tells you that your core fear is irrational. It is now time to retrain your subconscious brain not to react to these irrational fears.

Start by changing your core fear beliefs by writing down positive statements, like “I have some fascinating things to say in a conversation; even if I talk in a shaky voice at first, most people will not mind”.

The next time you engage in a small talk conversation, you can also use diversion tactics, like concentrating fully on what the other person is saying, or on asking intriguing questions, rather than on your own anxious thoughts.

Diversion strategies and positive self-talk will help you relax, and ultimately make your voice less shaky.

Social Phobia Help

Learning how to be assertive and how to identify and manage your core fears is just one piece of the puzzle to obliterating social phobia disorder.

The Social Anxiety Secrets book outlines these strategies and other essential techniques to eliminate your shyness and social anxiety.

This program was developed by Dr. Todd Snyder, a clinical psychologist and ex-social anxiety sufferer.

Dr. Snyder wants to save you the trouble of doing endless hours of research and trying different treatment programs until you find one that works. He did this for you and it is all presented in Social Anxiety Secrets.

Commit today to eliminating social phobia anxiety. It will be a challenge, but with every set-back, you will gain strength and confidence, growing closer to your goal of being comfortable in all social situations.

Panic disorder with agoraphobia is characterized by avoiding places or activities that cause anxiety, like places far from home or crowded rooms.

Someone who suffers from agoraphobia usually has experienced at least one panic attack; he or she then avoids any similar situation where initial panic had set in to escape the chance of having another panic attack.

Panic attacks are frightening. A surge of intense anxiety is felt over the whole body.

A sufferer may feel chest discomfort or tightness, a racing pulse, a pounding heart, numbness, trembling, nausea, dizziness, like he or she is choking, have trouble breathing or feel surreal or detached from him or herself.

As a child, Roger was bitten by an unruly dog in his neighborhood.

This never really affected him until years later, when he was walking near his home and was startled by an angry dog off its leash.

The owner rounded up the dog quickly, but for Roger, panic set in. He started to feel pain and tightness in his chest and thought he was having a heart attack.

He immediately when to the emergency room, but the doctor assured him there were no physical complications.

The next day, Roger woke up with similar chest discomfort, and went to the hospital again.

Luckily, this time, he met with a compassionate doctor who explained that Roger was experiencing panic attacks.

Although, Roger was relieved to hear he was not dying, his fear spiraled out of control.

He rarely left his house, unless it was with someone he trusted, for fear of having another panic attack.

This came with huge professional and social costs. Roger was suffering from panic disorder with agoraphobia.

Besides fear of leaving the house, other agoraphobia symptoms include a fear of being alone, of crowds, of public places like a shop or movie theatre, being trapped, of driving or being a passenger on a bus, train or plane, helplessness, depression, a dependence on others, or a fear of dying, losing control or going insane when experiencing an agoraphobia panic attack.

It was once thought that agoraphobia was limited to feeling anxious in open spaces, but this is no longer the only case.

Breaking Your Agoraphobic Habits

Agoraphobia disorder is based on avoidance behavior.

Judy first started avoiding elevators because of the sensation she felt of being trapped. This was mild at first and had little effect on her life.

Gradually, however, she avoided plane and bus trips, small rooms, or crowds of people because she felt there was no escape.

The more places added to her taboo list, the more her everyday, functional life was affected.

The longer you engage in avoidance behavior, the harder this habit is to break.

But, you CAN break the habit, no matter how chronic it is, and take charge today.

Pick one place, situation or activity that you fear and avoid. Everyday go to that location or participate in that activity for five minutes.

You can even bring a close friend with you at first. You will undoubtedly feel anxious or even have a panic attack the first few times.

But these exercises will help you realize that symptoms of agoraphobia and panic will not physically harm you.

In fact, these uncomfortable feelings will pass (Panic attacks usually only take a few minutes to peak).

Eventually increase your time spent facing your fear for ten minutes a day, fifteen minutes a day and then alone, reminding yourself that you are not actually in danger.

Completing these activities on a regular basis will help you completely overcome agoraphobia.

Give yourself credit. Somewhere inside you is an overpowering courage ready to be tapped.

On Your Way to Recovery

As you start overcoming agoraphobia, your panic attacks will start to lose their intensity.

In fact you will consciously be able to stop your feelings of anxiety from escalating into a panic attack.

You will acknowledge that they are symptoms of agoraphobia that cannot hurt you.

By telling yourself, even if you do have a panic attack, it is not the end of the world, and you can avert the panic attack from happening.

Adopt positive thoughts, like I’m feeling anxious but I am really enjoying this party or this shopping excursion or this walk on a beautiful day.

Panic disorder with agoraphobia can be further managed by adopting relaxation techniques.

When your body becomes relaxed, your anxious thoughts start to subside.

If you feel panic setting in, consciously slow down your breathing. Inhale and exhale fully.

