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Slí Beatha Float House

Imagine yourself - who are you and where are you REALLY going?

What do you truly know about yourself?

You've found your parking spot, stop to take a few conscious breaths after turning off your car, and step out. You take the short walk to our float center, and as you open the door you're greeted by our welcoming staff and feel instantly relaxed and at home. You sit down in a comfortable chair, wait for your room to be ready, and ponder on how floating has helped you connect with yourself.

As you reflect on the familiar sensation of letting go into your private sea, the question naturally arises: what else can floating help with?

Many people float to find their baseline - whether that be for general relaxation, "me" time (away from kids, partners, work, friends and family), basic physical recovery, or even just paying off some sleep debt. For others, though, floating as a practice has more of a pointed goal to it – something specific that you’re looking to achieve, whether it be physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual. Since one of the most fascinating things about floating is how versatile it can be, and how it appeals to people in so many different walks of life, we wanted to run through some different ways floating is used for self-improvement.

Physical

In the physical realm, goals could be performance oriented: improving running times, training for an event or marathon, or improving precision skills required for something like disc golf. Several NFL, NBA, and MLB teams use floating as part of an action/recovery plan, along with other organizations such as the Australian Institute of Sport and the UFC Performance Institute Shanghai.

There have been a host of studies on the effectiveness of floating for this kind of training, from tennis players pushing past skill plateaus, to improved marksmanship in archery and rifle shooting, to shortened recovery times and less muscle soreness for heavy physical training. Incorporating floating into your training routine can help with injury prevention both before and during an event, and has even been shown to speed up reaction time.

Improving as an athlete, or in your physical performance, is only one of many acute goals that regular floaters come in for. Other areas for development in conjunction with floating include:

• Spinal decompression
• Relief from arthritis and fibromyalgia
• Stretching (something called "Floga")
• Swifter recovery from surgery/injuries
• Aiding in body work and physical therapy
• Reducing high blood pressure
• Improving quality of sleep

Emotional

Another interesting way that people use floating for self-improvement is related to emotions, and emotional regulation. Many people find the solitude of the float tank provides a perfect space for emotional healing, as it can help turn off the ordinary chatter and running narratives that our mind is always creating.

Deep relaxation in the float tank has a way of lending perspective on ourselves, or a particular relationship, as we are able to fully immerse and reflect. Whether it’s examining habits in your life that you want to adjust, or processing interactions with others that you wish were different, having a perfectly comfortable environment with no distractions is a tremendous tool.

Floaters have even referred to their time in a float tank as a salty therapy session, without the therapist. Here are just a few examples of emotional work that people do while floating:

• Working through past issues and traumas
• Coming to terms with a breakup or divorce
• Finding balance and insight with work relationships
• Floating before or after intentional communication with a significant other
• Floating while pregnant to connect with the baby

Intellectual

Some people use floating to help learn new skills or solve difficult problems. Used before studying, floating can calm your nerves and help you to stay focused and attentive to the subject at hand. Used after you’ve absorbed a lot of information (like when you’re cramming for finals) is the perfect way to cement and internalize everything you just took in.

In addition to pure knowledge absorption, floating has also been shown to produce more subjective creativity in tasks as disparate as problem solving, writing, and jazz improvisation. Other mental goals that people float for include:

Breaking through writer’s block
Michael Chrichton reportedly floated for precisely this purpose.

Learning languages
Apparently US Navy SEAL team 6 has used floating to reduce language acquisition time dramatically, although they haven’t released their studies to the public

Solving challenging problems
From architects to programmers to artists to mathematicians – people have found the float tank to be the perfect place for examining complicated challenges

Memorization and Recall
Without constant distraction and disruption, our ability to review and recall new information increases, as does long term retention of that information

Spiritual

There are many who are attracted to floating as a method for enhancing their spiritual practices. This obviously means different things to different people, and the strategies involved are just as diverse. Most commonly, these will take the form of:

Meditation
Goals here can range in scope from practicing mindfulness, to achieving a pleasurable physical state, to separation from the mind/body, all the way to full samadhi and even out-of-body experiences.

Breath-work
Some people find breath-work in the tank to be a very immersive and beneficial experience. This can range from simple awareness of the breath as a point of concentration to a variety of more advanced breathing techniques.

Self-Hypnosis
Floating naturally puts you into a hypnogogic state, and learning to manipulate that for hypnosis is a popular strategy for self-exploration and development. Self-suggestion can be powerful, especially when deep in the theta state.

Dreamwork/Lucid Dreaming
With the dreamy, half-awake/half-asleep state that most floaters are familiar with, it’s easy to see how the tank could be used to encourage lucid dreaming, and work on better dream recall in general. Many people will use a "float journal" (in addition to a dream journal) as a further aid in the process.

Self-reflection
This comes very naturally in the float tank anyway, and is perhaps the most informal item on this list. Nonetheless, there is a lot to be gained from the simple act of reflecting on your life and goals – noticing areas that may be able to use improvement and acknowledging the progress that you’ve already made.

