“Well this is it… I’m going to die.”

Those were the words running through my mind as I witnessed the dark and scary storm that surrounded me 15,000 feet in the air, in our six seater plane.

We were just south of the Amazon river in Peru and for some very strange reason, we had been cleared to take flight (which was strange considering the fact that 10 minutes earlier, our flight had been delayed...).

When we landed, I was unbelievably relieved.

And that satisfaction was quickly destroyed as I realized the sad truth...

We were still in the SAME DAMN AIRPORT that we had left from.

Apparently the storm was so bad that we had to turn around halfway. Gah!

So….after giving it another go a few hours later, we made it to our destination (thank you God!).

I was feeling much better, but something changed for me after that flight, which I began to notice at the end of my trip as I took my next few flights back home to Texas.

I noticed that each time I boarded a plane, I would begin to feel an incredible sense of anxiety.

“This is going to be the one.”

That statement kept running through my mind (as though this flight would be my last). I couldn’t quite shake it from my mind. The more I tried to avoid it, the worse it became. I even tried to accept the possibility of death, yet the anxiety just seemed to remain.

I spent the rest of my flights in a very uncomfortable place, unable to truly relax with an unsettling feeling holding me in a constant state of anxiety and fear.

It wasn’t until a few months later when I was traveling back to my hometown for the weekend where I was able to understand how to actually deal with this flight fear.

During that flight I had planned to use the wifi to complete some work which I had hoped would distract me from my flight anxiety.

But, my plans were immediately thwarted as I quickly realized that the wifi was not working…

As the unsettling feelings started to stir within me, I found myself with nothing else to do but face them head on.

“I wonder if there could be something valuable to learn here.”

When I asked myself that question another question arose with a jolt of spontaneous inspiration:

“I wonder what would happen if I just focused on how my body is feeling and ignore everything else?”

So I did just that. I focused on how I was feeling in my body. And as soon as I did, surprisingly enough, I started to feel better. A lot better.

I spent the rest of the flight focusing on how my body was feeling. Whenever a sense of anxiety came up I would ask myself,

“What does it feel like in your body right now?”

...and I would tune into my body and describe how it felt. Immediately the anxiety would go away.

It was like popping a painkiller - except all I was “taking” was a prescription of focus. I was merely shifting my attention towards something that was within myself (as opposed to focusing externally).

The more I focused inward, the easier it was to control my anxiety, and the more natural it felt to remain in a state of relaxation and ease.

When the flight landed, I was feeling phenomenal. “Wow”, I said. “What a breakthrough!”

I was completely shocked at how effective this mindfulness strategy was. I had most definitely tuned into my body before, but never like this. It was truly a profound experience.

I then hopped onto my connecting flight and met a woman who I chatted with for the entire flight (who was, interestingly enough, on her own healing path and exploring the realms of Tai Chi and other mindfulness-based modalities).

As I stepped off that plane upon landing I realized that I had experienced ZERO anxiety for the entire flight. We even had a bumpy landing and turbulence along the way and it didn’t bother me at all.

It was truly a miracle.

Fast forward two weeks and I was in the car with my girlfriend, Dani. She was suffering from a similar type of anxiety, except it triggered whenever I was in the driver's seat. I could tell she was really struggling with it, and as time went on, the anxiety seemed to get worse and worse.

Soon it got to a point where I was hearing a muffled scream every 3-5 minutes. As I began to realize how this situation was beginning to impact my own driving, I became increasingly aware that this was a problem that needed to be resolved.

So I brought up my breakthrough strategy and asked her if she would give it a shot. She agreed to try and I started asking her questions whenever her anxiety was triggered.

“What does it feel like in your body right now?”

She would respond and we repeated the process every time she felt triggered on two separate days for about 5 minutes each.

A few days later I noticed that she was quite calm while I was driving. This was very odd to me as I was accustomed to at least one convincing “holy shiiit!” upon tapping the brakes.

She said that the strategy was working for her and she was no longer experiencing anxiety.

That was truly amazing to hear and completely unexpected. What a powerful discovery!

To this day, Dani (in the car) and myself (in the plane) do not react in the same way we did before. It seems as though by redirecting our awareness to our body, the issues were able to naturally resolve.

Now if this works for Dani and it works for me (the two most opposite people you can find), I am willing to bet it will work for you.

Do you experience anxiety? If you do, please do yourself a favor and try out this strategy for a change. If it works, share your story with me in the comments below. I want to hear!

The Process In A Nutshell:

1. Take a deep breath, relax, close your eyes (if possible) and focus on your body.

2. Ask yourself, “how is my body feeling right now?” Then describe what that feeling feels like (intensity, temperature, color, etc).

3. Whenever the anxiety or fear reappears, shift your focus to your body and repeat the process. Do this as long as needed. Once your body and mind become attuned to the process, you’ll naturally do it without thinking.