Float therapy benefits – A new FAVORITE!

If you haven’t tried it…Float therapy is amazing! It is liquid love for your mind AND body.

WHAT IS IT? Floating is essentially immersing yourself in an Espom salt bath that contains about 1000 pounds of salt, which essentially means that you’re floating on top of it.

Depending on the facility that you go to, you will enter into a small pod or a room where you slip into the body temp water and stretch out, and float for 30-60 minutes. I’ve done it 4 times and am a big fan of the relaxation it induces, but even moreso of the subtle but powerful reset does on the nervous system and how it alleviates muscle pain.

Besides being relaxed and feeling good because your brain releases increased levels of dopamine and endorphins, here are some other benefits, even more impressive and health affirming effects of floating:

1. RELAXATION ACTIVATION
Floating in a zero gravity-like environment massages the flow of the cerebrospinal fluid. This helps to downregulate the nervous system’s fight or flight response and activate the parasympathetic nervous system which is responsible for relaxation and healing. Not having to fight gravity lets your muscles, joints, and bones take a well-deserved break. Your body suddenly has loads of extra resources (usually spent supporting your weight, regulating temperature, and trying not to answer emails), which it gets to focus on things like healing and resting.

2. HEIGHTENED SENSES
Research tells us that floating can increase your 5 senses (even if just temporarily). I saw this with my Mom after her first time floating…she could better hear my sister talking in the other room, she could better hear the TV when it was on really low volume. It was wild!

3. PAIN MANAGEMENT
Pain management is something that floating can help with…from tight muscles and Arthritis to back pain and tendinitis. Magnesium, like the magnesium sulfate in the float tanks, is wonderful internally and externally to decrease inflammation. Epsom salts are absorbed through skin and help supplement a mineral that the average person is likely deficient in.

sidenote: if you’ve seen me as an acupuncture patient, you know magnesium is one of my FAVORITE supplements because it does so many wonderful things in the body like regulating high blood pressure, decreasing muscle cramps, provides PMS relief, create healthier bones and teeth, supports the electrical conductivity in the heart. It’s good stuff!

4. INCREASED STRESS RESISTANCE
Regular float therapy can increase your resistance to stress…meaning you become more resistant to the stimulus of chronic stressors in your environment or through your lifestyle. Your body does not react to it quite as much.

This is really important for Lightworks, Empaths, HSPs, and really anyone on the spiritual awakening path because you have to be able to let go of what is not yours energetically and physiologically and get back to YOUR nervous systems set point.

5. MEDITATION
Floating simulates a similar mental state in that you’re awake but extremely relaxed. It can put you in a theta-state brainwaves – which is similar to meditation. Theta brainwaves are responsible for that ‘between-waking-and-sleeping’ state, so floating gives you the benefits of meditation.

6. CHRONIC STRESSOR RELIEF
The tanks environment eliminates as much external input as possible. It lets your nervous system literally have a time out. In a city with a constant buzz or hum, your systems rarely experience (if ever) the isolation and silence that the tanks environment provides. Having this experience can be a breath of fresh air for your body and mind. And stress is a ingredient or a catalyst in the development of disease, so the more you can decrease it, the better.

There are more benefits, but these points summarized my favorite reasons to float. And if there is not a facility close to you, create your own float therapy session a few times a month in your own bathtub. Obviously you won’t be able to put 1000 lbs of epsom salts in your tub, but 2-4 cups can still yield healthy benefits.

Click HERE for my favorite brand of soaking Epsom salt that I use at home. I like it because it’s GMO free and unscented (so I can add a few drops of the essential oil I feel like that day).

Happy Floating and enjoy feeling better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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