Believe it or not, but left-hand writing can help you overcome your fear.
Do you know, when I was younger, actually just a few years ago, I loved to fly. Airplanes were my favourite place, I loved the power of taking off, the sound of the engines, even the feeling of turbulence.
And one day, I even don’t remember which day exactly, things started changing. The fear of flying entered my brain. It was getting worst with every new flight and one day I just didn’t want to fly.
But I had to. If I wanted to be with my husband I had to. And what are families and marriages about if people are always separated for a long time?
I tried every legal way – meditation, reading everything about the construction of the airplanes and why the wings are connected in this way and not another, had many conversations with active pilots and cabin crew. Even tried EFT, but sadly it doesn’t work with me. So, I kept looking for other ways to help myself with my fears.
And one day a friend from America, living in Dubai, and also travelling very often to Australia, Asia and back to America, told me he read about the left-hand writing method to overcoming fear. He told me he also feels uncomfortable in the airplane and someone told him about left-hand writing. Actually, it is not exactly about the LEFT-hand. The idea is to write with your non-dominant hand. If you are left-handed, write with your right hand, and if you are right-handed, write with your left hand. This is supposed to make brain too busy in a non-traditional way and also more in charge than ordinarily and the fears fade somewhere into the background. Also, this method can help it feel as though the flying time is passing faster. Great idea, isn’t it? Especially if you have to fly more than 10 hours.
So I started.
Left-hand writing overcame my fear
And it works! It is not very easy, and my first words looked so funny! But it works, and this is the important thing!
Let me explain why I love this one so much. I’m a very visual and tactile person. Love to see, love to touch. That’s the reason I so much like real books, not Kindles, paper journaling and notebooks rather than digital schedules. The digital things simply don’t work with my brain. I need to touch, to write, to see.
Bumpy flights and turbulence don’t help very much when you’re trying to do calligraphy, of course. (If you can call these curly strokes “calligraphy”.) So I started making my “help pages” – ruling lines with a pencil before the flight and trying to keep to the lines when writing words in the plane. Two widely spaced and a narrow one below – as I was thought at my school. But you can do it however it suits you.
And because I need more excitement during the flight, to not think about my fears, I am adding some pleasure to this game – Tombow Dual Brush Pens with my favourite colours!
Here you can see my left-hand writing and, for comparison, the options which these great pens can give you, if writing with your preferred hand.
Writing with non-preferred hand is simple
There are only a few simple rules, which will make your experiment easier:
- Don’t worry – if you haven’t tried before, your first letters and strokes will be not perfect. But don’t let this discourage you! Remember when you were a very small child – go back to those years and explore this new feeling.
- Learn how to hold the pencil or the pen properly with either hands (if you are not). Maybe nobody taught you at school, and yes, everyone has their own way, but it is important for the elegance of your movements. Learning how to properly hold the pencil or pen will be another new challenge.
- Find the most comfortable writing tool (pen or pencil) for your hand and fingers. I suggest the best idea is to use a soft pencil. Harder ones have the letter H, softer ones – the letter B. Try at least 3 different ones and choose which is best for you.
- Try different colours too. This will add more joy to your left-hand writing.
- Start with 5 minutes on the first day and then one minute more every following day. When the things start to happen, you will want to write more and more – even hours.
- If something doesn’t happen as you want, don’t fight it. Just try only one minute more and leave the writing for that day. The experience is already in your brain and tomorrow it will be easier. Writing is great exercise for your fine motor skills and improves your brain with every stroke!
- Enjoy!
Good to know
I think, even if you are not scared of flying, you still can try this idea. Maybe you are struggling with something else – worried before tests or interviews, dealing with people you don’t like. But even if you don’t have any problems, it is still a great way to improve your brain and your brain-body connection. And who knows, maybe this is a even a great possibility for a new way for you to earn an income in the future?
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