Float: The Many Benefits of R.E.S.T.
PHOTO COURTESY BODY THERAPEUTICS
Warm water envelops your entire body as you slide into the shallow, salty aquatic tank. As you float, your body becomes weightless. The outside world slips away; you’re sheltered from random noise, scents and visual stimuli. Muscles loosen as they cease to fight gravity. Your body feels so expansive that your mind can’t help but follow.
Float therapy, also known as Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST), is becoming a popular way to not only de-stress, but also heal from chronic pain, addiction, injuries, illness and emotional issues, as well as expand consciousness in meditative states. REST researchers have found that removing outside stimuli promotes the meditative state of stillness, mental clarity and improved thought processes.
Dr. John Lilly, a neurophysiologist, developed the first floatation tank in 1950 and perfected it into its modern form in the 1970s. He invented today’s 8.5-foot long, 4- to 5-foot wide “pod” filled with over 1,000 pounds of Epsom salts to investigate what happens to conscious activity in the brain when external stimuli ceases.
While some pods and open floatation pools do offer soft music and colored lighting, the main premise of floating revolves around sensory deprivation and weightlessness.
Removing external sounds, visuals and aromas gives us a much-needed break from daily sensory overload. The silent environment significantly reduces stressors upon the central nervous system, allowing the body to settle into a peaceful state and balance itself chemically and metabolically. The abundant Epsom salts also support physical health.
In addition to floating to promote physical healing, many people use it for spiritual or meditative purposes; floating helps the brain deepen into a theta state, which often results in creative inspiration, insights, vivid memories and feelings of serenity and oneness, accompanied by the release of endorphins.
FLOATING AWAY WHAT AILS YOU
Floating helps people physically and emotionally as they absorb magnesium, which the majority of Americans are deficient in, says Catalina Carrion-Kozak, who helped open VIVE Float Studio in Frisco. Skin pores easily absorb the magnesium and sulfate in Epsom salts. Magnesium regulates more than 325 enzymes, reduces inflammation, helps prevent artery hardening and aids muscle and nerve function. Sulfate helps flush toxins and forms proteins in joints, brain tissue and the walls of the digestive tract.
Carrion-Kozak suffered from such severe rheumatoid arthritis she had days where she couldn’t even get out of bed — and she lost jobs because of it. She hadn’t snowboarded for nearly five years, but after floating once a week for six months, she successfully returned to snowboarding.
“Through float therapy, I was able to dive deep into what are the most important things for my health, and one of those was floating —and the magnesium helped me absorb water better,” Carrion-Kozak says.
Dimitar Minkov, owner of Dream & Dreams Float Spa in Avon, says floating provides “one of the biggest benefits” for chronic pain issues, including arthritis and fibromyalgia.
“All those joints and muscles are relaxing, and the effect lasts days,” Minkov says.
People love floating after workouts, because once weight is removed from strained bones, joints and muscles, blood flows more efficiently, so they recover from physical exertion much quicker.
Paul Copper, owner of Blue Mesa Float Center in Montrose, opened his studio after discovering that floating alleviated his nerve pain from stump neuroma. He had tried just about every treatment, from injections and surgery to energy healing.
“Floating is the most effective and most instant thing [for pain relief],” Copper says.
“With 1,400 pounds of Epsom salts, the effects on the body alone are amazing and leave our guests feeling free of aches and pains,” says Megan Kingsbury, owner of Body Therapeutics in Grand Junction. Her float center offers a different form of floatation; rather than using pods, which some claustrophobic people avoid,(though once they see the 4-foot high pods, they do tend to relax, according to pod owners), Body Therapeutics employs 8-foot round pools under 9-foot ceilings.
Floating can also aid in treating addiction. Carrion-Kozak’s friend floated at VIVE to kick a prescription drug addiction, since floating releases endorphins that can ease withdrawal symptoms.
“Float therapy gave her the strength to go through that,” she says. “It allows you to go through some really tough things that you’re going through in your mind. It gets you to a theta state, which is a super-creative state.”
VIVE has accommodated Olympians and Para Olympians, who use floating to enhance visualization before competitions, because in the theta state, the brain becomes more receptive to suggestion. They also use it for post-competition recovery.
And, floating helps emotionally. A study by Laureate Institute for Brain Research showed floating reduced symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression by 50 percent after just one float, likely due to increased levels of dopamine and endorphins and reduced levels of stress-related neurochemicals. Both Copper and Minkov said many of his clients find relief from anxiety.
“People who’ve been struggling to make it through the day, after floating, they’re way better and able to function,” Copper said.
Most everyone — from pregnant women seeking relief from back pain, or people who are overly sensitive to stimuli, to people searching for higher visions — seems to benefit from floating.
“It gives more resources to your brain because for the first time in your life your brain is not taking care of any noises or light,” Minkov says. “It doesn’t have to think about fighting gravity. It clears up your mind like nothing else.”
Every float differs each time a person relaxes into the buoyant, 10-inch deep water because the brain responds to the theta state differently.
“Some floats, I have crazy visuals,” Carrion-Kozak says.
Even without reaching the theta state, Epsom salt does wonders for the physical body— as does floating weightlessly.
Floating has so many benefits, it’s no wonder it’s becoming more popular to float your troubles away.
Vive Float Studio
720 Summit Blvd. Ste 101A, Frisco 970.668.0136
50 Steele St. Ste. 110, Denver 303.377.8483
vivefloatstudio.com
Dream & Dreams Float Spa
70 W. Benchmark Road, Avon
dreamsfloat.com
970.364.3801
Body Therapeutics & Medical Massage
2500 Broadway, Grand Junction
bodytmm.com
970.644.5255
Blue Mesa
24 N. Uncompahgre Ave. Montrose
bluemesafloat.com
970.964.4488
Originally published in the Fall 2019 issue of Spoke+Blossom