Next time you schedule a float, try spending a little time beforehand pondering if there’s anything specific you might want to work on during your session. You can always ask your friendly float attendant for more ideas, and for help creating a personal plan if you’re interested in exploring the benefits of floating for a set purpose.

Stay inspired out there, and see you in the shop soon!

It's the holiday season. You've booked your time off from work, planned where you're going (or who's coming to you) and you’re excited to finally reconnect with loved ones after an unusually busy year. Holidays are meant to be a break from the craziness – they give us a chance to enjoy special moments and make memories with the people we love.
Sadly, actually fulfilling that yearning for a few nights where “all is calm and all is bright” can be quite stressful. Misbehaving children, older relatives that need extra care, bickering couples, organizing transport and accommodation, spending time to find the right gifts, catering for dietary requirements – with multiple distractions, time can easily feel like it's running away. This was supposed to be a holiday right?

Modern lifestyles are making us stressed, especially in the winter holiday seasons when advertising is at its peak. With so much of our lives being spent in front of screens and digital devices, the exposure to messaging from other people and companies is more extreme than it’s ever been. Somehow, although the internet and social media are amazing at connecting us to others it becomes easy to forget about ourselves.

These days, the relationship with self seems to be one of the hardest to maintain, and it is perhaps because of this that self-care has been taking more of the limelight in recent years. Looking after ourselves is worth the attention. It helps us in our relationships with others, allowing us to be more happy and present, as opposed to giving in to distraction and feelings of being overwhelmed. Despite the many obligations that come along with them, holidays (and their deviation from normal life) provide a perfect chance to work on some healthy habits and activities – and not just for yourself.

Although for many, gift giving has become more of a burden than a joy during the holiday season, it’s important to remember the beauty and power of thoughtful presents. A gift can express how well you know somebody, and that you care about them. When you get it right, it can make a positive impact, not just on your relationship, but in that person’s life as a whole. Gifts are a perfect opportunity to encourage your loved ones to take a break, and to treat themselves to some (very likely much needed, and much neglected) self-care.

This doesn’t need to be extravagant: even setting aside time for a hike or a picnic with someone is likely to be much appreciated. A nice meal, movie tickets, a massage, and pre-paying babysitters or house cleaners are all presents that encourage someone to take some time to themselves. Of course, a gift card for a float fits the bill perfectly – solitude in quiet darkness, with nothing but the peacefulness of a calm imagination, is the ultimate break from responsibility.

Letting go into the warm buoyancy of a float tank, the mind is able to slow down. Breathing deepens, muscles relax, and brainwaves shift down to a less frantic pace (known as entering the theta state). The gift of peaceful sanctuary from daily stresses and social obligations is not only a wonderful present in itself, it’s also likely to make the time that person spends with others more memorable, connected, and joyful.

Floating can be a great primer for a relaxed day out sightseeing or before going to an event. It’s also a wonderful group activity in itself, and taking your family in to float pretty much ensures that whatever you do for the rest of the day is going to be that much more peaceful and pleasant. The nice part about this is it's unlikely people will turn down a float. If they've never tried it it's intriguing, if they’ve floated before - well, you can probably tell by the smile on their face after mentioning the idea.

At the end of it all, floating is about connection - something so many of us are missing. There is the immediate connection with yourself during the float session, but there is also a lasting tranquility and openness that lets us connect that much better with the people around us. Floating has a unique effect of inspiring openness and ease, even in the most Scroogey individuals.

This holiday season, remember to take care of yourself and to encourage others in your life to do the same. That is a real gift, and although floating is only one of many ways to accomplish this, it’s also one of the best.

You’ve probably heard of our fight or flight response – when we’re presented with stressful or threatening situations (like being chased by a hippopotamus), our body’s autonomic nervous system responds by preparing for action. Our heart rate increases, our breathing picks up, and blood flows from our core out to our limbs (along with a lot of other changes, all focused on helping us get ready to defend ourselves or to get out of there as swiftly as possible).

In addition to this well known reaction to stressors, we have another autonomic response you may not have heard of, which is pretty much the polar opposite of fight or flight: the relaxation response. This is also referred to as the “rest and digest” response, and it takes over when we feel safe and secure. Our breathing and heart rate slow down, our circulation evens out, our digestive system becomes more active, and we’re more likely to become sexually aroused.

While our fight or flight serves us best in dangerous situations, our rest and digest response is useful for all those times when we’re NOT being threatened, and it makes more sense for our body to focus on taking care of itself. This allows us to store up energy, heal and recover, and even attempt to produce future generations. Both autonomic responses are incredibly useful to our survival, helping us to get through tough short-term situations and make sure that we have the resources and time to prepare for whatever may be coming in the future.

Unfortunately for modern humans, we’re often under constant stress (even if it’s not as immediately threatening as being chased by a hippo). Things like being cut off in traffic, being chewed out by our boss, or being woken up by a loud car in the middle of the night can make our fight or flight response kick in. Even before the global pandemic, stress levels were especially high for people living in cities, where all of the motion, noise, and interaction creates a more threatening environment for our psyche. It’s safe to say that many of us were going through our days in a state of constant and chronic stress, and having to deal with the Covid-19 virus and all of its impacts has certainly not helped.

