Despite the reliability of air travel, many people still develop fear of flying. If you know a friend who is at risk or who already have fears of flying, you can help him or her to overcome that. What you can do is to act as a confidante in his or her trips as often as possible. Since he or she trusts you, you can try to explain to your friend that although the fears of untoward incident may happen during a flight, these don’t take place all the time.

Acting as the confidante

If he or she decides to try flying again, it would be best if you accompany your friend so he or she can have somebody to turn to once the panic attack and nervousness grip his or her senses. If you are in the same flight with a friend who is trying to overcome fear of flying here are some of the things that you can do:

1. Attend a seminar or a class about overcoming fear or flying. Today, there are so many airlines that offer classes or seminars that can help people overcome fear of flying. If it is possible for you to bring him or her there before the flight, it would be better because here, information about air travel such as flight physics, flight safety, and studies or statistics as well as various relaxation techniques are taught to help people understand the phobia.

2. Make sure that you are informed about your flight. This is an extra effort for you but you have to do this because your friend will rely on you for information during your travel. You can check all your flight details so if your friend asks something during the flight, you will know what to tell him or her, your friend will be more comfortable and relaxed knowing that she or he doesn’t have to worry about anything anymore.

3. Keep the person distracted. Since your friend has aviophobia, it is only natural for him or her to feel nervousness, vomiting, dizziness, muscle tensions and deep breathing. If you see one or two of these symptoms, you should start distracting her or him by talking to her about things that are light. If you do this, you can veer him or her away from negative thoughts. You can also distract him or her by asking her to do something such reading a magazine or play some cards with you.

4. Take time to know the pilot and cabin crew. Some people fear flying because they don’t know who are the people they are entrusting their lives with. If this is the concern of your friend, make a request for both of you to see and meet the pilot as well as to the flight attendants. If he or she sees that these people are reliable and trustworthy, your friend would be more comfortable during the entirety of the flight.

5. Stop him or her from consuming stimulants. These stimulants may include sugar, coffee and other drinks that may contain alcohol that he or she might take before or during the flight. Tell your friend that it would be best not to take these since they contain ingredients that may increase the symptoms of anxiety as well as panic attacks.

6. Make sure that you both arrive in the airport early. One of most effective ways of helping a friend in overcoming fear of flying is you get there at least two hours before the flight, you can buy more time to relax and just enjoy the flight. It is best not to go there late because it will only cause a feeling of rush that may trigger anxiety.

Traveling to many places is fun. But for people who don’t know who have yet to develop strategies in overcoming fear of flying, this is not always the case. For these people, the destination for any vacation can be fun but the hardest part would be staying up and strong during the flight.

If you are one of those who are having a hard time flying because of certain fears while aboard, the first thing that you could do is to identify and acknowledge that fear. This is the best way to go about it because how can you address a certain problem if you don’t have enough courage to face it. Once you know in yourself what that fear is, you can find ways on how to overcome them.

How to get started

Aviophobia or the fear of flying is one of the most common fears that people develop. This is because of the thought something untoward might happen in the air and would lead to their tragic death. Many people who enjoy flying might think of it as something absurd but experts say that fear of flying is not a laughing matter. This is because it can lead to more complicated problems such as panic attacks, nausea and vomiting.

If you are one of those who have developed fear of flying and you want to overcome it, here’s some tips that can help you get started:

1. Know what really in flying that are afraid the most. The most common answer would be the fear of death-tragic one that is. Can you just imagine, if you die in a plane crash, there’s a small percent of you surviving. The worst thing is that the rescuers might not be able to recover your remains because chances are they have turned into ashes or have been eaten by sea creatures during emergency landing. Although these thoughts are frightening, these don’t happen all the time. If you are afraid of these things, it is best to acknowledge these right away so you can address these properly.

2. Be educated. This is the best weapon in getting started in overcoming your fear. If you are knowledgeable about the possibilities, you won’t be able to imagine some things that might happen to you while aboard. Experts say that if one if knowledgeable enough, he or she would have a better understanding. Being educated means one is able to learn what to do when accidents may happen in the air.

