I’ve been blind since birth, but am the kind of person to try anything and be scared of very little. The one exception to this was a fear of flying.
I’d like to tell the story of how I overcame a life-long flying phobia – not because I did anything you can’t do, but because I want to show you with my story that you can do anything you set your mind to.
I’ve been convinced that a plane crash was how I was going to die for as long as I can remember. My phobia peaked several years ago, when – a month to the day before I was due to fly to Barcelona with some friends – a pilot deliberately crashed a plane flying from Barcelona to Germany into the mountains. I was so anxious about my own flight, I became physically ill. I somehow managed to get on that flight – but for the two nights we spent in Barcelona, I didn’t sleep a wink. And the less said about the state of my digestive system, the better.
By the time I got home – so relieved to be alive – I was ready to never do that to myself again. But I love to travel, experience different cultures, practice my Spanish and most importantly, enjoy better climates than the UK, so never flying again was just not an option.
Trying flying again
A year later, I was back on a flight to Malaga, one of my favorite Spanish destinations, to get some much-needed winter sun. And I had what I described at the time as an epiphany. We were coming in to land: the part where I always tensed up, held myself rigid and prayed for a safe landing. Except this time, I didn’t. I realized that no matter what I did in that moment, it wouldn’t affect whether we landed safely. It was out of my hands.
The only thing I was changing, by worrying myself sick (or not) was my own experience.
Flying high – with a fresh perspective
Maybe I knew this already, but it clicked in a different way – a way I have since heard described as being beyond intellect, a true lightbulb moment. And for the first time ever, I sat back and enjoyed the bumpy descent like a fun roller-coaster.
Since that moment, everything changed: I realized that anxiety was a waste of my time.
I realized that I had complete control over my own experiences, because I could choose how to respond to the things happening around me. I then learned of another Sydney, Sydney Banks, who wrote of a very similar realization to mine, many years before. All of his teachings made sense to me, and I now teach them myself in my own coaching business.
I now know that what I did didn’t take talent. There’s nothing special about me – anyone can do what I did.
All we need to understand is that we are in control of our experience, because our experience is being shaped by the thoughts in our own minds.
We can’t change the things happening outside of us, but we can control our responses. We can choose to have a great experience, or a not-so-great one with the power of our own minds.
About the author
My name is Sydney May. I’m a coach, speaker, comedian and musician who just happens to also be blind. My mission is to prove that our life experience is a choice we make. I want to empower everyone to take control of their experience so each person’s life can be what they really want it to be. I do this through telling my stories (video) and telling jokes about my blindness to prove the truth of the concept if you don’t laugh you’ll cry.
To learn more about Sydney, follow her on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram, or connect with her on LinkedIn.