This isn’t an all-or-none situation: there is a large gradient of stress that people experience in everyday life and a large diversity in the effects of that stress. Regardless of both the exact causes and levels of stress, finding ways to unwind, de-stress, and cue the relaxation response is increasingly important for all of us. In fact, when the term Relaxation Response was first coined by Herbert Benson, it was presented alongside a protocol for practicing and eliciting it in yourself.

Reading through his suggested steps, it may sound very similar to engaging in a simple meditative practice. You wouldn’t be the first to make that comparison – in fact Dr. Benson is often credited with familiarizing a Western audience with meditation, essentially through rebranding it as the Relaxation Effect and conducting studies on its measurable impacts.

With that in mind, it’s not surprising at all that numerous studies have found that floating in a float tank seems to bring on both the relaxation effect and its associated benefits. In fact, floating is often described outside the scientific community as “training wheels for meditation,” demonstrating that outside the lab, people have also been noticing the similarities between floating and the relaxation response for things like reducing stress, improving mood, and increasing focus.

The environment of a float tank is pretty much the perfect place to help turn off our nearly ever-present stress response (regardless of its current severity) and to help us to engage with our relaxation response. All of the examples above for triggering our fight or flight response involve things like loud noises, surprises, uncomfortable social interactions, hippopotamuses… all of which are notably absent in a float tank. In fact, the lights, noises, shocks, and demands on your system are about as reduced as you can possibly get in a float tank. Even the burden on your brain of trying to balance on these two awkward pillars we call legs and walk around the world without bumping into anyone (or anything) is eliminated.

So, the next time you feel like arguing with your partner or running away from your problems, consider giving yourself a time-out to meditate and practice engaging your relaxation response. Or better yet, treat yourself to a float and relax your entire musculature while your brain takes a well needed rest.

 

What’s happening to your brain when you float? How do you go from being awake, conscious, and stressed to relaxed and dreamy? While we still have a lot to discover when it comes to different states of consciousness, one key element is the “Theta State,” when our brain waves operate at a certain frequency most often linked to the moments between sleep and wakefulness. To really understand what the Theta State is and how it benefits us, we have to first explore a little bit about brain waves more broadly.

In 1924, German psychoanalyst Hans Berger recorded an electronic signal coming from the brain for the first time. The signal was chaotic, intermittent, and didn’t exactly fit with the contemporary understanding of how brains functioned. It took him five years to figure out what his findings meant before he could publish any meaningful results, and it took over a decade for the international scientific community to accept them as legitimate (some readers may notice that there are parallels to be drawn here with how float tank research has been received by academia).

Since then, scientists have discovered multiple frequency bands that brain waves operate on, including Alpha (aka “the Berger wave”), Beta, Gamma, Delta, and of course – Theta. Whenever a certain frequency is dominant, we say the brain is in a certain “state.” As an example, when you’re holding a conversation, your brain is using resources that are alert, engaged, and focusing on details, so it is in the “Beta state.”

Theta brain waves are a lower frequency band, which means they’re typically more active when you’re less active. This type of brain activity is much more common in children and becomes less frequent as we get older. Theta State is also often associated with some really great benefits: increased creativity, stress reduction, restfulness, and contentment. These benefits extend beyond the moments when your mind is in Theta State and regular practice can prolong these benefits, leading to greater health outcomes.

Since they were first discovered, Theta waves have been seen as a key to understanding the subconscious mind. Research has shown that theta waves are running the show when we’re in the moments between sleep and wakefulness, where consciousness is malleable and intuition is higher.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, neuroscientists were eagerly examining the brainwaves of all sorts of people performing a variety of different activities (not the easiest thing to do, given that early EEG technology looked a lot like this). One thing researchers discovered was that Buddhist monks were slipping deeply into Theta State when meditating, demonstrating a clear physiological effect from this (at the time) poorly understood religious practice (research has since shown that experienced meditators can also slip into Gamma State, as well).

This caused a flood of excitement and curiosity. What else could cause our minds to flip into this mental recharge state? When researchers began studying sensory-reduced environments, it wasn’t long until they started looking to see what impacts it was having on the brain. Perhaps unsurprisingly, they found that there was a massive increase in theta waves in subjects. One of the problems was that, given the limitations of technology, they couldn’t monitor brain waves until after people got out of a float tank, leading to gaps in understanding about what was happening during the floats themselves.

Until recently EEG technology just couldn’t handle the wet and salty environment of a float tank. But as of 2016, thanks to new developments in wireless EEG technology, we can watch people enter Theta State in a float tank in real-time. Because of this, we’re finally able to figure out what’s going on inside the brain during a float.

It turns out that even first time floaters are able to get into Theta State during a 90-minute float. Experienced floaters are not only likely to experience Theta State, but can do so much more easily, staying within that mental state for much longer stretches of time.

Given all this, it’s not exactly surprising that floating has been shown to significantly reduce stress, enhance creativity, and improve sleep – these benefits are all closely related to Theta brain activity.  Also notable is that as people float more often, it gets easier to enter Theta State inside and outside of the tank. Interestingly, the scientific discovery of what happens to our minds during floating is actually more exciting now than when it was first discovered.