Completely focus your mind on this act; you can even say in your head “breathe in” as you inhale and “breathe out” as you exhale.

By diverting your full attention to breathing, there will be no room for anxious thoughts.

Combine breathing with stretching.

Stand shoulder width apart and slow down your breathing. As you inhale stretch you arms straight above your head; as you exhale release your arms.

These stretches will transfer a sense of calm over your whole body.

Activities like tai chi, yoga, qi kung and meditation help you adopt helpful breathing, stretching and posture techniques.

Agoraphobia Help

Wouldn’t it be great if there was someone who has actually experienced panic disorder agoraphobia that could provide you with advice and guidance?

Well guess what, there is. Charles Linden once suffered from agoraphobia and panic attacks. He was able to surmount his phobia and anxiety through research and trying several treatment plans.

He completely eliminated agoraphobia from his life and developed The Linden Method.

The Linden Method’s book and audio CDs have already helped thousands of people, and outline exactly how Linden was able to stop avoiding any fearful situation.

In addition to teaching you exposure and breathing exercises, The Linden Method will help you understand your phobia, teach you diversion tactics, additional relaxation techniques and what to do when you are experiencing recovery set-backs.

In fact, you can even call Linden psychologists and counselors for guidance, 24-7, while you complete the program.

Conquer your panic disorder with agoraphobia, so that you can experience everything you have been truly missing.

Just like an extreme fear of attending social gatherings and eating alone, public speaking anxiety is one type of social phobia.

In studies done by Dr. Murray B. Stein et al., participants were interviewed related to social situations.

Eighty-five percent of the respondents said that public speaking made them nervous.

Thirty-four percent said that speaking in front of audiences caused notable distress and they thought it affected them more than most people.

Anxiety and public speaking may include fear of giving presentations at school or work, attending job interviews, being introduced to a group of people, giving a speech at a wedding, talking to a stranger or someone in authority, and expressing one’s opinions in group situations.

If you suffer from a public speaking phobia, you may relate to one, several or all of these fears.

When you are in the spotlight, maybe your mouth gets dry, you start to blush, tremble or sweat, your muscles tense up, your mind goes blank, or you feel like your heart is racing.

Anticipation of a public speaking event, the night or even the week before, may cause trouble sleeping, a loss of concentration, restlessness or a feeling of being trapped.

Perhaps these anxious or panic symptoms feel so debilitating that you avoid speaking in public altogether, by missing social gatherings, calling in sick, skipping class, hiding behind others to avoid talking or never leaving the house.

Maybe you think you have been coping just fine and that you can continue to steer clear of activities that cause you such discomfort.

The truth is, you don’t need to barely get by anymore – you can eliminate public speaking anxiety completely from your life.

Realizing Your Fear is Irrational

According to Benjamin van Spijck, approximately 80% of people have at least one irrational fear.

A rational fear is based on an actual threat. All human brains are programmed to react to real dangers, such as moving out of the way of an out-of-control racing car.

The flight-or-fight portion of the brain sends a signal to your body to get out of harm’s way. Your anxiety in public speaking is an example of an irrational fear.

That same zone in your brain has learned to interpret public speaking situations as actual threats, thus you feel the same anxious feelings to these as you would in actual dangerous situations.

Luckily, just as your brain has been programmed to react to speaking in public, it can be reprogrammed not to panic in these same situations.

By learning that most humans are not out to judge you, and that public speaking does not have to be characterized as a grand performance, you can overcome your public speaking anxiety.

Think of those you are already comfortable talking to. You are more than capable of doing the same with those you are nervous to speak in front of.

This will open up a myriad of new opportunities, like a possible job promotion or meeting new friends.

What is Your Specific Fear?

Overcoming Public Speaking Anxiety involves determining what exactly you are afraid of when it comes to speaking in public.

Exploring these specific fears will allow you to learn, consciously and subconsciously, that they are irrational.

You may fear that you will look ridiculous, boring or make mistakes in front of a group.

But, being perfect is an unrealistic expectation and your fellow human beings are more forgiving than you think.

Plus, making an error or boring a few people is not an actual danger; it is an irrational fear and one that will not lead to your demise.

Fearing that you will have a panic attack during a presentation that will lead to insanity, a loss of control or death, although common for many anxiety sufferers, is irrational.

Panic attacks eventually subside and you will not die or “lose it” from having one. In fact, most observers won’t even know you are having a panic attack.

It is time to replace negative and irrational thoughts with positive and encouraging ones.

Tell yourself “I know a lot about this topic and I have some valuable things to say”; “I am an equal, not an inferior, and I have the right to speak”; or, “I love speaking with person A, B, C, so of course I can talk to person D, E, and F.”

Practice Speaking and Relaxing

In addition to realizing your anxiety is irrational, practice public speaking at home.

Vividly imagining a speaking encounter that makes you nervous and remaining with that encounter is a form of exposure therapy.

