During our sessions, which were done over Skype and recorded so I could listen to them later on my own, further enforcing the messaging, she'd have me lie back and relax and she guided me through visualizations. Hypnosis, according to Grace, is simply meditation with a purpose, and, after several sessions, I found this to be the most accurate way to describe how being hypnotized felt. Grace is a petite redhead whose soft voice creates an instant atmosphere of ease. Hypnotism was characterized mostly by a somewhat raunchy show I'd seen in Vegas during my 21st birthday-entertaining, amusing but not a valid alternative wellness therapy, like Traditional Chinese Medicine or meditation.Īnd then I met Grace Smith. I had a series of flights on the near horizon, one an eight-hour journey to Europe, and, months out, I was already lying awake at night, heart pounding, as I imagined them. The lavender smelled nice but not nice enough to calm my churning stomach, and the magnesium, which I swear by in my day-to-day life, suddenly seemed to have the efficacy of a sugar pill. But nothing worked-the vodka left me drunk and anxious the drugs, incoherent and anxious. I was 9 at the time.Īs a newspaper columnist (and a fervent lover of travel), I spent years traversing the globe and tried everything from vodka to prescription anxiety drugs to lavender essential oil to magnesium to make my in-flight time palatable. I don't remember a specific catalyst for my fear, but I do remember driving through a thick white fog in the eerie quiet that's so evocative of an early morning flight, and asking my mom to take care of my cat when I was gone. After my parents got divorced, I spent much of childhood flying by myself between states, meaning that time spent in airports and in flight was typically accompanied by the distress of leaving one parent and the general insecurity of a life spent in a state of between.
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