Tag Archives: relaxation

In floating, the mind follows the body

July 7, 2014About Floatingaltered states, anxiety, benefits, consciousness, depression, experience, feedback, flotation REST, focus, mantra, massage, meditation, mind-body, physiological, psychological, PTSD, relaxation, yogacolin

One of our guest floaters, Joshua, came out of the tank with an interesting comment that he had found the sense of relaxation he obtained to be quite different than his experience of massage or yoga. We asked him what he meant, and he wrote us a great discussion. With his permission, we’re sharing it here:

Many people compare floating to the relaxation available from meditation or yoga. In quick simple terms, I found floating to be the exact opposite of these two techniques. In floating, the mind follows the body. In yoga and meditation, the body follows the mind.

I also experienced a marked difference in the type of “quiet mind” that the other two techniques produce. Having said that, once familiar with the experience of floating, even when going back to meditation it became easier to “get there” and easier to “stay there”.

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Floating and anxiety

May 22, 2014About Floatinganxiety, benefits, consciousness, depression, flotation REST, meditation, psychological, PTSD, relaxation, science, stresscolin

For me, anxiety is the big one — the real pressing problem for the largest number of people, that can be most helped by floating. By far the best review of the subject I know of is the video below by Justin Feinstein of CalTech. You can just watch it if you like (it’s half an hour and quite accessible), or continue with my discussion below.

“Floating provides a window into the lowest reaches of our brain: a window that allows us to see the rhythm of our life, a window that allows us to literally feel the flow of sentience completely untethered from the external world. … [Anxiety is] a rhythm that constantly outpaces the beat of life itself, and importantly it’s a rhythm that can be slowed down by floating.”

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I want to float

January 20, 2014Float Experiencesaltered states, consciousness, depression, joe rogan, meditation, pain relief, relaxation, stressSara

In our December 2013 newsletter, as we were laying the groundwork for our float center, we asked our readers if they’d like to come over and float in the Space Burrito. We figured we had time to handle five people, and imagined we might get about that many responses, maybe double that. We gave them some things to consider about our home float tank, and said:

If all that doesn’t seem too weird and you still want to come try out our vintage float tank, then write us a little something about floating and you. What about it appeals to you? Why do you want to try it? No need to write a term paper; a paragraph or two will do.

Almost immediately, the responses started to pop in. Continue reading I want to float →

First reactions

January 17, 2014Float Experiencesaltered states, consciousness, experience, meditation, muscle tension, relaxationSara

After we got our float tank up and running, we started having our friends come by and try it out. They’d helped us in numerous ways, including actually hauling the thing into our basement and maneuvering it into place. We were excited to share floating with them, and they were excited to try it out! Here are some of our friends’ thoughts after floating for the first time.

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Media roundup

October 13, 2013Float Experiencesart, awareness, benefits, energy, experience, flow, media, relaxation, yogacolin

The media has been full of floating this month! Some great articles.

“In the Tank”, The Nation: “Some of sensory deprivation’s sublime attraction seems to lie in the way it fortifies the floater against the perceived harm of twenty-first-century culture.”

“Floating into Hoop Flow”, hooping.org: Katelyn Selanders lost touch with her art, and got it back in the tank. “As she continued to float, the feeling of Hoop Joy swept over her, that magic energy you feel when the hoop beats rhythmically across your core, when you shoot it off your body up into the sky like a shooting star, and when you break the hoop against the beat and don’t know or care what your next move is going to be. Without even being aware of it, she had floated back into her flow.”

“Why Yogis Should Try Isolation Tanks”, My Yoga Online: “Pratyahara [withdrawal of the senses] is considered by BKS Iyengar to be the ‘hinge’ or pivotal point in the yogic journey, because it is the step where we move from our behaviors and action in the outside world, to diving deep within in order to ‘gain knowledge of the self’.”

Silent Spectrum from Mel Be on Vimeo.

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