We now know that floating is great for general mental health improvements and in patients with stress or anxiety disorders, it can have even more profound effects. Low theta wave activity is associated with several mood disorders including PTSD and Depression. The increased activity in Theta may even contribute to why floating has such a remarkable ability to alter the brain activity of people with anxiety conditions to bring them back to baseline stress levels like those found in healthy brains.

While there’s been a long history of almost mythological deference to the Theta State in the alternative wellness community throughout the years, the science has never been more clear: the Theta State exists, is beneficial, and can be reached through floating.

So what are you waiting for? Go float yourself.

 

Serenity. That sounds nice, doesn’t it?

With 2020 not letting up as it careens to a close, serenity can seem like nothing but an out-of-reach pipedream – both in our own lives and in the world as a whole. It’s difficult to relax and focus on the present when so much of even the immediate future is uncertain. In times like these, though, fostering that sense of mindfulness and serenity is perhaps one of the most important things that we can do.

With so much of the chaos around us being outside of our control, it’s especially important to focus on those areas where we can have the most positive impact. As always, one of the most immediate places we can make the largest difference is in taking better care of ourselves. Even more precisely, cultivating our own mental health – our own serenity – is a very worthwhile endeavor.

When discussing mental health it can be tempting to talk about the negative symptoms of a certain condition, such as how stress, anxiety, or fatigue aggravate mental health issues. Rarely do we talk about improvements to mental health in strictly positive ways without comparing them to an existing negative. Something needs to be wrong in order for us to “fix” it.

This isn’t just a result of our culture: it’s baked into our psychiatric science and treatment as well. In the DSM-5, the reference manual for diagnosing mental disorders, a huge number of the disorders’ descriptions end with, “...and interfere with daily life.” What if nothing is wrong? Or, if something is wrong, what if it’s not bad enough to significantly interfere with your daily life?

It can be hard to remember that mental health isn’t an on/off switch. It’s a gradient, and even when you’re not suffering you still always have room to make things better for yourself.

This is one of the things that floating does best. It improves your mental wellness and sense of personal satisfaction. It improves your serenity.

Now, when we say serenity, you probably have some kind of mental image of meditation, or relaxation, or of Joss Whedon’s Firefly. All totally valid, but we’re really only focusing on the first two here. In addition to its cultural meaning, serenity is an actual scientific term. It’s something psychologists measure alongside other mental wellness markers – essentially it gauges how well we practice being present, how ready we are to offer forgiveness, as well as how content we feel with ourselves despite negativity in our lives.

Serenity also happens to be one of the many mental health factors that has been studied in recent floatation research. In 2018, Dr. Justin Feinstein and his team at LIBR were able to demonstrate the effect a single 60-minute float had on serenity, and we don’t think we’re overstating it by saying the results were impressive:

For anxious participants, serenity skyrocketed post-float, above even the baseline for non-anxious participants. In the non-anxious population, though, serenity still increased a significant amount, illustrating very nicely this idea of mental health as a gradient.

Perhaps even more impressively, when we look at the data from all 50 participants in the study, every single one saw an increase in serenity after floating. Nearly ¼ of the participants maxed out the scale post-float. The graph for all participants’ data shows just how impressive this is. The red bar indicates how serene they felt before the float session, and the blue shows the (often quite drastic) improvement.

You can see a presentation on the full results from this study here, and read the actual research article here. Serenity was just one of many things studied, and the same sorts of impact are shown on decreasing things like anxiety and muscle tension while increasing relaxation and energy levels.

As a little teaser, here is a chart showing the negative and positive mental health traits impacted by a single float:

This year, and this holiday season, may be insane, but we as humans experiencing it can choose to make an impact where we can: in self-care. Whether that’s meditation, exercise, sitting by a fire sipping hot chocolate, or (as we are quick to encourage) hopping into a float tank.

Serenity isn’t as far away as you may think, but it does require you to set the stage for it by setting aside time for yourself.

 

We tend to think of creativity as synonymous with expression (writing, music, art, etc.), but creativity is also how we respond to unusual situations, how to approach old problems in new ways, as well as how we share this information in a way that is both entertaining and informative.

Creativity is such a fundamental part of what it means to be human that we often take it for granted. Change is one of the defining characteristics of the human experience, and being able to adapt to it and think laterally when problems arise has shaped our history in both big and small ways. Innovations like flight, the internet, and homogenized milk were all expressions of creativity. It’s something we use daily, even if we’re not thinking about it: developing a sense of style, finding ways to automate your work, or even creating a unique Zoom background for your digital meetings are more everyday examples of how creativity influences our lives.

Floating has such an obvious effect on creativity, that it’s hard to find a float center that doesn’t celebrate it in some way, whether through float-inspired artwork on display, post-float journals for zen’d out floaters to express themselves in, or album releases of float-inspired music.

So what is the connection between floating and creativity? And how do you research something as nebulous and ubiquitous as creativity, anyhow?

For a long time, it was widely believed to be difficult (if not impossible) to manufacture creativity. Beautiful muses could apparently help, but it was still something intangible and unreliable. Either inspiration strikes or… it doesn’t.

