For Immediate Release…

Contact:
Ginger Vaughan
( ginger@quinnbrein.com )
(206) 842-8922

How to Mentally Survive the Airport Experience

Travel psychologist provides tips to make the airline travel pleasant

Your bags are packed and it's almost time to leave for the dream vacation you've been planning for months. Instead of excitement, though, you feel panic and loathing.

"Many people experience dread when thinking about travel," said travel psychologist Dr. Michael Brein. "Once they get to their destination, chances are they'll have the time of their lives, but it's the journey-filled with long security lines; overworked, unsympathetic airline employees, and cramped, overcrowded airplanes-that can make people just want to stay home."

Brein points to rising incidents of air rage as an indicator that the travel experience is more than some people can bear. "These are obviously the most extreme cases, but many passengers arrive at their final destination exhausted and annoyed. Instead of feeling happiness and excitement, many come off the plane depressed and ambivalent about the vacation ahead."

To help make air travel as pleasant as possible, Brein suggests looking at the experience as a rite of passage that must be undergone to attain the grand prize of arriving to your vacation destination safe and well. In addition he suggests travelers should:

• Celebrate the Rite! Instead of fearing and dreading having to deal with the airport departure experience, try to anticipate it with excitement. Improving your outlook on the situation can go a long way to making it more enjoyable.

  Follow the advice of the airlines and get to the airport early so they you don't have to worry about missing your flight due to long lines or extra security checks. Once you've reached the gate, you can use the extra time to explore, go shopping, or relax with a cup of coffee or glass of wine.

• Create Your Own Cocoon to Endure! Create your own comfortable, cozy inward personal space. By retreating into your inner cocoon, you can simply deal with what's going on around you without letting it affect your mood. Once you reach the gate or get on the plane, continue this meditative state by listening to a mix of your favorite songs or putting on noise-canceling headphones. The goal is to be in the here and now, while focusing on all aspects of enjoying your vacation.

• Build Your Sense of Confidence and Personal Esteem!  When dealing with situations at the airport, people are often intimidated because they feel like they have little or no control. While it's true that you have to follow the rules to get to where you want to go, try to not think of the experience as a personal invasion and, always, keep your eye and mind on the final goal. Overcoming the feelings of inadequacy and confusion brought on by the rite of passage during the airport experience can build a traveler's esteem and contentment.

• Prepare in Advance! Of course, there are some things that you can do during your travel -planning phase and before you leave home that can reduce your needs, and, hence, the anxieties of your airport departure experience.

Here are a just a few ideas:

1. Airplane Seat Selection: Try to choose your seats in advance. You can sometimes do this online. Choose an aisle seat as this gives you more freedom of movement and keeps you from becoming scrunched between two people.
2. Create Your Own Insulated Personal Space: As above, bring noise-canceling headphones, soft soothing music on your iPod, a portable pillow, a good book to read, or a portable DVD player.
3. Pack Light: If you can possibly reduce your belongings to a compartment-size bag as well as one minimal carry-on, this will make a world of difference. You avoid the hassles of baggage claim and minimize going through customs and immigration at the other end.
4. Have a Picnic: Have a pre-departure meal at home or a nice airport meal and pack a sufficient snack for on the plane. Don't fly away hungry or starve yourself awaiting a-now more than ever-simply non-existent airplane meal.

Dr. Michael Brein is 'The Travel Psychologist' living in Ashland, Oregon and Honolulu, Hawaii. He is an avid world-traveler as well as author, publisher and lecturer on a variety of travel subjects. His travel guide series, Michael Brein's Travel Guides to Sightseeing by Public Transportation may be viewed at www.michaelbrein.com. Michael Brein may be reached at thetravelpsychologist@gmail.com or 541.535.9971.

The current article is an excerpt from Michael Brein's forthcoming book titled: "Traveling: The Everyday Psychology of Travel and Adventure." The book is based on interviews with more than 1,500 world travelers.

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For Immediate Release

MICHAEL BREIN WANTS YOUR TRAVEL STORIES!

ichael Brein has gone to great lengths to talk to people across the globe about their travel experiences. " You wouldn't believe the incredible stories people have told me about their travels, " says Brein. What was once a hobby has now moved into a nearly full-time pursuit, stopping just short of obsession.

n accomplished world traveler himself, having visited more than 100 countries, and now a member of the Travelers' Century Club –a club whose membership rules require that you have visited at least 100 countries–Michael Brein has interviewed more than 750 world travelers and adventurers over the last three decades, collecting 1000's of their best travel stories (including plenty of his own) onto nearly 300 cassettes. These tales contain the good, the bad and the truly horrible of what can and actually does happen to you when you travel overseas. You know the U.S. State Department's travel advisories and warnings ... These things DO actually happen to travelers. " I know–I've interviewed them–I have their stories! " says Brein.

n interviewing travelers, Michael Brein probes to explore the psychology behind their experiences. While the stories are often humorous, reflective and even mystical at times, many intriguing tales show how travelers deal with life threatening and often very dangerous situations and still manage to live to tell about them! Sad to say, some stories are about travelers who didn't make it.

ore than 200 different Travel Themes weave their way throughout these stories, creating a psychology of travel–an endless mosaic of the true travel and adventure tales of not just a few people, but of many–in–fact ultimately 1,000 people! These tales are not travelogues; these are not the tales of tourists and how they spend their summer vacations; these are the true accounts of life, of the wonders of peak human experiences, of struggle and in some cases of the death of travelers!

here's a Reward Out! Michael Brein will give you a FREE copy of the book in which your travel stories appear, if he is able to use any of them. So why not tell Michael about your, 'airplane from hell' story, or how you narrowly escaped a kidnaper intent on selling you into white slavery or about that phenomenal 'Kodak Moment!' Michael Brein wants to hear your stories!

or additional information about Michael Brein's Travel Tales please visit web site www.michaelbrein.com or contact Michael Brein Inc., 520 Lunalilo Home Rd, Ste 6401, Honolulu, HI 96825, USA. Phone (541) 535-9971, fax (501) 641-2690, or email .

r contact Quinn/Brein Public Relations, 298 Winslow Way West, Bainbridge Island, WA, 98110, USA. Phone (206) 842-8922, fax (206) 842-8909, or email Qbrein@aol.com

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