The more you expose yourself to these simulations, the closer you will get to reprogram your brain; you will truly acknowledge that public fear does not pose any actual danger.

Coupling this practice with breathing and muscle relaxation exercises will transform your panic attacks into moments of calm and confidence.

How to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety

Overcoming your public speaking anxiety cannot be done overnight and should not be put off until the night before a speech or social event.

Just like learning and mastering any new skill, eliminating your public speaking anxiety takes consistent practice.

Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking, by Benjamin van Spijck, is a program that provides you with daily exercises to completely remove this form of social anxiety from your life, permanently.

Van Spijck suffered from a fear of speaking in public for a large portion of his life.

When he realized his phobia was irrational, he sought help, researched scientific studies, consulted professionals and overcame his fear.

How he did this is outlined in his Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking book.

Think about the things you have been dreaming about doing once you conquer your speaking in public phobia.

Do you want to give a toast at your parents’ 50th wedding anniversary?

Do you want to give more presentations at work and meet with more clients to move up the ladder?

Do you wish you could approach an intriguing person at a party and introduce yourself?

Keep these goals in mind, make a commitment to yourself, and you will experience amazing life-changing results.

Do you call in sick to avoid giving a presentation at work?

Do you skip social events to avoid being the center of attention?

Do you have terrifying fantasies, like crashing your car into a tree, to avoid speaking in public?

If so, you are not alone. At least 80% of people dread talking in front of a group and 40% rate this activity as one of their top three fears.

Like others have succeeded, you too can overcome fear of public speaking.

Stop Avoiding

You may have “managed” your fear of public speaking through avoiding situations that make you uncomfortable.

This may seem like the solution and you may think you do not need to change a thing.

But, you have the opportunity to face your fear, which will allow you to have social and professional successes – experiences that you have been continuously missing out on in life.

To start overcoming a fear of speaking in public, you need to learn the difference between rational and irrational fears.

A rational fear may involve being threatened by a mugger.

Your fear of public speaking is an irrational one, but you feel the same symptoms of anxiety or panic as if you were actually in danger.

A fear of having a panic attack during a speaking engagement causes you to feel anxiety ahead of time.

Thus, the tempting choice is to avoid that situation.

But by avoiding interviews, business presentations and parties, your irrational fear of public speaking increases and grows on a subconscious level, like an instinctive reflex.

Analyzing Your Fear

To start tweezing out your irrational thoughts, identify your specific fears for public speaking.

Is it related to presentations, interacting with groups, talking to strangers, expressing your opinions, or perhaps all of the above?

The trick is to replace your negative insecurities with positive encouragers that are actually more rational than those you are scared of.

For example, if you fear that you will make a fool of yourself while giving a presentation and that the audience will be judgmental, turn that into an encourager like, these are my colleagues, they are on my side and they want the best for me.

If you worry that someone will be bored during your presentation, tell yourself that it is impossible to please everyone, and even if someone is yawning, the others are intrigued.

By consciously replacing negative, irrational thoughts with positive, rational ones, you are beginning to retrain your brain.

Imaginary Exposure

Before diving into presentation in front of 50 people, you need to practice exposing yourself to these situations at home.

This is a way to unlearn your avoidance behavior.

The more you visualize public speaking, the less fear you will have for an upcoming presentation or social situation.

Start by imagining situations that cause you a little fear, like introductions to new people.

Allow the anxious symptoms to express themselves and counter-attack them with breathing and muscle relaxation exercises.

Gradually visualize situations that are more frightening, like a presentation in front of ten people and then 20 people, etc.

As you expose yourself to these simulations, you will see that your fear reactions will decrease over time.

You will learn that it is the anticipation, and not the actual experience, that feeds your phobia.

Learn to Speak Naturally

As you start thinking more rationally and practicing exposure exercises, you will begin to feel keen to give a presentation.

Further reduce your fear of public speaking by learning techniques that will help you speak naturally and remember what you want to say.

Learn to create mind maps for each speaking engagement. These diagrams allow you to know your speech both visually and verbally.

Preparing a mind map on paper helps you memorize your presentation, remember your key points and assists you to stay on topic.

Then, practice your speech alone. Also, practice positive visualization.

This involves picturing yourself delivering your presentation confidently and successfully, from beginning to end.

After engaging in this activity, you will be armed with the self-assurance that you will do a great job.

Now it’s time for the ultimate test. Invite a small group of people you trust to your house and deliver that speech.

Ask for feedback from your audience and you will be pleasantly surprised to hear many positive comments.

If there are areas for improvement, you can address these in your next presentation, which will allow your confidence to grow even more.

You will have taken a huge step towards completely overcoming your fear of public speaking, but don’t let it stop there.

Volunteer for presentations at work or in the community, starting with speaking in front of small groups and then increasing your audience size.