3. Undergo desensitization and enough exposure. For people who are afraid of flying, it takes a lot will to even attempt taking a flight. If you are one of those who are afraid of flying, one way to ease the anxiety that you feel is “desensitization” wherein there are vivid descriptions of the situations that may happen. If you know very well what it feels like during an accident, you will feel the intensity of that fear, thus, leading one to develop means to overcome that fear. It also helps the person to do something during that instance.

4. Get all the support that you need. It is hard for a person-who is just starting in overcoming fear of flying-to do it by him or herself. So, the best way for him or her to continue with the process is having people around who can give the support needed. If you are the flyer, try bringing along a friend who is not afraid of flying when you have flights. He or she can serve as a distraction so you won’t think of negative thoughts while aboard.

Every year, the number of people that have having a hard time overcoming fear of flying is increasing. If you think that you are at risk of developing fear of flying or you know somebody who is already suffering from the condition, the best way to address the problem is to determine if there is really a “problem”. In this case, the problem is the fear of the person in flying. Experts say that the earlier the phobia is diagnosed is the best treatment for this condition. This is because the problem could be addressed in its “infancy” stage so more options would be available for the patient.

The first thing that one can do if he or she suspects that he or she might have developed this fear in flying is to check the symptoms of people who are diagnosed with it. Some of the common symptoms of the phobia include over anxiety or nervousness during the flight. Other manifestations of the condition might also include nausea, dizziness, vomiting, muscular tensions, motion sickness, excessive sweating, heavy breathing, palpitations or increased heart rate and uncontrolled shaking or trembling of the person’s body.

If these symptoms happen to a person during the flight, then there is a great need for him or her to seek professional help as soon as possible. The diagnosis of aviophobia is usually made by the psychologist who will offer fear of flying advices. He or she will also assess the patient by asking about him or her about the fear of flying, how it started, and the extent or the severity of the fear which may affects his or her life. Going to a psychiatrist is one of the basic treatments in overcoming fear of flying because he or she will give the person another perspective on the condition and will also help him or her handle the condition especially if it has reached phobic proportions. The following are just some of the tips that you can follow in order to overcome fear of flying:

1. Be knowledgeable. This is the best thing that you can do in order to overcome with fear of flying. If you are educated about flying, you will know that accidents don’t happen all the time. And if these will, you will know what to do since you have already taken time off to know more about this occurrence. Experts say that the greater understanding there is when it comes to flying and about all the things that usually take place during flights, he or she will get hold of the fear that grips his or her emotions.

2. Know what actually scares you. This is the basic thing that people who have phobia in flying should do because if they will know what it is that they fear in flying, they can address these issues on themselves with a help of a professional such as a psychologist.

3. Stop thinking too much. Experts say that although phobia in flying is valid, it all stem from the person’s imagination. So, if you are in a flight, it is best not to think too much about what might happen. If you do this, you will experience peaceful flight without having to worry about anything. Most of the people who have deep seated fear of flying have reached this stage because they tend to think of too many things while aboard. The tendency is for them to have panic attacks and prolonged dizziness. In overcoming fear of flying, one must try to relax during the flight.

In this day and age when crisis seems to strike anywhere, there’s no better way to stay safe and secure than learning how to save money.

Experts agree that no matter how one looks at it, there will be always ways to save money if the person has the will do so. If you are one of those who are trying to come up with ways to save money in this unstable economy, it is best to start with developing a simple lifestyle. When you are able to do this, the rest will follow. But, if you are one of those who are not sure where to start, here are some eight simple ways to save money.

One step at a time

The first thing that you can do to save some money is by learning to manage your grocery or shopping sprees. Although buying groceries is a necessity, this doesn’t mean that there’s no opportunity for you to save. The best thing that you can do before going to a supermarket is to conduct an inventory on your supplies. This will help you determine how much more you have and can help you estimate the period of time that these supplies will last.

