Did you know that approximately 25% of all Americans are afraid to fly? There are many reasons for that but I am here to say that I am one of that group of 25% who is afraid to fly.

The main reason for my own fear is because of my wild imagination as opposed to sound logical reasoning. That is common amongst fearful flyers because no matter how much you reason that flying is statistically safer than driving, that statistic still does not soothe the fear even though it is totally logical. Believe it or not we are our own worst enemy as far as imagining all of the horrific things that we think can happen to an airplane in mid air such as the wings falling off the plane, engines blowing up in mid air, etc.

Another obvious fear is terrorism. Since 9/11 a lot of people remember the airplanes crashing and those images are hard to shake. But, again, the statistics are very much in your corner as far as experiencing another terrorist attack and in the grand scheme of the every day things you do in life, terrorism on an airplane is probably the least risky.

My biggest fear of all is turbulence. I have worked very hard to study the force of turbulence and try to figure out how to understand it and overcome the fear. If you are fearful of turbulence there are some very good exercises that you can do to get yourself through turbulence.

The first thing you can do is to feel the turbulence. Don't try to shut it out and ignore it. If you pay attention you will feel the plane move downward. But then you will always feel the plane move in an upward direction. Then the plane will move down and then it will come back up. If you realize that as long as you are feeling as many ups as downs, you should get through it. The problem with turbulence is people feel it and automatically think that the plane is going down, down, down. Concentrate on the ups too.

The second way to combat fear of turbulence is to make sure that you have a glass of liquid on your tray table. Keep the drink from your snack (if you are lucky enough to get one on your flight) and watch the liquid move within the cup. You will be amazed at how little the liquid "sloshes" around inside the cup during turbulence. This will give you a little perspective as to the severity of the movement of the plane.

Last but not least, if your fear is great enough I recommend a wonderful website called www.fearofflying.com. It is run by a wonderful retired Captain and airline pilot who has helped many people through their fear. Even though I am a fearful flyer, I have flown to many places including an 11 hour flight to Hawaii. Once I get through these exercises I find that I would have missed the world if I had let my anxiety get the better of me such that it would keep me from experiencing the beauty of life around me.