The same can be done in front of a group at a social event. Commit to telling one story or one joke at a party.

At the next meet and greet, challenge yourself to telling two stories or to interact with two groups of people, and so on.

The more practice you get in, the easier each public engagement will be.

How to Overcome Fear of Public Speaking

When you are ready to eliminate your fear of public speaking phobia, start the Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking program.

It was created by Benjamin van Spijck who suffered from a fear of public speaking for approximately 20 years.

His program is different from others that only focus on presentation skills.

His e-book teaches you how to understand and overcome your underlying anxiety associated with public speaking.

Van Spijck did the scientific research and talked to psychologists and speaking coaches to overcome his fear of speaking in public.

The techniques he used are outlined and explained in Overcoming Fear of Public Speaking program. You will eliminate your phobia and have fun at the same time.

Think about the new opportunities that will open up for you when you overcome your fear of public speaking.

Let these be your guiding inspirations as you conquer your phobia and gain a more fulfilling lifestyle.

Your fear of flying causes great injustice to yourself and your loved ones.

Think about weddings, family reunions or funerals you have missed due to your phobia.

Consider the time you wasted going by train or car that could have been spent at the destination.

What about some of the places you have dreamt of visiting and the only thing stopping you is your fear of getting on a plane?

Maybe your phobia stems from feelings of claustrophobia and feeling trapped in your seat.

Perhaps you are scared that the plane will crash and you will die.

To overcome fear of flying, you need to trust and know that the likelihood of an airplane accident is small.

More importantly, you need to learn and practice techniques that will help you control and then completely eliminate your anxiety related to flying.

By overcoming fear of flying, you will be able to visit your dream destinations and you will no longer negatively obsess about a plane trip days and weeks ahead of time.

You may even start to enjoy being a passenger, looking at beautiful bird’s eye views of cities through cumulonimbus clouds, while sitting back, relaxed in your seat.

Controlling and Then Eliminating Your Anxiety

Part of your mind has been programmed incorrectly. This is not a flaw in character or a weakness of intellect.

It is not the logical part of your brain that has been fed false information – it is the instinctive or flight-or-fight portion that has been misled.

In all humans, this part of the brain, called the amygdala, is supposed to react to actual threats.

But your amygdala also reacts to irrational or non-existent dangers, like every time you take a plane ride, you fear you will crash or become trapped.

The signals sent out by your amygdala cause you to feel anxiety and panic.

As part of your own fear of flying treatment, you must learn to reprogram this portion of the brain.

This will allow you to control and then eliminate your anxiety.

One step is to consciously realize that although anxiety symptoms and panic attacks are frightening, they actually pose no threat.

Often when people have panic attacks they are scared they will lose control, that they will become insane or that they will die.

By learning to “ride” the panic attack until it plays out, your brain will be taught that the end result is not a loss of control, insanity or death.

Rest assured that an individual panic attack does have an endpoint, so it is completely feasible for you to ride it out.

So how do you “ride” your symptoms of anxiety and panic attacks you may be asking?

It involves not suppressing these feelings, but being present with them.

You can practice this on an actual flight, the night before a plane trip or in a role playing exercise.

Be fully conscious of the exact racing thoughts running through your mind. Observe your physical symptoms.

Are you shaking, lightheaded, feeling tightness in your chest, feeling tension in your neck or do you have a tingly sensation in your arm?

Allowing the anxious sensations to fully overtake your body and mind is frightening.

But the less you hold back and the more you practice this technique, the more you will realize that your fears of what you believe will happen will not actually occur.

By riding anxiety, you are reprogramming your amygdala and preventing future panic attacks associated with flying.

Before you take your next flight, it is also important to practice some relaxation exercises.

Learn and implement stretches and movements for each part of your body to get rid of muscle tension.

This will help you board and take your seat while feeling calm.

Truly Knowing the Mechanics of Flying

Learning the basics of how an airplane works is one component of how to overcome fear of flying.

It is important that you learn these facts on an emotional level, not only an intellectual one, since you are dealing with an intuitively-based condition.

The risk of an airplane’s engines failing is close to nil.

If the engines were to quit, however, the plane would never rush to the ground.

First of all, at typical in-flight altitude, the lift (the force that holds up the plane in the air) still acts on the plane with or without the engines running.

Secondly, if the engines permanently shut off, the plane would glide and not cascade down to the Earth.

A typical commercial plane would glide for 100 miles, and within the United States, this would almost always allow the plane to land at an airport.

But again, total engine failure is nearly impossible.

This is just skimming the surface.

The more you learn about the safety of plane travel, the more you will want to fly instead of drive to work or on errand runs.

Overcome the Fear of Flying

To review, overcoming fear of flying involves reducing your anxiety and becoming relaxed, but also learning that airplane travel is safe.

The Take Off Today Program Manual, developed by Rich Presta, will teach you to implement these two steps.

