Flying makes me anxious. I worry about the fact you’re 36,000 feet above ground, I worry about the fact you have no control over the aircraft (especially in turbulence), and I mostly worry about the fact that – as a result of both of the above – if something goes wrong, you’ve got little-to-no chance of surviving. (Yes, it’s morbid but that’s just how my brain likes to catastrophise.)
I also like to travel, and I’d hate my fear of flying to ever stop me, so I just… have to deal with it. But when I found myself on a flight back from Australia recently, we hit a particularly bad patch of turbulence thanks to the arrival of several vicious thunderstorms over the Bay of Bengal, and it’s safe to say I was the opposite of calm. As I tried desperately to endure the 20 minutes of big bumps our captain had warned us about like a normal, rational person, I couldn’t stop my mind from panicking, my palms from sweating, or my heart from racing.
I needed something to distract me, and the film on the tiny screen in front of me wasn’t cutting it.
Despite having worn my Apple Watch daily for the past five months, I’d never paid much attention to the ‘Breathe’ app – until that moment on the plane, that is, when I realised how useful it actually was.
The app vibrates a couple of times a day (if your settings allow), reminding watch wearers to take some time out to focus on their breathing – and in times of intense anxiety it can feel like a lifesaver. In the midst of moments of panic, all you really need is something to take your mind away from the worrying thoughts that have taken over. As we well know, the most powerful tool to do that is your breath, and Apple’s breathe app is a brilliant companion for that.
On the plane, I clicked the Breathe icon on my watch home screen, and followed its instructions for a minute of guided breathing.
“Be still, and bring your attention to your breath,” read the words on the screen.
A blue dot appeared, along with the instruction, “Now inhale…”
Over the following seconds, the dot evolved into a something of a flower shape, and I made sure to inhale for the duration.
“…and exhale,” beckoned my watch. I slowly breathed out as the flower returned to the same single dot.
The pattern repeated – in, out, in, out – for a minute, and while I focussed on my calm and slow breathing guided by the app’s animation, I momentarily forgot where I was.
A quick check of the heart rate app confirmed it; my pulse had dropped down to below 100, which I counted as something of a success.
As the founder of wellbeing brand The Strength Temple, Richie Norton, explained to Cosmopolitan earlier this year, breathing is an invaluable tool for overcoming moments of intense anxiety.
“When you are thinking about the breath, your mind is less likely to wander off. Plus, the controlled count and slow exhalation has been shown to stimulate the calming parasympathetic response of the nervous system,” he explained.
But when you feel panicked, it can be hard to ground yourself enough to follow a focussed breathing pattern. Having a tool attached to your wrist that can physically guide you is certainly a big help.
For the rest of the flight, knowing that I could calm feelings of anxiety within seconds felt very reassuring. Before I knew it the turbulence had passed; I put my headphones back on, restarted my film, and felt safe in the knowledge I had an effective little mindfulness companion right there with me.