For as long as written language has existed, we’ve struggled with how to make inspiration strike. The I Ching, one of the oldest texts in existence, is fundamentally about how to foster creativity to encourage change – in yourself and the rest of your life.

Despite being written thousands of years ago, many of the teachings are frighteningly contemporary. The text itself is non-linear and there’s a lot of debate about specific word choice in translation, which makes it difficult to quote out of context, but one of the fundamental principles it states clearly and repeatedly is a strong comparison between times of quiet rest and solitude and nurturing the mentality necessary to adapt to great change.

Saying that we should avoid distraction and overstimulation to foster creativity is not a new idea, as it turns out. In fact, it may be one of the oldest ones we’ve ever had!

Synthesizing an abstract and analytical approach

More recently, academia has taken a more methodical approach to looking at creativity. In 1954, poet and academic Brewster Ghiselin compiled a symposium, The Creative Process, from some of history’s creative heavy hitters, including such greats as Einstein, Van Gogh, and Mozart to name a few.

Ghiselin took these observations and attempted to make sense of the common threads that give spark to creativity. In an anecdote from Henri Poincaré about inspiration, Ghiselin was struck with the process that led to one of his most important discoveries in mathematics: “he lay unable to sleep and became a spectator of some ordinarily hidden aspects of his own spontaneous creative activity.” Ghiselin saw this as a fundamental part of unlocking creative potential, “though Poincaré was conscious, he did not assume direction of his creative activity at the stage described, and as it seems to have been a sort of activity not susceptible of conscious control, apparently he could not have done so.” In short, he’s making the same observation as the I Ching: when we seek out stillness, our minds work out the rest of the hard stuff.

But philosophy and essays are not research, and at the time, scientists didn’t really know how to study something ] as abstract as creativity. Psychology was still a very young and developing field, and it would be a few decades before anyone would publish peer-reviewed research on how floating impacts creativity and problem solving.

In 1987, that’s exactly what happened at the University of British Columbia. The researchers there found that psychology professors came up with more ideas after floating, and that those ideas were generally more creative, with every participant except for one finding their floats to have an extremely positive impact on their ability to create. These results were later verified by the same researchers and replicated by other scientists at the University of Vermont. The Vermont study also found that people who floated were less likely to feel fatigued or frustrated by complicated problems.

Sweden’s Karlstadt University, one of the leading float research institutes in the world, saw this research and began attempting to replicate the results. Between 1998 and 2003, they published four separate articles on the benefits of floating on creativity, in addition to the other research they were doing. They found that despite taking longer to to solve problems, the subjects who floated all found more creative solutions, that it could help with creativity and literacy skills for those who use english as a second language, that floating increased originality, but lowered deductive reasoning, and finally that floating could potentially be a safe way to access altered states of consciousness, which could lead to increased optimism and creativity.

What makes this research so interesting is that so many of these studies took place before smartphones existed. More so now than ever, we live in a distracted, interconnected world, and the issue of “screentime” dominating our daily lives is an issue at the forefront of our society.

It doesn’t take a team of dedicated researchers with decades of studies to understand why floating stimulates creativity, though. It intuitively makes sense. Unplugging and centering yourself in quiet solitude is naturally going to help your mental faculties. Removing all distractions, even gravity, is a great way to rewire your mind and channel your creative energy into the places it needs to go, not just where the world takes it.

 

Here’s a sports trivia question for all our athletically-inclined readers:

What do the Dallas Cowboys, the Golden State Warriors, the Chicago Cubs, The Manchester United Football Club, and Michael Phelps all have in common?

You might see this lineup and think “well, the ‘92 Dallas Cowboys won the Superbowl that year, the Golden State Warriors won the NBA Finals in ‘14, the Cubs made history when they won the 2016 World Series, Manchester United is one of the most hono(u)red Football Clubs in the world, and Michael Phelps has won more gold medals than any other Olympian in history! They’re all winners!”

But that’s not all they have in common: they also all used float tanks.

They weren’t alone, either: the New England Patriots, UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie, the Chicago Bulls, Olympic Gymnast Aly Raisman, the Philadelphia Eagles, Olympic Gold Medalist Carl Lewis, The Detroit Pistons, as well as literally hundreds of other professional athletes have incorporated floating into their training and recovery programs throughout the years.

Floating is one of the best kept secrets in high-performing athletes and there’s some interesting research that helps explain why.

Raising the Performance Ceiling

If someone told you that laying in the dark on a bed of saltwater could give you superhuman strength or speed, would you believe them? It may not be as far-fetched as it sounds.

One study found that high-level athletes who have plateaued – those who don’t see any additional benefits from more training – would see an improvement in performance after floating in conjunction with visualization techniques, even without additional training.

Put another way, athletes were able to increase their peak performance just by floating before competition. A followup study not only confirmed this result but also showed that floating multiple times between games led to significant improvements over a single float! This demonstrates something that most floaters already know: the more you float, the better it is for you.

Improved Precision

Beyond general athletic performance, a few studies looked at more specific benefits of floating in athletes.

