Overcoming a fear of the sky: my personal journey

When I was around 7 years old, I remember happily playing in my Grandad’s garden, spinning around in circles and enjoying a bright summer's day. Whilst in the midst of my spinning, I decided to look up, and unfortunately, that was the beginning. That was the start of my journey with Casadastraphobia

(at least that’s what Google calls it - I call it a fear of the sky)

Something about the sky whilst I was spinning caused an intense fear to spike through my system - as I know it now, it was anxiety.

I tried to look up again, but found myself frozen in fear - questions like, will I start floating upwards towards the sky? Will the sky take me up with it? Started to flash through my mind. If you experience anxiety, you’ll understand what’s happening here.

When anxiety spikes, many irrational but real questions and instances start coming to your mind. This anxiety continued and developed into a real fear. It felt bizarre. 

I felt so unsettled.

Over time, my fear of the sky began affecting my daily life. I found myself avoiding open spaces where the sky seemed too “close,” and I’d get a sinking feeling when faced with the open horizon. Being outside was starting to feel less like a joy and more like a battle, and the anxiety turned into a phobia. 

As I got older, the phobia came in waves. I managed to go on lots of exciting holidays without a care in the world - sometimes it was gone completely, and other times it would spike with no obvious trigger.

I eventually decided to seek help, and Hypnotherapy was one of the avenues I decided to venture down. I’d seen people talk about how Hypnotherapy was effective for things like this, but could it truly help me? Or was I really just an odd case where nothing could help? 

It was worth a go. 

The process of Hypnotherapy was interesting and different to what I expected - I wasn’t asked to go into depth about the phobia, only enough to understand what I was scared of.

I was told that Hypnotherapy is designed to work with the subconscious mind, where many of our fears and reactions are formed, which goes outside of our conscious, rational brain (i.e. we know it’s irrational and ‘silly’, but our subconscious doesn’t). 

During my sessions, I was guided into a relaxed state. The Hypnotherapist I worked with used a beautiful metaphor to represent the sky, so that I didn’t feel too overwhelmed. We used a mixture of visualisations and story-telling whilst I was in a relaxed state, paired with some very gradual exposure. 

Over the course of the next few weeks, I started to notice changes. It wasn’t immediate, but neither did I expect it to be. I was just surprised that I didn’t feel as bad as I did (and when I say bad, I mean finding myself running to hide in an enclosed space when I was outdoors). 

A lot of the work was creating new, positive associations with the sky. Instead of seeing it as vast and intimidating, I began to picture it as something neutral and safe. beautiful space that connects us all.

The biggest shift I found was that I wasn’t obsessively thinking about it anymore - it was like I could go about my day without it taking over completely. 

The feelings of dread started to fade.

Hypnotherapy didn’t erase my memories or make me “forget” my fear; instead, it allowed me to reshape my reaction to it. 

I’m writing this article to express that there is NO shame in what you’re afraid of. I want my story to help you understand phobias are not embarrassing or something to be ashamed of, no matter how “unusual” they feel to others. 

Hypnotherapy has helped me in so many aspects, and is why I decided to retrain and become a Hypnotherapist myself.

Hypnotherapy can be an incredibly effective tool for those facing fears, large or small. By gently guiding you into a state where you can confront and reshape your reactions, hypnotherapy offers a pathway toward freedom from irrational fears.

Whether it’s the sky, heights, enclosed spaces, elastic bands, balloons - whatever it is, hypnotherapy could be the solution you’ve been searching for.

Hypnotherapy opened up my world, and it could do the same for you.

I’d love to hear from you and what it is you’re experiencing - drop me an email so we can best discuss a plan of action to help you tackle your phobia once and for all. 

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