Tag Archives: stress

Floating and PTSD: a couple things to consider

June 25, 2017About Floating, Community, Float Experiencesanxiety, benefits, experience, float tank, psychological, PTSD, stressSara

PTSD, short for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event. It resolves with time for some, and for others it may progress to a chronic state.

Many people have found floating to be a safe place to reprocess traumatizing memories, as well as mitigating anxiety and depression. Among other benefits, a floating practice allows people to develop a sort of “body memory” of calm and positivity, which they can carry into their daily life. For those having a hard time, this is a compelling reason to float!

If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with PTSD, we’d love to introduce you to floating. Here are two things to consider going in: Continue reading Floating and PTSD: a couple things to consider →

Guest post: the small, unexpected benefits of floating

June 4, 2016About Floating, Float Experiencesanxiety, benefits, consciousness, epsom salt, experience, float tank, magnesium, meditation, muscle tension, pain relief, physiological, psychological, relaxation, science, sleep, stress, yogaSara

From time to time we like to turn over the microphone to other people. This guest post is from Float staffer Shayna C. – Sara

Now that I am a staff member at Float Boston, I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to float regularly (thanks, Sara and Colin!). Many of the immediate effects of frequent floatation are predictable enough: better sleep, fewer muscle aches, being physically unable to shut up about how great it is. Some of the other unforeseen results of regular visits to the tank took me by surprise. Perhaps you can relate? Continue reading Guest post: the small, unexpected benefits of floating →

Floating is for everyone

October 26, 2014The Business of Floatingaudience, business, community, stressSara

“Hiroshima Day at Töölönlahti, Helsinki” © /kallu, CC-BY-SA — “Hiroshima Day at Töölönlahti, Helsinki”
© /kallu, CC-BY-SA

Recently we received a question about one of the core principles listed on our crowdfunding campaign: floating is for everyone. Nationally, floating averages $50-$100 per hour, and we’re going to stay on the low end of that even as we’re in one of the most expensive cost-of-living markets in the country, but as our reader rightly points out, $50 is too much when you’re struggling to survive. How can we say our service is for “everyone” when not everyone can scrape together fifty bucks? My answer touched on some of the reasons I (Sara) do what I do, and how I arrived at this point. I thought some of you might be interested in where I’m coming from.

Continue reading Floating is for everyone →

Athletic and artistic performance

September 25, 2014About Floatingartistic, athletic, behaviour, benefits, creativity, flotation REST, performance, physiological, psychological, relaxation, science, stresscolin

MMA fighter Pat Healy has called floating his “secret weapon“. “It’s hard to explain, but man, you really come out of there feeling relaxed. You can really focus your mind in there.”

Former Texas air pistol champion Brooks Brinson believes flotation helps him compete. “It’s really a very mental game, the most mental in the Olympics.”

Hoop dancer Katelyn Selanders had burned out on her art. But then she started floating and found a new wellspring of passion. “I was fully reminded that this was why I had started hooping in the first place!”

We’ve already talked about the physiological benefits of flotation for injury recovery. But when it comes to athletes and performers, there is more to it than that. Flotation can induce a state of “relaxed alertness, concentration and reduced stress,” and sometimes that is just what the doctor ordered for bringing out your best.

Continue reading Athletic and artistic performance →

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.”

Continue reading Floating and anxiety →