Presta once dealt with this same phobia and was able to eliminate it from his own life.

Take Off Today includes every successful technique and strategy Presta used to conquer his fear of flying.

People and mental health professionals all around the world have used the program to treat themselves or their patients.

Tell yourself “I want to overcome my fear of flying”. Commit to it. Actively participate in exercises that will help you abolish your phobia.

Sooner than later you will be taking a trip to visit a long lost loved one, or to the destination you have been fantasizing about.

Most people consider Monique to be shy. At work, she never joins others in the lunch room.

She stays at her desk, sneaking a sandwich while working. She avoids networking parties because she feels anxious about meeting new people.

It is hard for her to make eye contact with others and her mind goes blank when she attempts to make small talk.

She has few friends, never dates and rarely picks up the phone when it rings.

Social situations make Monique sweat profusely, her heart race, she starts to shake and she gets a sick feeling at the pit of her stomach.

She constantly chastises herself after talking to someone, thinking she should have said something different.

Monique has social phobia, also called social anxiety.

Can you relate to Monique’s situation?

If so, you do not have to go through life, barely coping, with fear of social situations looming in the background.

You can implement a social phobia treatment program and eliminate social anxiety forever.

Retraining Your Brain

The portion of the brain, called the amygdala, is the cause of social phobias.

Your amydala has memorized your reactions of fear to prior social situations, so that you automatically feel anxiety for each potential or actual social interaction.

Your brain is dynamic and constantly develops. Maybe at a young age you experienced an embarrassing moment in front of people.

Instead of being able to let it go, you dwelled on it continuously, shaping your brain to feel anxious about future embarrassing social situations.

Just as your brain was modified to accommodate social anxiety, it can change to overcome social phobia.

You are actually capable of reprogramming your brain so that it only reacts when there are actual dangers, like a fast-approaching car, and not irrational threats.

Through changing your brain, in combination with using self-motivation and learning how to deal with stress, overcoming social phobia is a possibility.

Identifying Your Triggers

The first step to social phobia treatment is identifying what sets off your social anxiety.

You must be as specific as possible. For example, instead of simply acknowledging that being amongst a group of people causes angst, determine what specifically causes your social phobia.

Maybe it is being in a room with many strangers where you have a fear of introducing yourself to them.

Once you start to identify specific triggers, you must consciously classify these situations as “false alarms”, realizing that they do not pose a real threat.

This is how you begin to retrain your brain.

You can continue to reprogram your brain by immersing yourself in these trigger zones.

If you happen to be in a room of strangers, avert your focus from your internal anxiety to exterior conditions.

Let your senses pick up on the music in the background, the décor, the actual taste of the hors d’oeuvres and the mannerisms of people in your company.

Eliminating Avoidance Behavior

You probably practice some avoidance techniques to make yourself feel safe.

This actually increases your anxiety in the long run, making you feel more panicky when you may not be able to avoid that situation.

For instance, if avoiding eye contact is part of your regular safety routine, it will be much more difficult when you have to make eye contact at a job interview or an important business meeting.

By thinking of some of your avoidance techniques and starting to eliminate them one-by-one, you will be taking a huge step towards overcoming social phobia.

Developing a Sense of Confidence

To overcome social phobia, you must also envision yourself as confident and then act this way in social situations, while reminding yourself that your anxious thoughts are just “false alarms”.

To help you feel more confident about yourself, you should get rid of false thoughts regarding your social anxiety.

One common misconception is that people will notice your symptoms of social phobia.

You may think that your sweating, shaking or blushing is obvious, when in most cases it is not.

Another falsehood is that social embarrassments are the end of the world. In fact, everyone makes social mistakes, because we are all human.

Learning to forgive yourself and realize it is acceptable to make mistakes is part of overcoming social phobia.

Acting confident can start off as being played out in short bursts.

For example, at the next meet and greet, tell yourself you will introduce yourself to one person.

You will make eye contact with him or her and show a genuine interest in him or her through your own body language and verbal cues.

By completely focusing on the other person, through asking him or her questions and actively listening, you will forget about your phobic reactions.

These short little practice runs of exposure, where you act sure of yourself, will actually make you feel more confident in social situations.

You will begin to turn these short bursts of interaction into longer periods of socializing.

The more you put yourself into these awkward situations, the less awkward they will eventually feel.

Treatment for Social Phobia

To review, social phobia treatment involves identifying what specifically triggers your anxiety and eliminating avoidance behavior.

This takes hard work and a full commitment on your part.

It means coming out of your comfort zone and exposing yourself, with an air of confidence, in social situations.

Luckily, the Social Anxiety Secrets book will guide you through this process, step-by-step.

Dr. Todd Snyder understands what you are going through.

He once suffered from social anxiety, but he began overcoming shyness and social phobia.

Dr. Snyder completely wiped social anxiety out of his life and became a licensed clinical psychologist.

