Woman Experiences Full-Blown Panic Attack - A Stranger Takes Matters Into His Own Hands
Stranger Helps Black Woman Having Panic Attack on Flight
Flying is a great way to travel. It's quick, you get to sit back and relax while someone else does all the driving, and you get to travel to places you may otherwise never see.
Yet, for many of us, flying comes with some unwanted baggage: also known as crippling anxiety and all-out terror. After all, hurtling through the air at 38,000 feet in a metal tube can be daunting (to say the least).
For one young woman, a recent flight had her anxiety soaring to new heights...and then a kind stranger stepped in.
A Stranger Helps Out a Fellow Passenger
from MadeMeSmile
In a Reddit post that has gone viral with over 29,000 upvotes, the original poster (who posts as @narrow_ad_2695) recounted what happened on a recent flight to New York City.
"On a flight into NYC today. On the left of the aisle was a young Black woman. On the other side of the aisle an older white guy. They were traveling separately."
As the plane was coming in to land, it hit some turbulence. Which, for even the most seasoned flyer, can cause a flutter of anxiety.
For this female passenger, however, her anxiety went immediately to Defcon 5, plunging her into a "full-blown panic attack." For anyone who has never experienced a panic attack, they're no joke. The intense, overwhelming sense of fear and dread triggers severe physical reactions, including palpitations, sweating, chest pain, dizziness, and difficulty breathing.
Seeing her distress, the stranger "reached across the aisle, tapped her gently on the shoulder and asked if she was ok."
She was decidedly NOT OK.
By this point, her thoughts of certain impending doom had completely and utterly annihilated any rational thought that may have been trying to take up space in her brain.
"She turned to him and grabbed his hand so tightly, tears streaming down her face," the OP wrote. "She said, 'I can't do this' and he calmly said, 'We're going to be fine. You'll see.'"
"The man just let her grip his hand all the way until we landed."
To have someone reach out and say it's okay meant the entire world at that moment. According to the OP, the woman was able to calm down and get through the rest of the flight. Once the aircraft landed, she "grabbed his hand with both of hers," and thanked him for being there.
"In a country where it feels pretty divided, this was just a wonderful moment to witness."
The Power of Real Human Connection
It's no secret that the United States is rife with political, social, and cultural divisions. From contentious elections to polarizing social issues, the country is grappling with an ever-increasing divide, leaving people feeling disconnected and uncared for.
And, let's face it, it's not just a US problem. Globally, we're not doing so great either. But it's stories like these that remind us that kindness and connection still exist in the world.
"I'm not sure why, but this made me cry. Some people just come along and restore your faith in humanity," one commenter wrote.
Another commenter wrote, "This is what being a good human looks like. It doesn't matter race, religion, or creed. Just be a good person. We're all on the same ride and need help here and there."
And then there was this comment, "I was recently stuck at a small airport with about 50 people, maybe more. The lady sitting next to me quietly called a nearby pizza place and ordered a bunch of huge pizzas for everyone, including TSA. Sometimes ordinary people do extraordinary things." For real.
So often, it can feel like we are all alone in our struggles, that no one else sees what we're going through. But sometimes, someone comes along who truly sees us.
And instead of turning a blind eye, or walking away, they join us in the dark and just sit with us. Reminding us that we are not alone and reassuring us that we will get through it.
By meeting his fellow passenger where she was and simply being present with her, this man turned a terrifying experience into a beautiful reminder of the power of extending a helping hand.
How Business Conferences Are Bringing People Together With Irreplaceable Live Experiences
In our increasingly digital age, there are many social networks that claim to do the job of connecting creative and entrepreneurial people, replacing real human interaction. But if the industry conferences being developed and run by the major movers in media are any indication, sharing a live experience is still one of the best ways to stimulate fresh ideas and develop new connections.
The New York Times isn’t just writing for readers anymore — it’s inviting them to join reporters and sources to tackle big, burning questions about everything from what’s next in luxury to artificial intelligence. The Globe and Mail was recently looking for a bartender and a venue supervisor to staff its new conference space in Toronto.
What started three decades ago as a series of secret meetings on the future of music has become the gigantic conference/festival hybrid SXSW in Austin, Texas. TED — which launched in the ’80s as a conference about technology, entertainment and design — has ballooned into a library of 2,000-plus talks in 100-plus languages.
And at the eighth edition of C2 Montréal this year, May 22-24, over 7,000 creatively curious industry leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and other forward-thinkers will once again get together to develop the tools to take on challenges in their industries and unlock new business opportunities.
So, despite fears that we’re all becoming too web- and work-obsessed in an era of swipes, clicks and snaps, getting together in real life has definitely notgone out of style.
In fact, conferences are still king.
From big brands to small businesses, live happenings are having a(nother) moment. Not only do conferences allow us to get away from our screens and connect on a human level, but -- from branding, networking, revenue and happiness standpoints -- they are, quite simply, good for business.
Nothing beats a handshake
You might wonder why, in 2019, when we can all just Zoom, Skype or Hangout with each other anytime, it’s still worth it for some of the world’s busiest people to hop on planes and trains to actually meet.
For most of us, it’s pretty simple: at a gathering packed with diverse and engaged minds, you might hit it off with your next mentor, partner, best friend, or business soulmate. Never underestimate the places a good conversation can take you and your company.
It also turns out that we’re not as good at convincing people to do things over email as we think we are. A study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, found face-to-face requests to be34 times more impactful than email ones.
Science also says it pays off to literally reach out. Researchers at Harvard and the University of Chicago found — in four separate studies — that physically shaking hands bodes well for negotiations and is a welcome sign of cooperation to come.
Don’t underestimate the power of being there in person.
Experiences help us connect
Our wallets have spoken: people are collectively more keen to spend money on experiences than on things, and the business community isn’t immune to this. Cornell University’s Dr. Thomas Gilovich, a professor of psychology who studies happiness, explained to Fast Company that one of the reasons we’re all attracted to experiences over things is because we can share them with each other — they help us connect.
As Huffington Post founder Ariana Huffington told TheNew York Times, even though digital may rule the day, “the need to actually be live and connect with human beings and listen to people in the flesh” is one of the paradoxes of our age.
Since most industries rely on building and maintaining relationships, in-real-life situations can effectively set you up to meaningfully meet other people.
Who doesn’t love a chance encounter?
It’s faster than an MBA
Another reason events are popular despite our increasingly time-strapped world is because they pack a lot of learning in. At conference events like C2 Montréal, talks, panels, workshops and, masterclasses are designed to teach participants something tangible that they can bring back to the office, and to generate those elusive “ah-ha!” moments.
Walking through someone else’s creative process, prototyping or problem solving are fine ways to get synapses firing and to make important intellectual connections. It offers you a chance to skill-up without going back to school. And the takeaways are pretty great. Once a conference is over, you can take what you learned from your experience and pay it forward for the benefit of your entire team — and it’s hard to put too high a price on that.