Looking out the window and seeing the ground 10 kilometers below can be terrifying. You feel vulnerable. You think: "It is such a long way down. If we fall we are dead." Height triggers a primal fear of falling. It makes you want to be close to the ground where it feels safe.
In aviation altitude is exactly the opposite of danger. We have a saying: "Speed is life, altitude is life insurance". Height is a resource. It is like money in the bank. If something goes wrong at 30,000 feet the pilots have time. They have distance. They have options. They can trade that altitude for speed to keep the plane flying. They have twenty or thirty minutes to troubleshoot a problem, talk to maintenance on the ground, and plan a landing.
If you are low to the ground you have no time. You have no buffer. That is why we climb high. We fly at 30,000 to 40,000 feet to be above the weather and to have that massive safety cushion. Your brain interprets the distance from earth as risk. You need to reframe this. Every foot of altitude is a foot of safety.
This fear often links to a lack of support in your life. If you feel like you are walking a tightrope without a net then high altitude feels like a precarious place. But the air at that altitude is the net. The speed is the net. The redundancy is the net. You are more supported up there than you are down here. The "long way down" is actually a long time to fix anything that might need fixing.
