India, May 31 -- W ith schools closed for the summer and holiday travel in full swing, airports across India are preparing for one of the busiest travel periods of the year. While many travellers are eagerly counting down to their vacations, for others, the prospect of boarding a flight brings a familiar sense of dread. Flight anxiety is among the most common fears, and what makes it especially challenging is that it often persists despite knowing that flying is statistically safe. "Airplane anxiety rarely lives in facts. It lives in the body. The loss of control, the strange sounds, the pressurised air, the sense of being sealed into a metal tube with nowhere to go, these are all things the nervous system can read as threat, regardless of what your rational mind is telling it," mental health counsellor Aanandita Vaghani tells us. Rather than trying to "think" their way out of fear, Vaghani says it is more helpful for travellers to understand their personal triggers and use practical, body-based strategies to calm the nervous system....