In a nutshell: floating is the practice of lying on a bed of warm salt water, in a space that blocks out light and sound, helping you achieve the ultimate state of relaxation so your body and mind can rest, repair, and refresh. In a world that demands your attention and energy at an ever-increasing rate, floatation therapy is the tool that empowers the very best in you.
Why Should You Float?
By simulating a zero-gravity environment, floating gives your entire body the chance to repair. By removing external light and noise, floating gives your mind a chance to refresh and focus. By immersing yourself in stillness and nothingness, you achieve a sense of calm that no other devices, supplements, or practices can bring you.
Our guests float for any number of beneficial reasons, but the most important reasons for everyone to float:
One of the best reasons to float is to relax and reduce stress. Sure there are many reasons to float, but this could be arguably one of the most important. The American Psychological Association links chronic stress to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver, and suicide. In fact, many visits to one’s doctor are often found to be somehow caused or aggravated by stress.
We all battle with stress in our daily lives, from the CEO to the working parent to the college student. It doesn’t help that even turning on the news can fill our head with horror stories of tragedies far from home or in our backyard, and we consume the latest gadget or app that promises to make life easier when all it really does is demand more from us faster. Do any of us really get a chance to reset back to baseline?
Enter the power of floating. Through a combination of scientific research and personal anecdotes, floating has been found to be a powerful tool to not only reduce stress, but to heighten your resistance to stress in the future. Here are just a few of the ways floating works to reduce stress:
Floating Reduces Stress Hormones
Through studies on floatation therapy, researchers have discovered a direct impact on subjects’ stress levels by lowering blood pressure and reducing the levels of cortisol AKA the stress hormone. By placing yourself into a state of isolation, away from distractions and gravity, you trigger the relaxation response in your brain and force your body to truly relax. But that’s not all: through direct impact on your endocrine homeostatic mechanism inside the tank, it is possible to lower your adrenal activation threshold resulting in a higher resistance to stress outside the tank. In layman’s terms: repeat floating can make you resistant to stress when you’re not floating!
Floating Removes Constant Distraction
Ever felt like it’s just impossible to get five minutes of peace to yourself? Whether it’s an email ding in your inbox, a text message, a call from the babysitter, family obligations, that never-ending to-do list; there are endless things fighting for your attention at any given moment. Floating is the solution here.
Stripped of all distractions, and isolated away from noise, light, and even the effects of gravity, a float tank is an opportunity for real peace & a feeling of security, where nothing can disturb or harm or distract you. There is nothing else on this world that can offer that same combination, even your own bed or bathtub.
Regular Floating Brings Long-Term Results
The most common reported sensation from all floaters, regulars or first-timers, is the sensation of bliss that follows the float. This is the post-float afterglow, and has been found to last for a long time following a float. While all are subject to the sensation after a float, the most incredible fact is how long it lasts for those who make time to float regularly. In fact, one study on the effects of floating found that a 12-session treatment resulted in decreased levels of stress and depression for up to 4 months! Relaxation and stress relief are only a few of the reasons why you should be floating. Check out the links below for more information on reasons to float, then book your first appointment today!
Of all the reasons why people should float, there is one that stands out above the rest: pain relief and management. Pain, while a necessary function in avoiding danger or mitigating harm to ourselves, is often extreme and always unpleasant. Some only experience it when injured; some are subjected to it nonstop.
Floatation therapy is incredible in that it can help alleviate bodily pain of many varieties while building up the body’s natural resistance to pain in the future. Immediately noticeable is that, by floating on a concentrated salt solution, gravity no longer presses on the musculoskeletal system. Some of the ways that floating helps in pain treatment include:
- Increasing dopamine production in the brain
- Reducing stress and stress-aggravated pain by lowering cortisol levels
- Heightening endorphin levels
- Promoting relaxation and enhancing sleep
- Magnesium absorption from Epsom salts
Habitual floaters that struggle with pain have reported a complete absence of pain while floating, and long-term reduction in pain when outside the tank. One study confirms that floating proved an effectiv treatment for stress-related pain, and our friends at the Fibromyalgia Flotation Project are dedicated to ngoing research on the effects of floating on patients who suffer from chronic pain, and have show very positive results.
If you or someone you know is suffering from pain, please book an appointment today and let the healing begin.