Several studies tested how floating affects marksmanship. All 3 studies had a float group and a control group, with participants from all skill levels.

In the rifle marksmanship study 75% had a statistically significant increase in accuracy pre- to post-float with no such increase was found in the control group (relaxation without floating). A similar effect was found in the darts study, with 80% of participants seeing an improvement. It’s worth noting that in both studies, these improvements were seen regardless of skill level.

While the archery study didn’t see any significant increase in accuracy, it did show that the float-group had more consistent scores than the non-float group, something that the other two studies found as well.

Reduced Recovery Time

While the benefits described above could be explained as a side effect of stress reduction, there’s more to the story of the impact on floating in physical performance, certainly not enough to explain why floating has been so popular among high-level athletes.

Building off of earlier research, scientists in recent years have started using biometrics to see what’s happening to athletes who float on a physiological level. A 2013 study looked at the effect floating has on lactic acid build-up.

Lactic acid is associated with that post-workout feeling of tightness in your muscles that causes your body to stiffen and get sore. Professional athletes are always looking for new ways to reduce the amount it builds up during a workout to maximize performance.

What they found was that floating after exercise showed a 62% reduction in lactic acid buildup on average compared to the control group. Participants also reported feeling less pain and were back at peak performance sooner.

A followup study in 2016 was able to replicate this effect with a larger sample size over 9 different sports. Not only were they able to replicate the lactic acid reduction, they also found a significant reduction in muscle soreness and improved mood and reduced fatigue in those that floated.

Looking at the Whole Picture

When you take all of these effects together, you can start to see why floating has been one of the best kept secrets of successful athletes. When you take into consideration the stress reduction benefits as well, you can see how floating might help them be at the top of their mental game in addition to their professional one.

The best part about all of this? Floating is helpful for athletes at every level. You don’t need to be an Olympian to see the benefits of floating in your exercise. It can be a nice way to cool down after a jog or help you recover after playing in a local league game on the weekends.

Football:

Minnesota Vikings
Houston Texans
New England Patriots
Seattle Seahawks
Denver Broncos
Dallas Cowboys
Cincinnati Bengals
Philadelphia Eagles
Buffalo Bills

Baseball:

Chicago Cubs
Minnesota Twins
St. Louis Cardinals
Arizona Diamondbacks
Philadelphia Phillies
San Francisco Giants
LA Dodgers
Houston Astros

Basketball:

Chicago Bulls
NY Knicks
NY Nets
Washington Wizards
Detroit Pistons
Golden State Warriors
Atlanta Hawks
OKC Thunder

Hockey:

Philadelphia Flyers
Chicago Blackhawks

Misc :

Manchester United
All Blacks …New Zealand Rugby
Crusaders …New Zealand Rugby
Carleton Football club Australian football
Taft Rugby
Team GB Rowers

Individual athletes:

Aly Raisman
Michael Phelps
Stephen Curry
Hunter Pence
J.J. Watt
Cody Garbrandt
Harrison Barnes
Carl Lewis
Phillips Idowu
Wayne Rooney
Henry Cejudo

If you’re like many people, this might sound familiar:

You check your phone for the time, notice a notification, then put your phone away. You still have no idea what time it is.

Or maybe this:

You’re having a conversation, and something comes up which neither of you know the answer to. You offer to look it up, only to be gently nudged a moment later, and realise that you got lost in your texts on the way.

We are distracted by our environment – especially our virtual environment – and jump from stimulus to stimulus, often barely registering what we’re doing along the way. We’re up against a barrage of flashes, buzzes, and pings which are literally designed to steal our attention away and fragment it throughout the day.

Our attention is a resource, it’s something we only have so much of to give. And the modern world is exhausting it.

Maintaining control of your attention has become a challenge – but it’s one that we can rise to. Meditative activities like floating help you train your attention and make it easier to shut off external stimuli, and replenish your attention reserves.

Enjoy your undivided attention for a change, and give yourself a float.

Keeping Mindfulness in Mind

Staying conscious of the current moment can be incredibly difficult. Our brains are constantly processing, learning, and planning things, and even dedicated meditators need to make an effort to shush their noisy minds. With all the distractions of the modern world, how can you learn to stay mindful for more than a moment?

Check out this new article to learn about the two major tenets of Mindful practices, and how floating offers you the perfect environment to strengthen your mindfulness muscles: Floating and Mindfulness.

Floating Pro-Tip: Use your mantra, calm your mind.

If you realise that your mind won’t quiet down while floating – consider using a breathing mantra. A mantra draws your mind’s attention while your body relaxes, and controlling your breathing rate is one of the easiest ways to become more aware of your internal state. You can even use gibberish as a mantra if you can’t think of anything in particular – and in a float tank you don’t have to worry about sounding silly, since there’s no one around to hear you anyway.

There’s no shame in acknowledging that your attention isn’t what it once was. You’re not alone there – our environment makes dwindling attention spans all too common – but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything you can do about it. The first step towards making change is realising that change needs to be made.

Our attention is not down for the count, it’s just out of practice. And your next float is the perfect environment for cultivating that practice.

