The Day You Fly Somewhere
For the day you fly when flying is the part you dread. It gets the documents, food and distractions settled early, gives you something to do with your body in the air, and tells the crew you could use an eye kept on you.
Travel · Anxiety · Stress · 9 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Put the documents in one pocket the night before — hunting for a boarding pass is its own small crisis.
- Eat something before you leave for the airport — hunger and nerves feel almost identical from the inside.
- Pick an aisle seat if you get to choose — being able to stand up matters more than the view.
- Download enough to fill the whole flight — a signal you cannot count on is one worry removed.
- Tell the cabin crew you are a nervous flyer — they hear it every day and they will check on you.
- Breathe out longer than you breathe in on taxi — a long exhale is what slows a racing heart.
- Learn which noises come when — the gear and the flaps are loud and completely routine.
- Keep water and gum with you, not overhead — what helps is no use shut in the locker.
- Plan the first hour after you land — somewhere to be next gives the flight an end point.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.