After knowing what are the things that you need, make a list to prioritize the items that are of utmost importance. The same thing can be applied when shopping for clothes and other accessories. To save money, the key is to limit expenses on the items that you really need and keep whatever cash you have at hand. Try not to buy something that just tickles your fancy and if possible, limit your trips to the supermarket or boutiques to veer away from the temptation of buying something.

As cheap as it may seem, getting as many coupons as you can help you save some money. These days, coupons are not only applicable to just groceries only. In fact, major establishments such as restaurants, cinemas and even boutiques accept and give out coupons to its customers to offer a discount. If you keep these coupons, you can get a little discount on establishments that you usually go to.

Learning to commute is another major saving for you. With the gas price hike, you can save lots of money if you take advantage of public transportation or even carpools. Aside from saving some money on gas, you can also save some since you wont have to pay for the car’s maintenance and parking anymore.

Having enough time to audit your own bills would also help you. Before, people are used to just paying whatever amount the bill states. But since there can be major discrepancies in these, it is best if you audit your charges once in a while. Auditing is best for telephone bills since some charges are being repeated, thus, making you pay for calls you didn’t actually make. Auditing can also be applied for your credit card bills since many companies add hidden charges.

Many people do not realize it but one of the best ways to save money is learning how to save energy. It is unfortunate that many people still don’t realize that leaving an electric appliance plugged to the electricity outlet means that appliance still consumes almost 20 percent of the electricity it consumes while it is turned on. So, to save money as well as energy through electricity makes it a habit to unplug cables from their outlets when not in use.

As you age, you may feel like your memory is slowly losing its ability to store as much information like it used to. Although this is a natural occurrence, you can do things and various exercises to help yourself not easily lose its grip when it comes to remembering things and better your memory. Memory is defined in psychology as the mental ability of an organism to retain and store as well as recall information.

In the older days, the study of memory falls under the fields of philosophy. People even dig up on techniques to artificially enhance the memory. In the late 19th up to the early 20th century, the study of memory became part of the paradigms of the cognitive psychology. As of today, this is one of the major fields in the branch of science known as cognitive neuroscience.

How the Memory Works

There are three stages that happen when you form and retrieve information as part of your memory. First, the information is encoded or registered once it is received by your brain. After that, your brain tries to create a permanent record of the information and store as much as it could. Whenever the need arise, your brain will help you recall the stored information and retrieve whatever will help you on the circumstance that you are in.

Disorders Associated with Memory

The most common disorder that is being incurred in this regard is the loss of memory, also known as amnesia. There are many types of amnesia and studies are being done continuously to know more about the field as well as to solve the dilemma. Other known disorders that usually hit older people is the Alzheimer’s disease. There is also a disorder that centers into one’s autobiographical memory or when they cannot dismiss even the littlest details. This is known as the hyperthymesic syndrome.

Better Memory

You don’t have to wait until a disorder hits you before you act on to improving your memory. When you are aware as to how your brain works in getting and storing the information that come from various sources. You can compare your brain’s ability to store information to how a computer functions.

Your computer will eventually crash if you don’t do certain steps to take care of it. You must let it rest and cool off after you have used it for a long time. You must also do a regular checkup to see if it is still virus free and there are no potent errors that may lead to its crash. This is also what you must do on your brain to make sure that it won’t give in or gain lapses through time.

You must treat your brain right so that you will benefit from its superb performance as you age. By leading a healthy lifestyle, you will help your brain retain its usual performance. Even if you think like you are good in remembering things, you must not abuse such ability. You can help your brain to stay at the top of its game by leading a healthy lifestyle. You must not engage on drugs and other substance abuse. You must also refrain from drinking too much beverages.

Your brain needs a healthy supply of oxygen for it to function well. You can achieve such by exercising regularly and also by getting enough sleep. By resorting to these techniques, you will better your memory in the long run.

Learning to dance ballet is one of the difficult dances that a person could ever perform because the dance itself requires not only physical strength but also skills and years of practice and discipline. Since the dance is hard to master, ballerinas are trained very early to develop the physique and discipline needed for the dance.