Best regards,
The Floathouse Team

Since Float House in Naas opened up about a year ago, I've floated close to 100, if not more than 100 times. I consider myself an experienced floater and am jazzed whenever I get an opportunity to talk to first timers about the experience.

Other than showering off really well, making sure your ear plugs are in nicely, what else is there to know about floating? Chances are if you ask any experienced floater, they'll have their own unique insights as well as some "true across the board" tips for you on your first float adventure.

1. Go in without expectation.

First time floaters have all sorts of expectations which can lead to disappointment int themselves after a float. When I sit in the waiting area before or after an experience, the first thing I hear is "I don't know if I'll be able to shut my brain off". My response? "So don't shut your brain off. Go in without expectations, go in open to anything and everything."

Why this helps: First of all, not all of us were born like Gandhi. Meditating can be downright challenging for some of us, and placing the expectation that you'll have no thoughts or that you'll be able to quiet that busy mind of yours for 90 minutes straight on the first try is not important to your experience in a float tank.

2. Relax.

Why this helps: Well, duh… right? Of course if you're going for a float, you want to relax. Seriously though, this is crucial. Try taking a few minutes before your float to transition into the experience. Read a book, close your eyes and do some deep breathing, or simply repeat a mantra to yourself while you're showering off for your float. "I am safe and protected, this time is for me" is one idea you could roll with.

3. Ask yourself what you're really afraid of.

One of the common reasons I hear people tell me they haven't gone for a float yet is because they're afraid of something. Not being able to quiet the mind, being claustrophobic, drowning (virtually impossible in a float tank), you name it. When I'm afraid of something, I ask myself what I am afraid of and then I future pace the outcome I'm creating in my mind until it can't go any further. Inevitably, I end up at a place of acknowledgement for how unrealistic my "what if" scenario truly is, and this usually squashes the fear on the spot.

Why this helps: Most of the time, we don't even know why we're afraid, so this is a very powerful practice, both in and out of the tank.

4. Don't try to stop your thoughts from flowing.

I've already touched on this a little, but I think it's important enough to elaborate. This is the number one reason most people fail to try. Whether you're a highly creative person or you have ADD (or both lol) this may be a concern for you. You shouldn't worry about this, because floating isn't a place for rules. You can use floating however you like, and no matter what it's going to provide the physical benefits. You're floating in nearly 1000 pounds of epsom salts in a dark tank void of all sensory disruption. You can think all you like, that sh*% is relaxing!

Why this helps: When you're floating for the first time, you'll have an adjustment period. The first float is all about getting to know what it's like when you're left alone with yourself, how it feels to float on top of water and what kind of thoughts flood your mind that you may not have been aware of before. Each time you float it's a new experience, and some floats you'll drift off into a meditative place and some floats you may strategize and plan your to-do list. It's all good!

5. Go on a light stomach and avoid drinking a lot of fluids before you float.

Being in a tank with complete sensory deprivation means hyper body awareness. I like to have a very light meal or nothing at all before a float so my mind isn't drawn to focus on my digestive system. And avoiding liquids is pretty cut and dry - you can't pee in the tank! (Seriously, don't pee in the tank.)

Why this helps: Need I say more? Maximizing the benefits of your float can be as simple as remaining in the tank for the duration of your 90 minute session. And while you're free to get in and out as much as you please, it's a much more rewarding experience if your float goes undisrupted. That doesn't mean you have to float for 90 minutes every time. Some floaters get out early, some book doubles.

6. Schedule some quiet time for after your float to integrate the experience.

This 90 minute experience is a luxury for many of us city dwellers. It's a time where no one can get ahold of you to ask for something or demand your attention. As a business owner, this is a much needed chunk of time where I'm only responsible for myself - bliss. Pure. Bliss.

Why this helps: Jumping from one super blissful experience back into the chaos of your day can be jolting. Take even 5 minutes to yourself after a float to really soak in the experience you had, ponder thoughts or personal stuff that came up and drink some water. Then, set an intention and step back into the flow of your day. P.S. - FloatHouse has a cozy little lounge with couches and free tea, take advantage.

7. Look at floating as a priority self-care ritual.

Floating isn't expensive if you compare it to other relaxation services like spa bookings, massages, yoga passes or anything else you do to chill. That said, floating is a unique setting in which you not only reap the physical benefits of reducing your cortisol levels, balancing your hormones and for some even losing weight or breaking an addiction, you're also getting a chance to do some deep personal work, undisrupted business strategy or catch up on some much needed rest.

Why this helps: No other experience compares to floating, and this is why as a busy entrepreneur I consider it a priority in my life and make the time. We all have 24 hours in a day, 7 days in a week, and 365 days in a year, no more, no less. It’s up to us how we choose to use this time each and every day, no matter what job you work or where you live.

8. Bonus Tip: A lot of first time floaters will find themselves bobbing around in the tank. This is easily remedied by following these steps:

1) After you shower, dry your face/ears and put in your earplugs. 2) Step into the tank and lie on your back. 3) Put your arms out to the sides of the tank and hold yourself still for 20-30 seconds or until you feel stabilized. 4) Release your arms to your sides and you'll find yourself floating in one spot without bobbing around.