He has extensively researched social phobia, through working with patients and reading scientific studies and other literature, in order to create the Social Anxiety Secrets book.

Learn how to face all social situations and overcome social phobia, so you can experience what you have been missing in life.

Although agora literally means an open, public space, agoraphobia is much more complex.

If you find yourself avoiding particular places or activities, because you worry you will have a panic attack, you may have agoraphobia.

Maybe you do not even realize symptoms like chest pains, numbness, and a racing pulse are a form of anxiety, whenever you are far from home, are in a crowded place, are away from loved ones or are standing in line, for example.

You may feel like you are having heart problems or a stroke; you might think you are going insane or obsess about death.

These feelings increase your anxiety which increases the symptoms – it’s a vicious cycle.

You find yourself cutting all social ties or rarely leaving the house, so you can stay in a safe bubble; your agoraphobia is taking over your life.

You may have been told that agoraphobia will always be a part of your life.

The good news is that it is completely stoppable and you can fully overcome it.

It is true that panic attacks are associated with this specific phobia; the key is to face the situations that cause panic and eventually eliminate the anxiety.

Agoraphobia Causes

First, understand that your agoraphobia is not your fault. The amygdala in your brain is the main culprit.

In everyone, the amygdala is activated, creating a “fight-or-flight” reaction, when real danger is present.

The amygdala, of those who have agoraphobia or another panic condition, is constantly activated, causing a sensation of anxiety even when there is no actual threat.

If you are agoraphobic, your brain has been programmed to subconsciously create anxious responses; these are not based on logical thinking, but false instinctual reactions.

You can reprogram the subconscious controls in your brain to only react to actual danger.

You can do this without band-aid solutions, such as medication or therapy; you can get rid of your anxiety through agoraphobia treatment steps.

Exposure

One treatment for agoraphobia is exposure.

Let’s say you limit your travel to only the occasional trip to the corner store near your apartment.

Instead of maintaining this behavior, you should walk to a shop, park or other public place a little farther away.

Gradually increase your travel distance away from home, first with someone you trust, and then alone.

This exposure will allow you to see that fears, associated with your agoraphobia, are really tricks of the mind.

Although you will probably experience panic attacks at first, you will see that they will not actually put you in any real form of danger.

Identify what you are avoiding, and reverse this pattern. This is easier said than done, but you have the power to do this.

Reward yourself every time you overcome an avoidance behavior.

If you have a day where you do not succeed, this does not mean you have failed the whole recovery process.

You can continuously try again and increase your comfort zone, as part of the treatment of agoraphobia.

By exposing yourself to places or activities you normally avoid, you are reprogramming your brain and “teaching” your amygdala not to react to irrational fears.

Diversion

Diversion tactics are also part of the repertoire of agoraphobia treatments.

To avoid feeling anxiety before or during an activity that makes you uncomfortable, do something that occupies your mind, so that you are not overwhelmed by panic.

If you are about to go to a social occasion for the first time in a while, and are feeling anxious, try counting down from 100, listing every word you can think of that starts with a certain letter, or listening to your favorite song and singing every single word.

On the way to the party, count how many blue vehicles drive by, look for unique attributes people all around you have, or repeat a comforting mantra, like “this is just a panic attack – it won’t hurt me”.

These diversion techniques will occupy your mind so there is no room for anxious thoughts.

Incorporating a hobby is another ideal diversion tactic.

For example, if it is difficult to leave the house, you could take up photography.

While taking a walk, look for items to take pictures of and concentrate on getting a focused shot.

This will distract your mind from your previous agoraphobic thoughts and feelings.

Do Not Let Agoraphobia Define You

You are more than just a person with agoraphobia. You are a person with your own talents, passions and people who care about you.

Agoraphobia has probably prevented you from fully embracing these.

It is time to remove agoraphobia from the center of your life and eventually eliminate it.

This means you need to stop researching your condition on the internet or in books.

Stop making it the main topic of conversation.

You need to stop thinking about and blaming past traumas or memories for your agoraphobia, and start concentrating on the future.

The less you focus on agoraphobia, the more you can train your sub-conscious to develop new and positive habits.

Treatments for Agoraphobia

The Linden Method book, visualization CDs and Qi Kung video will allow you to develop and implement a successful agoraphobia treatment plan.

The author and developer of this program, Charles Linden, personally struggled with and overcame agoraphobia and other forms of anxiety.

The program is endorsed by Research Psychologist, Dr. Francis Teeney, of Queen’s University in Belfast, and by Practicing Psychologist, Dr. Romulo Valdez, a fellow of the New Hampshire Psychological Association.

Multiple mental health professionals incorporate this program into their patients’ treatment plans.

Over 130,000 people have eliminated anxiety, panic attacks and phobias, including agoraphobia, from their lives using The Linden Method.

You can even call the program’s qualified counselors and psychologists for support, 24/7, while completing the program.