If you are one of those who are planning to learn ballet, you must first assess yourself physically, emotionally, and financially if you can cope up with the demands of the dance. Once you have decided that you can manage in all of these aspects, then the next thing to do is familiarize yourself with everything about it.

Knowing the origin of something is very helpful in making decisions. This is also applicable in ballet. Before you finally decide to get involved with ballet, make sure that you are familiar with its history so you will have general knowledge about everything that has to do with it.

Aside from the history, you should also be knowledgeable in the preparation a ballet dancer must gear up for. Although many people say that passion and dedication will make it possible for you to become a ballet dancer, having innate talent and light body will make it more possible for you to become a great ballet dancer.

Along with training, you must also familiarize yourself with various ballet techniques and styles so you would know what to expect. Usually, these techniques and styles in ballet would require rigorous training and practice for you to be able to perfect the steps needed for the dance.

Tips before taking ballet classes

The most common routine done is a ballet class is the barre exercise. Here, warm ups through stretching and several steps and movements are practiced on wooden sprung floors. To make the training and the practice easier for you, try these ballet tips before your class:

– Stretching. Just like in any other sport or dance, stretching is very crucial because it prepares the body for harder exercises ahead. When you stretch of as long as you can, your muscles will loosen up and your posture will be elongated. Aside from stretching before the class, make sure that you do post class stretching to loosen up tightened muscles during the training. Stretching does not only eases the pain but also makes your body more flexible.

– Familiarizing yourself with the vocabulary used in ballet. This is also important because it will reflect how much knowledge you have about the dance. Although it will not really affect your ballet skills, knowing the terms used in ballet will prevent you from getting overwhelmed during the class. What you can do is to read ballet terminologies from various resources such as dictionary, magazines, books, and online sites.

– Taking time to find the right ballet slippers. The ballet shoes or slippers can greatly affect your overall training because the comfort of the feet is involved. When buying ballet shoes, make sure that they are made by a professional or endorsed by a specific ballet school or famous ballet dancer.

– Learning the five basic positions in barre. This is very important to avoid embarrassment and possible injury. The five basic positions include turning your feet together at the heels, parting your foot apart, placing the your heel at the first knuckle of the big toe, placing the feet apart for at least six inches, and putting the heel on top of the big toe. Once you familiarize yourself with these basic barre positions, training will be easier and less exhausting for you.

Leading a healthy lifestyle can cause so many benefits and that include helping you better your memory. This is a very important aspect because if you will not take certain steps in order to nurture it, you may end up with the disorders that are associated with this function of your brain. Your memory is your brain’s ability to encode information, retain and store them and recall vital data whenever needed.

Steps to Improve Memory

There are many things that you can do to help your brain perform at its best. This can be achieved by avoiding unhealthy vices like drinking too much alcoholic beverages, smoking and turning to prohibited drugs. You must learn how to control your vices if you can’t stop immediately. Exercising also helps in giving your brain good supply of oxygen. This will enhance its performance and will make you remember things easier. It is also a must to get enough rest and good amount of sleep. The way you think will be gravely affected if you are tired, especially when you only got some hours of sleep that may leave you feeling weak and you also cannot think straight.

There are exercises that you can do to help your brain improve. You can resort to various card games that promote such benefit. You should also be active in learning new things all the time even if you are already. This must not stop you to learn by reading and training. You must also engage in different physical activities that will help regulate the blood circulation on your brain. You must also learn how to control your emotions, especially the stress that you feel as a result of thinking too much about your problems. Depression causes a major impact on one’s memory as well as emotional instability.

Eating Right

You must eat right for your brain to function well. It will not help if you will be distracted by your hunger for your thoughts to come out fluently. By eating right, it means that you have to eat the kinds of foods that are healthy in proportions that will help you stay fit and vigorous. If you are into some type of diet, just be sure that you follow the recommended intake of the food that you are allowed to eat. Here are some foods that can help you achieve the goal of attaining better memory.

