Why Float?
By Matthew Blystone
I would love to be able to just answer “why not?”, I mean after all, haven’t you wanted to experience weightlessness? Don’t you like the idea of some peace and quiet? Would you feel better if your magnesium levels were where they are supposed to be, and your aches and pains went away? I guarantee over 90% of you would answer yes to all these questions. Oh, and of course the point that trying something new will only add more color to your life.
I’ll break it down into three categories, mind, body, & spirit, and give you important reasons why floating is a perfect lifestyle choice, just like eating healthy, getting massages, or routine exercise.
Let’s start with the benefits to the mind, there are a lot of them. We live in a society that can be very overstimulating, leading to high levels of the stress hormone cortisol, adrenal fatigue, and all out mental exhaustion. When these become issues, it can negatively impact focus, sleep, weight gain, energy levels, memorization, creativity, and overall happiness. Sometimes we need to reset, to get away from it all, and we don’t always have time for a week in the mountains, a paddle down our favorite river, or a margarita on the beaches of Mexico, so a quick vacation in the tank will allow all that accumulated stress to melt away. Studies consistently show that floating has the same positive effects on the brain as hours and hours of meditation, but in a quicker and easier format.
It is estimated that over 80% of Americans are chronically deficient in magnesium, the main ingredient in the 1,000lbs of Epsom salt we put in our tanks. That element alone is responsible for over 350 enzymatic functions in the body, functions that regulate insulin, blood pressure, muscle contraction and relaxation, as well as hormones and neurotransmitters. That being said, this stuff is kinda necessary for a well-balanced physiology. Floating will reduce muscle and joint pain, alleviate migraines, aide in spinal decompression, and reduce recovery time from injuries and training. You can’t help but notice how much tension you release in just one session.
Personally, my favorite aspect of floating is the amazing potential for self-discovery and exploration of consciousness. Some of us have never taken a moment to just sit, or be in silence, with no one around and nothing to distract ourselves with. The environment inside the tank is the perfect place to experience this, it’s safe, it’s cozy, it has removed all the external stimulation for you, and now all you have to do is be.
Many people use these tanks to have out-of-body experiences, experiment with lucid dreaming, or practice various forms of meditation that boost creativity, enhance abstract reasoning, or break through walls they have built at some point in their life. I have witnessed revelations galore, and even experienced some of my own.