Top among the reasons why you should float: for physical recovery, both from injury and from exertion. From car accidents to sports injuries to muscle strain from anaerobic exercise, thousand of people have turned to floatation therapy with very positive results. When the body is placed in the healing rest only a float tank can provide, recovery is accelerated beyond the time frames of standard therapeutic practices. Here are some of the reasons why you should float for recovery:
- Lactic acid levels are reduced in the muscles
- Rapidly eliminates fatigue
- Decreases muscle tension
- Cortisol (stress hormone) levels are reduced
- Oxygen circulation is improved in the blood
- Magnesium from Epsom salts serve as a muscle relaxant and protein builder for joints
- Boosts the immune system
These only scratch the surface, and don’t even begin to touch upon the profound impact it can have on your mental state through visualization, enhanced learning, behavioral modification, and boosts to creativity and focus. Best of all: each one of these benefits is cumulative, so habitual floating can make you more resistant to injury and over-exertion in the future!
Floatation therapy is recognized by professional athletes and athletic organizations across the globe for its healing and empowering effects. In fact, the Australian Institute of Sport uses float tanks as a regular and integral part of training regimens for their athletes. More locally, many members of American professional sports teams float for recovery and visualization, including Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors and many members of the Seattle Seahawks to name a few. Floating is amazing, but you don’t have to be a pro athlete or in recovery to reap the benefits. Check out the links below for more information on reasons to float, then book your first appointment today!
Floating can bring you both relief from mental strain while empowering the way you think. Through a combination of isolating your mind away from noise and light pollution, and the healing powers of meditation, floating can give you mental acuity that you didn’t know you had.
Problem Solving is Easier in a Float Tank
Research has revealed to us the power of meditation in helping people focus their thoughts toward solving a challenge. The beauty of the float tank shines through here by providing the perfect environment to marinate on that issue. There’s no buzzing cell phone, no active inbox, just you and your thoughts while you focus, and the theta-state brainwaves induced can lead to an ability to brainstorm at a much higher level.
Floating is Incredible for Idea Generation
Spending time in a float tank can do wonders if you need some time to brainstorm. When you remove your mind and body from the external stressors and sensory inputs from the world around you, you’re giving your brain a chance to calm down, sort out the clutter, and refresh. You can channel those thoughts toward ideation or just let your mind wander as you simply observe your thoughts, and by the time you come out you’ll be amazed at what you’ve discovered.
Floating Can Spark Up Your Creative Juices
Not too far from the topic above, research also has shown floating to have a direct impact on one’s creativity by decreasing anxiety/tension, depression, hostility, and fatigue while increasing vigor and curiosity. Spend 90 minutes alone with your thoughts and the sense of rejuvenation can be just the lift that you needed to get that creative wheel spinning again.
Learning Can Be Enhanced by Floating
By removing distraction and external stimuli, the mind is able to amplify its ability to focus on a particular task by devoting more brain power – much like a computer and how quickly it can process any one task compared to attempting the same task with 20 others running simultaneously. In addition to optimizing your overall sleep patterns which can directly impact cognition and memory, floating is an incredibly valuable resource for those who want to learn at a higher level.
Ready to rid yourself of mental strain and take your thinking to the next level? Book an appointment today!
- Reduced stress levels
- Improved concentration
- Lower blood pressure
- Slower aging
- Increased self-awareness
- Stronger behavioral modification
- Increased happiness
During meditation, it’s possible for the brain to enter the theta state, where brain wave frequency lowers and the mind enters an almost dreamlike state. This is a powerful state for healing and rejuvenation, and experienced meditators can find, enter, and maintain the theta state with ever-increasing ease.
The difficulty for amateur meditators is entering this state of controlled focus with the world of distractions around you. It can take only the slightest neck cramp, back pain, change in body temperature or sudden noise from outside to break concentration and pull you back to reality. It can be nearly impossible to find the perfect setting that can control for every one of these factors – even if you can turn off the lights in a sound-proof room, gravity is still weighing your body down.
Enter the float tank. The enclosure blocks out external light and sound, freeing your eyes and ears from distraction (further enhanced by a sound-proofed room). The concentrated Epsom salt solution effortlessly lifts you upon a bed of water, keeping gravity from pressuring your body uncomfortably. The warmth of the air and water, matching the temperature of your skin, removes tactile distraction from temperature change. In a sense, a float chamber creates the perfect environment for distraction-free meditation.
Floating is changing and improving lives every day, and we look forward to sharing it with you! Book your appointment today and cross the Rubicon to better health and wellness.