1. Sunflower seeds. Nuts contain healthy fats that you can incorporate on your diet. These seeds contain abundant source of Vitamin E, an antioxidant that help out in improving your memory as you grow older. Other rich sources of Vitamin E include hazelnut, spinach, kiwi, broccoli, wheat germ oil, mango and dry almond.

2. Salmon. This contains Omega-3 fatty acids that are important in developing your brain and helping it to function better. Such acids can also be found in walnut, soybean, shrimp, scallop, tofu, winter squash, flaxseed and walnut.

3. Blueberries. These are rich in phytochemical elements that can affect one’s memory in a very good way. These are also good for your overall health.

4. Lean beef. This is rich in iron that will help you boost and help better your memory if taken in moderate proportions. But make sure that you do not eat much of this because you may encounter weight problems if you do so.

There is nothing wrong in aiming to do things to help better your memory. You don’t have to go to professionals to learn how. You can actually do your own research whenever you have time for such task. Here are some ways that can help you learn more about what you can do in this regard.

1. If you have time, you can spend it on your local library to pick up books that deal with the topic. You can browse it wherever you are while taking down notes as to related tips that you can do to help improve your brain’s performance.

2. You can also check the web for related articles that you can read and gain tips from. Through reading, you will gain the right techniques on how you can improve your memory. This is also a favorable exercise on your brain because this enhances thinking.

3. You can also ask professionals for help regarding the matter. You can do this if you are undertaking your regular physical exams. You can take this opportunity to learn about what you can do to improve your memory by asking the right people about the matter.

Healthy Lifestyle

One factor that plays a big factor into the overall scenario is your lifestyle. Your brain needs a good supply of blood and oxygen. This can be achieved by exercising regularly and eating the right foods that can help you in this regard. You must also limit drinking alcoholic beverages. If you must, do it on a moderate basis. You should also not engage in drugs and other prohibited substances as these can cause damage on your brain which you may be unaware of at first. You will just get the surprise of your life when you wake up one day and you feel the negative effects that these have brought about.

More Tips

To help you with the goal of retaining as much information as you want and need, here are some more simple techniques that you can opt to do.

1. Try to assimilate occurrences and people to other factors that can help you remember them. You don’t want to get into situations wherein you cannot remember important faces and names just because your memory fails to work well. By helping your brain in trying to remember, you will be successful in the venture as you practice the act through time.

2. Do a mental picture of what you are trying to remember, especially when you have to engage into speaking commitments wherein you have to deliver long speeches. You can try to break the speech into parts wherein each part will be associated with something to help you remember the line.

3. Do not quit learning as you age. It will be helpful to engage in activities that you used to do when you were young. If you have kids, you can browse on their books to re-learn some things that you already have forgotten. This can also be a bonding moment for the family. You can help your children do their homework. While you are at it, you will be amazed at how this activity can help you exercise your brain in the process.

If you feel like there are so many things that you are finding hard to remember, it is high time that you think about resorting to tips and techniques on how to better your memory. You should avoid getting serious disorders by engaging into the kind of lifestyle and activities that promote healthy brain functions.

Many people are simply afraid of speaking before a large crowd, but are you aware that one can stand to learn a lot simply by reaping the benefits of overcoming the fear of public speaking?

There are a lot of people who tend to neglect that aside from the professional advantages one can gain from overcoming their fear of speaking before a crowd, they can also benefit from it personally and even improve one’s character and personality.

One of the most notable benefits one can get from overcoming that fear is self-confidence.

Overcoming the fear builds self-confidence in a person, especially making them more sociable compared to when they were previously allowing their fears getting the best of them, especially when they are faced with the situation of having to speak before a group of people.

Self-confidence also helps in creating a positive outlook and mental attitude in a person.

Another benefit that one gains from overcoming their fear of public speaking is self-esteem, which is how a person values or regards himself.
This is another social trait that one can gain not only for the benefit of others, but also help shapes character and personality.