Learn how to change your conscious thoughts, retrain your subconscious mind and practice relaxation, diversion and exposure exercises to overcome agoraphobia permanently.

If you are struggling with emetophobia, you probably feel very isolated.

You may be embarrassed to talk about your specific phobia and feel it bears the stigma of being unclean or represents a weakness in character.

But know you are not alone. The International Emetophobia Society alone has at least 15,000 members, and there are many more that share your angst.

Those who struggle with emetophobia, experience a 24/7 level of anxiety.

Claustrophobics try to deal by avoiding enclosed spaces and aviophobics may compensate by not taking airplane trips.

But, those with a fear of vomiting or vomit feel like it is impossible to escape what they perceive as an imminent threat.

Maybe you avoid eating in public or maybe you pass up certain foods when eating alone.

Perhaps, you are constantly cleaning your hands and space for fear of contracting germs that will make you sick, and steer clear of any activity that could make you nauseous.

Maybe you refuse to get pregnant because you feel that morning sickness is a barrier that you cannot surmount.

Since you are the person that could vomit, you may view yourself as the enemy. It is a frightening condition, but it is not your fault.

Emetophobia is an Instinctual Behavior

Anxious reactions and panic associated with emetophobia start off by being a conscious, learned behavior.

Perhaps it started with an upsetting event in your past related to vomit.

Eventually it becomes instinctual, like walking or riding a bike, so that you automatically have emetophobia symptoms without even thinking about it.

Each time you are exposed to vomit or the perceived threat of vomit, more neural pathways are formed in your brain to reinforce the anxiety.

Even if there is no actual danger looming, your brain sends a message, activating stress hormones and raising adrenalin levels, causing you to sweat, to feel faint, nauseous, to have a need to escape or your heart to race.

It can escalate to a full blown panic attack characterized by symptoms like tightness in your chest, a fear of going “crazy” or dying, trouble breathing, trembling and depersonalization.

Emetophobia is Not a Flaw in Character

Having emetophobia does not mean you are not intelligent. Panic and anxiety are physiological responses caused by a part of the brain not associated with logical thought.

The reactions and symptoms act out of reflex.

Emetophobia cannot be treated as a rational problem and that is why therapy often fails; some professionals try to treat it as a logical problem rather than an instinctual one.

You can reprogram your brain and create new neural pathways so you do not react to non-existent dangers.

Becoming fearful to actual threats is a healthy response, and you can learn how to differentiate between real and false dangers.

Understanding Your Emetophobia

The first step to overcoming your emetophobia is to understand what you are actually afraid of.

Chances are it is not vomit itself that you fear, but something associated with it, such as loss of control, of being seriously ill or of being judged.

Pin pointing the precise reason why you fear vomit or vomiting is integral for the healing process.

After realizing the root of your phobia you must accept your emetophobia symptoms and panic attacks; do not suppress them but allow them to happen.

Ride the panic attack by noticing what parts of your body are tense, trembling or aching. Note what thoughts and feelings you have.

You will realize that what you fear happening does not actually occur. Often people who have panic attacks feel they may go insane or lose control.

You will realize this does not happen when you allow the anxiety to play out.

Once you do this, you are ready for the next challenge, which is trying to make your symptoms worse.

This may mean repeating your obsessive thoughts out loud or in your head. If you are tapping your foot nervously, tap it faster.

You will see that the symptoms will actually decrease, because you are exposing yourself to them.

You will start to take control of your emetophobia. You must not ignore your anxious reactions, but face them.

Learning How to Relax

In addition to facing emetophobia symptoms and panic attacks, you must also learn how to relax your body.

A tense body can promote obsessive thoughts about vomit or throwing up.

Consciously relax each part of your body, from head to toe, by doing individual stretches and movements.

Focusing on each muscle will avert the concentration away from emetophobic thoughts.

Emetophobia Treatment

Emetophobia is not as well known as other specific phobias or forms of anxiety.

Seeking help from a mental health professional may prove ineffective, because little research has been completed on how to treat emetophobia.

Luckily, a full recovery treatment program has been developed, so that you do not have to simply cope with your emetophobia, but completely overcome it.

The Emetophobia Recovery System book and audio CDs provide you with a program to help you conquer your specific phobia and eliminate your fear of vomit or vomiting.

It is a participatory source of information, where you complete step-by-step exercises that lead to full recovery.

At first you may feel anxiety as you complete components of the program; this is normal and should not be a reason to stop.

It is difficult to conquer emetophobia, but you can do it.

The Emetophobia Recovery System is now used by professional psychologists, who have struggled in the past to come up with treatment plans for their emetophobic patients.

The best part is that the program is specifically geared towards emetophobia and is not a general phobia and panic disorder guide.

You can learn that vomit or vomiting will not cause bad things to happen.

You will learn how to develop new neural pathways so that you do not develop anxiety every time you are around food, feel nauseous or are out in public.

