It’s been a while since I gave the Top 10 blog some love so
here is a post all about the many effects and practical applications of time in the pod. It
goes way beyond being simply a relaxing experience!
You may be saying to yourself, “But I think all the time…”
While this is true, you probably do not regularly enjoy the experience of
quality thinking time. Some people refer to the floatation tank as the “Think
Tank” and with good reason. It allows for a completely uninterrupted,
distraction-free opportunity to think deeply about particular issues with full
concentration and increased brainpower at your disposal. You will be amazed at
just how much you can explore and the solutions you can arrive at when given
the opportunity.
Following on from the first point, this is probably the most
important and evident aspect of floating for me personally. Disconnecting from
the constant stimulus-overload of everyday life allows you to really put
worries, issues, plans and indeed your entire life into much-needed perspective
and enables order to emerge from the chaos of our scattered thoughts.
Stress and anxiety are unfortunately all too common in all
of our lives and floating has been scientifically proven to reduce cortisol
levels in the blood, which in turn reduces those feelings of stress
significantly. Contrary to what we all seem to think, stress is not something
we just have to put up with in modern life. It is something we all need to
address and the pod is a fantastically enjoyable way to reduce stress levels
and leave you calm and collected.
This one is unavoidable regardless of the mental journey you
embark on in the pod. The weightless environment has a remarkable effect on
your body. Just think, you have probably never been weightless in your entire
life outside of the womb. All those years of gravity acting on your body does
leave us literally weighed down. When weightless you give your body the
opportunity for repair and true rest. After your float, you will feel aches
have faded and you’ll enjoy increased mobility in your joints. Floating is also
particularly good for relieving back pain as the weightlessness actually
decompresses and stretches your vertebrae out.
This is another fantastic effect of time in the pod. Since
there are no inputs coming into the mind and your central nervous system is
sending no signals to your brain due to the weightlessness, you have increased
capacity for creative thought.
By disconnecting from the predominantly left-brain rational
processing of information, you allow your creative right hemisphere to come to
the fore with often remarkably creative consequences!
I sometimes liken the pod to an enforced meditation chamber
in that often you cannot help but arrive at a deeply meditative state of mind,
even with no experience of meditation. This state of mind is so blissfully calm
and serene that it leaves you wanting more as all worries and stresses simply
fade away into a simple, centred and present moment.
Visualisation has long been known to be central to the
psychological side of success in sport but it can be used for anything from
that interview you have coming up, that best man’s speech, that presentation at
work or even that recipe you’ve been wrangling with! Playing things through in
your mind ahead of time, imagining the successful outcome and embedding that
within increases confidence and moves your future actions into the more
automatic side of experience. This has been particularly helpful for a number
of Jiu Jitsu practitioners who come to the centre to play through the chess
game of predicting and reacting to opponents’ trigger movements.
Floating is known to increase the production of feel-good
endorphins and with the absence of external stimuli and forces acting on your
mind and body, it leaves you with a noticeably lighter and mildly euphoric
mood!
An interesting aspect of floating is how the effects last
long after your float has ended. Anyone who takes a long walk after floating
can testify to this physically but another interesting aspect is how your mind
is clearer and more disposed to deep, focused concentration.
I think most people feel that they could get a little more
shuteye in an ideal world. A single hour in the pod has been likened to the equivalent
of 4 hours sleep with regard to the physical and mental rest achieved during
that short time. Additionally, floating vastly increases your quality of sleep
and reduces the time taken to fall asleep. Try a 7pm float at Float Level and
see for yourself…