Being able to overcome the fear of speaking before a crowd, one can also gain mastery in the art of communication.

Many may not be aware of it, but the secret to good communication skills also rely on a person’s ability to interact well, especially since when a person is comfortable with speaking before a group of people, he or she tends to have more focus towards the topics for discussion and may be able to comprehend matters and topics as well.

Compared to those who are more afraid to interact, especially when they are more susceptible to the fear that can envelop them, making them think of other things aside from focusing on the topics at hand.

Another good thing that one can achieve is better active listening skills, which could result to a better communication or speaking experience, not just for the benefit of the speaker but for the audience as well.
Active listening is as important as speaking well, especially since it is only through active listening that one gets to comprehend things that are being discussed or interacted upon, making discussions or interactions as comprehensive and as substantial as well.

Overcoming the fear of public speaking can also help improve one’s speaking abilities, through proper voice projection and vocal proficiency as well.
Getting the hang of speaking before a group of people can help a lot for those that may have difficulties or problems with projecting their clearly and pronouncing words correctly.

Being comfortable in front of people makes you feel less anxious, stressed or troubled, since you are less likely to experience the difficulty of being distracted from what is actually the real topic or concern that needs to be discussed.

As you can see, overcoming your fear of public speaking is not just aimed to help one become a better speaker, but has been found out to also improve one’s personality and character, thus, making your social and personal life even more fulfilling and satisfying.

One can truly appreciate the real value of how it means to gain from the benefits of overcoming the fear of public speaking.

Despite all the safety measures and precautions conducted by the airline officers and owners, there are still a growing number of people who are having a hard time in overcoming fear of flying. Experts say that this fear may stem from the person’s bad experience during one of his or her flights. Studies show that many that have developed fear of flying are the ones who are used to travel via plane before. This is because of the frequency, it is inevitable for them to experience an bad occurrence at some point. These bad experiences may include prolonged or heavy turbulence that is caused by natural phenomenon such as bad weather or an aborted flight wherein the airplane needs to take an emergency landing that is usually caused by mechanical failures.

Another reason for this fear is the person is exposed too much on media coverage on various tragic accidents in the air which instill a fear for his or her life. Studies show that people who have witnessed an extensive coverage of an aerial accident are prone to having aviophobia sooner or later.

Starting to overcome the fear

If you are one of those who have developed this fear and you would want to overcome it, here are simple step-by-step procedures that you can follow:

FIRST STEP: Conduct a thorough research. Indeed, knowledge is power. If you are aware about the basics of flight and air travel, your mind can tell you how to control your fear. Aviophobia stem from over anxiety about tragic air accidents. It is also a result of a misunderstanding and lack of enough knowledge on flights and the technicalities of the aircraft itself. If you are able to educate yourself on these things, it will be easier for you to understand and realize that some of your fears on flying could be far-fetched.

SECOND STEP: Clear your mind before and during the flight. Fear of flying is a phobia caused by untoward incidents that might happen in the air. Experts say that this fear is all in the mind of the person. So, if the person tries to clear his or her mind from things that might happen, he or she might be able to overcome the fear in no time. To clear your mind off negative thoughts, you can try practicing relaxation techniques before and during the flight such as breathing that is controlled, rejection of negative thinking by making a conscious effort, and indulging into distractions such as reading, listening to music or watching airline movies.

THIRD STEP: Learn about “desensitization.” Experts say that this process is usually conducted during a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) wherein the person who has developed fear in flying is slowly exposed to the conditions of flying until he or she is able to face the fears and learn to overcome them.

FOURTH STEP: Seek professional help. Some people have deep-rooted aviophobia that is why they are having a hard time overcoming fear of flying. If you think that your phobia on flying has reached bigger proportions and it already affects your life in general, it is best to consult a professional to check on you. This professional can either be a psychologist or a psychiatrist who can check your emotional and even your mental health if needed. The doctor will recommend some treatment options such as drug therapy. If you have a mild condition, he or she will teach you relaxation techniques that you can administer at home in managing and controlling your anxiety attacks.