WHEN you are travelling in either short or long-haul flights it is not impossible that you will get bored sometimes. After all, who wouldn't be: sitting alone for more than an hour with your seatbelt on, leaving you partially immobile? And you cannot use your cellphone to brag your travel experience since there is no signal in mid-air?
Here's the list of what you can do to make your stay on your seat enjoyable or not at all boring, to say the least.
1. Read
If you forgot to bring with you your favorite book or any reading material to read on board the plane, don't fret. Try, instead, reading all the magazines your airline have provided for its passengers, which are often located in front of you. These may not as wonderful as your favorite book, but trust me, it helps minimize your travel anxiety.
2. Write
If reading is not your thing, then try writing. There are many topics you can write about, I'm sure. It may be a spur-of-the-moment idea or an article you have been planning to write about sometime ago but was not able to do so for some other reasons. You can also try your poetry writing skills. Or if there's nothing you can think about, then write your own journal of your experiences.
3. Scribble
If you don't have games, movies or even music in your gadgets like me, then take out your pen and paper from your bag and start scribbling words that often pop out from your head. I bet there are words that often appear suddenly in your mind which you don't know or have forgotten their meanings. In this way, you can look for the meanings of these words once you have your dictionary with you.
4. Be mindful
If your seatmate doesn't mind, you can start a friendly conversation with him/her. Just be very conscious of her/his body language as a response. If he/she doesn't want to talk, and you'll know this even if your seatmate does not tell you, just by his body language, then be polite enough to stop talking and don't be persistent. Otherwise you may get an enemy instead of a friend.
5. Don't watch the time
Resist the temptation to look at your watch every other moment. Not only will it make to seem the travel so long, it will also make your anxiety or boredom even stronger.
6. Sleep
It is mostly common for first-timers that right before flying, you become restless and sleepless, attributed mainly to mixed emotions of excitement, anxiety, fear, or joy. Now is the best moment to sleep while you are in a flight. Feel the coldness of the aircraft's airconditioner, and the silence of the other passengers. Surrender to your tired eyes and body; doze off to dreamland, and when you know it, you have already arrived in your destination sans the hassle of in-flight anxiety.
It may not be my first airplane ride, but this article was written during my first out-of-the-country flight.