You will learn how to face your panic attacks head on and then how to relax your physical body. You will overcome your emetophobia.

Is claustrophobia ruling your life? Do you have a fear of small spaces and find yourself avoiding elevators, airplane rides or the middle of a crowded room?

Although the causes of claustrophobia are not exactly known, chances are you experienced a traumatic event in the past that has led you to develop this specific phobia.

In order to stop discomforting feelings, panic attacks and avoidance behavior, you must stop dredging up this distressing event that you blame your claustrophobia on.

This memory has allowed you to develop negative habits. You may have fooled yourself by thinking if I just avoid airplanes and packed rooms, I’ll be okay.

But this could have significant impacts on your career and personal life. Is it really acceptable to miss a family reunion or a work networking party because of your fears?

Forget about the past in order to stop self-perpetuating your phobia.

Claustrophobia is an Irrational Fear

Learn that what you are scared of happening during a phobic moment or panic attack is irrational.

You may fear that whenever you ride an elevator, it will break down causing you to be forever trapped or that the walls will close in on you.

Your logical brain will tell you the likelihood of the first scenario happening is small and the chance the second scenario will occur is nil.

But the amygdala portion of your brain plays tricks on you making your phobic emotions feel very real.

Your Amygdala is Responsible for Your Claustrophobia Symptoms

Instead of only switching “on” when an actual danger is looming, the amygdale, of someone with a specific phobia, is activated even when false dangers present themselves.

A fired amygdala causes symptoms such as a racing heart, heavy breathing, sweating and light-headedness.

When these symptoms become extreme, claustrophobia panic attacks may occur, characterized by hyperventilation or the sensation of having a heart attack.

By changing your conscious thoughts and breaking your subconscious habits, you can eliminate your phobic behavior and begin experiencing aspects of life you have been passing up.

Reprogramming Your Brain

It may sound impossible to reprogram your consciousness and subconscious habits, forget about past traumas and to stop avoiding places.

But by taking charge of your life and practicing daily exercises, you CAN eliminate all symptoms of claustrophobia.

Get rid of phobic habits by removing anything that reminds you of your anxious behavior.

Just like someone, who is trying to quit smoking, throws out all the ashtrays, lighters and cigarettes in his house, you must “throw out” anything that promotes your claustrophobia.

Try to avoid the temptation of constantly reading and researching your specific phobia.

This practice is reminding your subconscious about your claustrophobia and could even make your anxiety worse.

Steer clear of counseling sessions where events from the past, related to your phobia, are constantly dredged up.

Do not allow claustrophobia to be the main topic of conversation with others.

The goal is to try to divert your conscious thoughts from focusing on your anxiety disorder, so you can overcome it.

You can also use hobbies, exercise, community service and other activities as diversions.

Maybe you are obsessing over a plane trip that you have to take next week; use distractions to avoid this chronic angst.

Participating in a pursuit, such as photography, craft making, cooking, gardening, playing chess repairing a vehicle or geocaching will give you something else to concentrate on besides your phobia.

Going for a jog or practicing Qi Kung will allow you to relax and feel good inside your skin.

Volunteering at a soup kitchen or drop-in center will redirect your attention on others, rather than on your anxious thoughts, and make you feel good about yourself at the same time.

Exposure Exercise

One of the techniques you can use to eliminate claustrophobia is exposure.

Think about the small spaces that cause you panic and that you try to avoid. Pick one place to focus on and visit that place everyday.

Start by exposing yourself to the enclosed space, with someone you trust, for five minutes. Gradually increase the time you spend in this space.

Through increased exposure, you will realize that your fear is irrational and that what you are scared of happening does not actually occur.

Even if you have a panic attack during the exposure, it will not last forever and it will not cause you physical harm.

Eventually try tackling this space alone. Once you have conquered that space, move on to the next.

Overcoming Claustrophobia

You can eliminate claustrophobia by breaking subconscious habits, changing conscious thoughts and incorporating visualization, breathing and relaxation exercises into your life.

You are no longer a passive patient waiting to be cured; you are an active participant in your own healing process.

The more consistent you are with changing past behaviors, thoughts and memories, the more effective the claustrophobia treatment will be.

The Linden Method Program allows you to overcome claustrophobia without relying on anti-anxiety medications or weekly sessions with a psychotherapist.

It will teach you how to be in charge of your own treatment and healing process.

The program comes with an interactive e-book with techniques such as the exposure exercise, CDs with visualization activities, a Qi Kung video and relaxation/breathing exercises.

Of those who have used the Linden Methods, 96.7% have eliminated phobia, panic attacks and anxiety from their lives.

Remember you are the person responsible for eliminating claustrophobia from your life. You need to learn to rely on yourself more, and on others less.

By reprogramming your subconscious and consciousness and forgetting negative episodes from the past, there will be no cramped spaces left to avoid.