Let your worries float away with one of the wellness industry’s latest trends, a phenomenon that has brought huge attention to floatation therapy all around the world.

Your body floats, virtually weightless, in a tank filled with 1,000 gallons of Epsom-infused saltwater. There is no light, no sound and no stimulation, whatsoever. This is floating—one of the wellness industry’s latest trends, and a phenomenon that has brought 10 float businesses to Denver and surrounding areas in just the past few years. If floating sounds a little too woo-woo for your taste, consider this: The practice of sensory deprivation was first incepted in the 1950s by neuroscientist John C. Lilly, and has proven health benefits, including stress release, the ease of emotional pain, mental clarity, athletic rehabilitation and other soothing effects, thanks to the meditative state it invites.

“I was a massive skeptic until I tried it, and slept better that night than I had slept in more than a year,” says Bryan Messmer, the owner of Easy Float on South Pearl Street. Messmer, like many, felt the practice was validated through its use by professional athletes and celebrities like NBA star Steph Curry, comedian Joe Rogan and author Tim Ferris.

Currently, floating studies are being conducted by the Laureate Institute for Brain Research Float Clinic & Research Center in Tulsa, which uses float therapy to condition participants to disconnect from the outside world in an effort to reconnect to the signals inside of their bodies, referred to as “interoceptive awareness.” By tuning out the distractions of their external worlds, floaters can tap into their internal worlds. In addition, the Navy SEAL training facility, the Mind Gym, employs float tanks and sensory deprivation as a tool for both recovery and deeper learning, which has aided in the reduction of foreign language education from six months to six weeks. More information on the impact of float tanks on Navy SEAL training is outlined in the book “Stealing Fire,” which explores how today’s scientists are revolutionizing how we live and work.

If you’re interested in floating, but a little timid, we’ve put together some pointers for you. First thing’s first—be prepared to be in there a while. The modern-day standard float session is 90 minutes long. The length is intentional, because it allows the body to achieve the R.E.S.T. (Restricted Environmental Stimulation Technique)—the scientific term for float deprivation therapy—your mind, body and spirit truly need.

What to Expect

Although there are several float deprivation centers anchored around Denver, first-time floaters might prefer an environment like Easy Float. For starters, it is subterranean, which allows for optimum noise cancellation. Beachy, calming scents waft and welcome you as you enter the underground lair of relaxation. Upon checking in, you will receive a tour of the facility, which features four float suites. The suite-style essentially provides more breathing room if you are easily prone to claustrophobia in the float tank counterpart. (Think of a spacious bathtub, versus a restricted pod.) However, you will still gain all the benefits of a float tank inside of your private suite.

You can choose to float day or night, depending on your preference and your purpose. “Some like to wrap the day with a float, and others like to fire off into the creative and productive side of a post-float routine, it just depends on the person,” says Messmer, who recommends floating at least once or twice per month. “The benefits can be exponential at just one float per month,” he shares.

How to Prepare

There are a few things you should and should not do leading up to your first float. For starters, do not consume caffeine prior to your float. And, while a small meal or a snack is okay from 60 to 90 minutes prior, you should avoid a large meal, so you can feel as comfortable as possible. On your drive over to the float center, take some time to set an intention. You can also do this once you arrive, if outside stressors are too distracting.
Once you’ve prepared, a trip into your personal float suite reveals a shower with cleansing amenities and all the supplies you need (ear plugs to keep saltwater out, a vinegar solution to flush any saltwater that gets in and petroleum jelly to slather on any cuts that might get upset). After you disrobe and shower off the outside world and any lingering oils on your skin and in your hair (make it fairly cold to offset the warmth of the float), you will be ready to step inside your oasis.

As you enter your suite, grab the simple foam pillow resting on the wall. Once you are settled, motion sensors will detect you are inside, and the lights will turn off. Lay back and slowly sway in the water, and get comfortable with the slick texture of the salt. Find a calming center, both physically and mentally, and allow your mind to quiet. Set an intention or two if you haven’t already. You may also notice mantras whizzing through your head, which will also help you set your intention(s). If you’re a regular meditator, you may find that you quickly fall into a Zen-like state. If not, this is a great way to get into the habit, thanks to the lack of distraction. Once relaxation sets in, a mellow will soon follow, though you may feel your body jolt, or awaken if you reach that deep of a state. If and when this happens, return to your intention or mentally chant or whisper your mantras until you glide back to your still space. Bathe in the nothingness that surrounds you, and let your worries float away – until the queue of a soft, musical alarm awakens you.

The Aftermath

Treat yourself to a warm, cleansing shower, and take your time. Take a moment to regroup, and find gratitude for your appointment with self-care. Steep some warm tea in the lounge and hold on to the positive manifestations you’ve procured. Messmer says you can treat yourself to beer, ice cream, or even tacos, but to really just make sure you rehydrate and take note of how you feel over the next few days. “Always float at least one more time, even if it is not at Easy Float,” he says. “The second float is often said to be 90 percent better than the first.”

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Unit 33 Naas Town Centre,
Dublin Road, Naas, Co. Kildare,
W91 AH02
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