Float

Floating is incredible.

After working for some awful business owners, I’ve gained employment at a float centre in Vancouver called Float House. Over the coming months I’ll be floating as much as I can and reflecting on the experiences of floating and other key experiences and practices in my development.

Every day we are surrounded by distraction. From work and school to family obligations and beyond, many of us are running around without a good means to deal with stress that builds up from our day to day lives.

How often do we truly give time for ourselves? How often do we even take a walk without the headphones in or a phone on us – to just see, observe and be present with the day?

Although new technologies are incredible and worth being in the know about, we still have to do what we can to not get lost in a sea of distraction, and to tune in with ourselves from time to time.There are many different ways to tune into yourself. Methods such as yoga and meditation, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, psychedelic medicines, floating, etc.

Of course not all technology is inherently a distraction. There are ‘spiritual technologies’ which can tune you in to more awareness as well, from biofeedback, float tanks, and even the idea of psychedelics as technologies.

Floating is essentially meditation (just as anything can be an object of meditation), except rather than trying to keep a straight and engaged spine while trying to fight gravity and back pains, meditation in a float tank allows you to let go further than most would normally be able to while doing sitting meditation.

Some equate the experience to floating in zero gravity. A thousand pounds of epsom salt is dissolved into the water making the water extremely buoyant, allowing for release of all your muscle tension through the time spent in the float chamber. The water is heated to roughly skin temperature, and after about 30 minutes it seems as though the mind forgets where your skin ends and the water begins, allowing a further releasing and relaxation to occur.

The environment of the chamber allows you to reach a very relaxed state, your brain being able to spend much time producing deep rest theta waves while maintaining awareness. On top of this, floats are typically 90 minutes long, much longer than most people would meditate for regularly until much further into their practice. This, coupled with the ability for your body to release into the experience makes for an incredible way to tune back into your body and rest from the constant stream of sensory input we live with day to day.

In these deeply relaxing states, we are able to get away from the constant river of thought, observe our subconscious processing and see our mind as a flowing thing rather than being caught in the torrents of our mind-contents.

The experience is a chance to step away from your brain’s constant self-refrencing that drives our inner narrative, and much of our inner anxieties. Giving time to rest away from this stimulus can affect many parts of your life. From relationships and family, to work life, and even just how you relate to and treat yourself.

However,  just like with any of these practices, the benefits compound over time. One experience may help you feel rested and alert, but through repeated floats is where the effects really spill into your day to day life. Just like with meditating, one 30 minute sit isn’t going to solve your anxiety problems, but through repeated exposure we can really get in touch with some deeper levels of ourselves.

Float centres are becoming much more commonplace, so if this interests you you may not have to look far to turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.