“Better than a Massage”
- It’s a relaxing and unique experience.
- The natural release of endorphins and dopamine.
- Cortisol regulation within the body.
- A perfect screen-free activity to help you disconnect.
- Instantaneous pain relief.
- Body, skin and hair revitalisation.
- Helps to shake off insomnia and jet lag.
- Shortcut for mental stillness and an opportunity for amplified meditation
The daily grind can be very taxing on our body and minds, we slip into a routine to stay efficient, but sometimes I like to challenge myself to break away from routine. Seeking adrenaline from Bungie jumping, motocross and leisure in activities like pottery making, I am on a constant search for something to help me get out of my comfort zone and mix things up.
The 60-minute floatation therapy experience, offered at Horizen Floatation in Sydney’s West (close to Guildford or Parramatta), is more than just a solemn, new-age way to get some silence and rest. With plenty of benefits for the mind and body, floating may just be my new way to shake things up and feel better afterwards!
Float Tanks have high levels of magnesium found in the Epsom salt. Epsom salt baths and magnesium itself has been scientifically proven to help ease muscle, joint and lower back pain, increase circulation and lower blood pressure.
“The main benefits I receive are total relaxation of the mind, body and nervous system, enhanced creativity, idea generation and problem-solving and recovery from jet lag,” says Be Well Health Coach Jenny Sansouci, a frequent float tank user (along with, ahem, the New England Patriots—the team had a float tank installed in their training room at the start of the 2014-2015 seasons).
So what are the top eight reasons I found for floating?
As follows, they are:
1) It’s a relaxing and unique experience.
There’s no other feeling just quite like floating in a sensory deprivation tank. It’s as a tune to weightlessness as I could possibly imagine, making it probably the closest thing to zero-gravity any person can experience. While I was floating, I thought to myself this may be just what it’s like to be in the womb, and thanks to Horizen’s enormous float rooms, I didn’t feel stuffy or claustrophobic. Horizen Floatation gives you the choice of having it as a sensory deprivation tank or playing music and keeping lights on for a more mild experience.
2) The natural release of endorphins and dopamine.
Thanks to the activation of your parasympathetic nervous system through floatation therapy, you become filled with endorphins and dopamine. These neurological transmitters are responsible for your body’s pain relief, mood regulation and anxiety response. This makes floating perfectly for managing your stress levels, helping you conquer depression and getting a handle on any anxiety issues you may be struggling with. It helped me to feel happier and more fulfilled as I have struggled with depression my entire life finding things to help boost my mood is rare and very welcome! I don’t recommend everyone try isolation straight away as it can be daunting if you aren’t used to deep meditation, just use the star lights or ambient lights and ask for yoga music to be played while floating, but if you’re ready to step it up then go the full sensory deprivation route!
3) Cortisol regulation within the body.
So TLSS our nervous system reacts to external (environmental) stimuli, and if we are stressed or nervous, our bodies tend to produce higher levels of cortisol. Cortisol can lead to huge problems, such as irregular sleeping patterns and weight gain. So this benefit is supposed to come with continuous floatation, and in the few times I’ve floated I can definitely say that I have experienced a huge drop in my stress levels!
I have also lost a bit of weight too, going down 4% in body fat percentage in a few weeks, but this may be due to also using Horizen Floatation’s infrared sauna for detox before floating.
4) A perfect screen-free activity to help you disconnect.
It’s amazing to just disconnect from our devices during our waking/conscious day-to-day. We never realise how much we are connected to our devices until we get a chance to unwind from them, and floating is just a great way to let life and all it’s problems just “float” away! As I lay there slipping more and more into a relaxed and still mind state, I can’t even find the words to explain how free I feel! Free of all that technology I have to deal with every day for work and leisure, Free from my own mind; eventually, I was even free from all thought!
5) Instantaneous pain relief.
I went for the isolation option so I could get into a meditative state, but the best part about the float tank session happened before the relaxation and meditation even began. I body started to notice aches and pains in my back that I never knew were there before, and in that same moment thanks to that zero gravity feeling of floating, my spine began to decompress, and I cracked it in such a way that after the float had finished, I felt like brand new. Not to mention that after I realigned my own spine, getting into a meditative and relaxed state was so easy! After the float, I realised that all the constriction in my body had vanished!
6) Body, skin and hair revitalisation.
The high concentration of magnesium from the Epsom salt in the water leads to mineral absorption through the skin and into the hair. Magnesium can regulate blood pressure, assist in detox and assist in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. It also serves as a powerful recovery tool for athletes with muscle soreness or sports injuries. The temperature of the pool is supposed to match the body’s natural temperature, allowing your body to sweat out any toxins and also the salty, slippery goodness of the float tank water acts as a great exfoliation and recovery session for the skin and hair.
7) Helps to shake off insomnia and jet lag.
After the great relaxing session, I was able to sleep so soundly and deeply! As soon as I got home, I fell into bed and dissolved into my mattress. Being an insomniac getting a night of good deep sleep is hard for me, but for the first time in a while, after a great float session, I was able to sleep like a baby!
8) Shortcut for mental stillness and an opportunity for amplified meditation
Floatation Therapy is an amazing tool to achieve a meditative state. As with meditation, a float tank session left me feeling very relaxed and rejuvenated. I was told that my brain cycled between Alpha and Theta brainwaves which is very hard to achieve in a normal environment with so many external stimuli to distract the mind.
I can’t recommend Horizen Floatation enough, they have complete float rooms instead of just pods, so it does feel a bit more luxurious and private than many other float centres! Many will say this is just new age mumbo jumbo, but the truth is people have been using the power of floating for healing for centuries, to the point where people make the pilgrimage to the Dead Sea to float in their nutrient-rich waters and gain all the same benefits found in a modern float tank!
Just get out there and float, it’s an amazing experience, and there’s no wrong way to float, people tell me they use the float session to get an awesome power nap others just need it to unwind after a long day of work!
Happy Floating!
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