Throughout time people have sought the relief provided by mineral rich hot springs by traveling the Earth to float in places like the Dead Sea. Now you don’t have to travel to a far-off place. First State Floats offers you a passport to what has been described as “the most relaxing experience on earth.”
By eliminating all external stimuli, the central nervous system’s workload is reduced by as much as 90%. This reduction draws a person’s energy inward and promotes relaxation (the parasympathetic response). Parasympathetic response is the mechanism by which the body naturally regenerates itself and maintains chemical and metabolic balance.
People float to relieve stress, recover from injuries, fight addiction, eliminate chronic pain, and much more. Studies indicate that floating increases your dopamine and endorphin levels, thereby boosting your mood and leaving you with a pleasant afterglow that lasts for days. Without the need to fight gravity or take in external information, you’ll likely experience the most complete relaxation you’ve ever felt.
The brain has been shown to relax into a theta state, in which endorphins are released into the bloodstream, where they reduce pain and fatigue. Increased endorphin levels promote a general sense of well-being and happiness and therefore, increase vitality and further reduce levels of stress and tension. Reduced levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol have also been associated with continued use of float therapy.
The therapeutic technique of mindfulness is defined as the quality or state of being conscious or aware of something… a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations. Meditation programs, in particular mindfulness programs, reduce multiple negative dimensions of psychological stress. Float tanks can be thought of as training wheels for meditation. After about 30-45 minutes of floating, your mind starts producing theta brainwaves, which are responsible for that “between waking & sleeping” state.
Flotation helps those who have never been able to meditate to reach a deep meditative state. Regularly practiced deep meditation allows one to enter into a theta state. And it’s the perfect time to just breathe.
While floating, there is nothing to distract you; therefore your level of concentration and knowledge absorption is astonishing. Studies with consistent positive findings have led to the incorporation of Float Therapy into both physical and mental health care programs, as well as, fitness training and professional sports medicine. Most notably Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, NFL’s Tom Brady, and NBA’s Steph Curry have been widely recognized for their use and advocacy of float therapy.
It’s been widely recognized that float therapy positively affects activity in the autonomic nervous system. Ongoing laboratory studies have shown that floating can significantly decrease stress and anxiety, by lowering the levels of cortisol that are triggered by stress, anxiety, and tension”.
By slowing the cortisol-related “fight-or-flight” response, results have shown lowered heart rate, lowered blood pressure, and slower breathing. Float therapy positively affects activity in the autonomic nervous system by decreasing the production of adrenaline and cortisol, the “stress hormone,” while serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin levels increase.
Notable research being conducted by Dr. Feinstein at LIBR asks this Main Question:
Can an intervention such as float therapy that enhances present moment awareness for internal bodily sensations help patients with anxiety? Can it in fact establish a healthier balance between their body and brain? Future plans are to develop floatation as an intervention approach for different mental illnesses including anxiety, addiction, and anorexia.
This approach uses floatation to help patients disconnect from the outside world and reconnect to signals coming from the inside of their body. http://www.laureateinstitute.org/justin-feinstein.html
Float Therapy helping Veterans with PTSD
The positive benefits to military veterans and sufferers of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have shown that the lack of external stimuli is a therapeutic method of achieving serenity and calm. Float Therapy is being used as an alternative to other traditional treatments including varying types of drugs, which in one way or another just temporarily distort and overpower the brain.
Learn more at http://weightlesswarrior.org/ and ask about our PTSD program.
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“They feel calm in the tank. They feel like it’s secure, and they’re safe, and they can approach the traumatic events in more of an internal counseling session with themselves.”
FLOATING: THE NEW FRONTIER IN PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH
“The beauty of it is its all natural – you’re not putting any foreign substance in your body,”
Dr. Peter Suedfeld, of the University of British Columbia published “The Benefits of Boredom” in the American Scientist in 1975. After examining the results of previous experiments in the field, Suedfeld pointed out that tests of subjects in sensory deprivation experiments showed significant beneficial results from periods of sensory restriction, including “increased visual acuity,” “improvements in tactile perception,” improvement in auditory sensitivity, increased sensitivity to certain tastes (sweet and bitter). Some improvements in sensory abilities in tests lasted as long as two weeks. Suedfeld also noted that “significant aspects of perceptual functioning seem to be enhanced by sensory deprivation.” Among the beneficial effects he noted were improvements in learning, recall, I.Q. scores, perceptual-motor tasks, enhanced visual concentration, increased short term visual storage, and improved discriminatory learning. (http://www.jstor.org/stable/27845271?origin=JSTOR-pdf&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents)
Although anecdotal, there have been indications that two hours floating can be more restful and restorative than a full night of sound sleep. Floating can be better described as a method of attaining a state of deep rest.
Chemically speaking, Epsom salt is magnesium sulfate, MgSO4. And our bodies contain approximately 25g magnesium, mostly in our bones and soft tissue. Magnesium is essential to energy production and is consistently associated with regulating blood pressure.
According to the National Institutes of Health, Magnesium is a cofactor in more than 300 enzyme systems that regulate diverse biochemical reactions in the body, including protein synthesis, muscle and nerve function, blood glucose control, and blood pressure regulation [1-3]. It contributes to the structural development of bone and is required for the synthesis of DNA, RNA, and the antioxidant glutathione. Magnesium also plays a role in the active transport of calcium and potassium ions across cell membranes, a process that is important to nerve impulse conduction, muscle contraction, and normal heart rhythm [3].
Magnesium assists with many key health benefits by helping in the process of protein synthesis, relief from bronchospasm (constricted airways) in the lungs, improvement of parathyroid function, and the treatment of migraines, insomnia, and symptoms of depression. Magnesium is also known to positively affect severe forms of psychiatric dysfunctions including panic attacks, stress, anxiety, as well as, undue agitations. It also may help in reducing the rate of recurrence.
