Reducing travel anxiety with hypnosis
A while back I received a question from someone on my Facebook page, namely when I was going to give a seminar in someone's hometown one day because that person suffered from travel anxiety. Very unfortunate, because unfortunately I cannot always give a seminar everywhere. So that is why this blog to reduce your travel anxiety so you can go anywhere whenever and wherever you want
Travel Anxiety
Travel anxiety has become increasingly common over the past decade. Although there are more and more ways to travel—such as by plane, train, bus, or even your own car—there are also more and more people who feel uncomfortable using these modes of transportation.
Then you can also have the fear of going too far away from home. Everyone knows someone from their home town who literally gets nauseous when they can no longer see the tip of the church steeple and then wants to rush back home. This is because the home is the "safe" place for people with travel anxiety.
There are varying degrees of travel anxiety. Some people don't dare leave their room yet while others only experience travel anxiety after they are a certain number of miles from home.
There are also people who are fine traveling, but with someone they trust. However, this can cause you to make yourself dependent on that person when you suffer from travel anxiety.
Travel anxiety can also be a combination of other fears.
Causes of travel anxiety
So there are multiple causes for travel anxiety.
Fear of safety
According to a 2011 study, that fear of travel comes primarily from fear of transportation safety.
With the attacks we have been experiencing for almost decades now, the fear of terrorism has also become a cause of travel anxiety. Will the train be safe if three U.S. military personnel don't happen to be on vacation? Is the plane safe without Dutch people risking their lives to prevent someone from setting off a shoe bomb?
Fortunately, over those decades, there have also been increasing tightening of security to prevent these types of situations so you can just take a nap on the train until you arrive at your destination.
Homesick
Another cause of travel anxiety can be extreme homesickness. You miss your home so much and you know this is going to happen. As a result, while traveling, you actually become restless and anxious about the homesickness you are going to experience.
Fear of your mother
Research published in 2008 shows that women are more likely to inherit fears from their mothers than men , for example. If your mother has a fear of traveling, there is a chance that you, as a woman, will inherit this fear. In that case, your mother has passed the fear on to you.
Trauma during a previous journey
It’s also possible that something happened to you during a trip that has made you anxious about taking on new journeys. For example, you might find it difficult to leave the Netherlands because you once had an accident in Germany or Belgium and, due to language barriers, were unable to resolve the problem quickly.
Fear of being left alone
Another reason why some people have a fear of traveling is the fear of being left alone. For example, people might “secretly” leave you while you’re away, or you might be afraid that you’ll suddenly be on your own during the trip.
Why travel anxiety is a problem
You may think that working from home is the solution to travel anxiety, but even then travel anxiety is a problem. There are times when you need to travel. For example, you want to attend a workshop and it is a few hours away.
It's not always possible to ask your partner or a friend to join and then you miss out on opportunities to improve your life.
In the process, you may find yourself in social isolation because people want you to visit them too, and fear holds you back in this. A two-way friendship is then difficult to maintain and not everyone can stand this.
What to do about travel anxiety
If you suffer from travel anxiety, there are a number of steps you can take. A good way to overcome fears is to confront the fear. This is also something a hypnosis expert will help you with.
Top 10 travel fears
You then first write a top 10 travel fears. You start with your smallest travel fear and end with the biggest travel fear.
Next, together with the hypnosis expert, you’ll confront and overcome your fears. You’ll learn techniques to stay calm and keep your body under control so that muscle tension and nausea don’t make your anxiety worse than it already is.
Next, you will visualize each fear, starting with the smallest fear. You visualize how to successfully overcome the fear. For example, how you can very well take the train to Amsterdam for an hour to visit a museum. How you enjoy the museum and what can be seen from the train.
Then you'll also get to do this in real life, so you'll find out that it's not at all as bad as you expected.
You can do this every step of the way, and each time you overcome fear you feel better until you can travel pretty much carefree.
Hypnotic suggestions
Fears are often based on beliefs you hold about how the world works—and perhaps also about your purpose—and how you can function in that world. One way to change those beliefs is through hypnotic suggestions.
First, the hypnosis expert will ask you about how you feel about traveling and what is scary about it, as well as what is good about traveling. The idea is to bring out positive beliefs about travel in your subconscious, making the fear of travel less likely to be triggered.
You repeat the hypnotic suggestions at home during self-hypnosis. You practice this first with the hypnotherapist until you master it.
You can repeat the suggestions yourself, or get them on an mp3.
Suggestions may include:
"I can adapt to any situation."
"I am resourceful and inventive."
"I can look up travel information."
"There are always people who can help," he says.
These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions you can repeat during self-hypnosis. Depending on your beliefs about travel, the hypnosis expert may give you other suggestions.
Post-hypnotic suggestion
Hypnosis can also be helpful during her travels themselves. In this case, before the trip, you have a number of hypnosis sessions in which post-hypnotic suggestions are given. This is often done at the end of a guided visualization (a component by which you overcome a fear) to influence your behavior during literally overcoming the fear. You are then often given a task to perform at the time you become anxious about traveling.
For example:
"When you start to feel insecure stick a smile on your face and consciously walk five steps while breathing calmly and relaxing your tense muscles."
These types of suggestions will help you apply the techniques to stay calm when needed.
Regression
Do you actually not know why you’re afraid to travel or what underlying fear is causing it? Then regression therapy may offer a solution. With regression therapy, you go back to a moment in your past when the belief that causes your fear of traveling first arose.
Beliefs are usually formed in childhood, which is why you can make remarkable discoveries during regression. This is because you can make connections as a child that make no sense to you at all as an adult. Because you can look at it with more emotional distance during regression, you can also quickly remove that belief from your inventory, which will make traveling a lot easier.
Fear of traveling, then, can have a variety of causes or underlying fears. It is important to identify the cause first. So that you know exactly what you need to work on. Don't know why you are actually afraid to travel? Then a hypnosis expert can help you with this. In the process, hypnosis also helps you confront the fear, such as with visualizations and by teaching you techniques that you can actually use during travel itself. The hypnotic suggestions during self-hypnosis will make you feel more daring and enjoy traveling, making it all much more carefree.
Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis can help you or others? Then come to one of the free masterclasses or check out the other events hosted by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands in our calendar.
Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
Sources:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13032917.2011.597935
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1300/J015v15n02_04