The trick that could calm your nerves during turbulence
There’s something uniquely nerve-wracking about aeroplane turbulence.
Which makes sense – evolution probably didn’t predict our bodies would be zipping through the air at a fast speed any time soon.
And however much you fight your anxiety with logic – after all, turbulence is a normal, safe part of flying and is very rarely dangerous – that sinking feeling in your stomach can just be too difficult to ignore.
But apparently, there is one method that could calm your fears.
‘The Today Show’ on NBC News trialled one trick which supposedly distracts your brain from perceived danger.
Captain Ron Nielson, a pilot who’s being flying for 40 years, told the show that the trick is to write your name over and over using your non-dominant hand.
So if you’re right handed, write with your left, and vice versa.
He said this does two things: gets you to focus particularly hard on what you’re doing instead of the turbulence, but also crosses over motor function in your brain, using a different side of it from usual and thus “disrupting the thinking.”
The show’s producer, Jovanna Billington, who’s “terrified” of flying went aboard a turbulence simulator to test the method out.
And she said that while she “never thought it would actually help”, it pulled her attention away from the turbulence completely.
Whether it works for you or not, there can’t be any harm in trying, right?
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