How to Get the Most Out of Your Float
This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because my first floatation therapy session was…difficult.
I had a cup of coffee maybe an hour beforehand, which amped me up way too much to sit calmly in a tank for an hour. I got out and felt relaxed, physically, but my head was spinning.
“Was that it? That didn’t seem peaceful! I must have done it wrong!!”
So, use this guide to get the most out of your floatation therapy!
Preparation:
Try to avoid coffee for at least a few hours before your session.
Avoid shaving the day of as well (the salt can burn!).
Eat a small meal prior to floating (you don’t want an empty stomach yelling at you).
Then, as you settle in for your session, set your intention.
If you want to just kick back and relax, then try mindfulness and meditation. Which is nothing more than monitoring your breathing - 3 counts in, hold for 2 counts, 6 counts out. You can play with the timing of it to suit yourself and whatever you feel comfortable. As this breathing becomes a little more natural for you, start to put your mind in other parts of your body. Use your senses to their fullest - what are you feeling in your hands and your toes? What do you see (maybe nothing!) What do you smell? And explore those feelings. Eventually you may drift off, which is great! And that the end of your session, you’ll be recharged and relaxed!
If you want to problem solve while you’re in the tank, then I’d recommend going through a similar process. And as you relax, start to focus on the problem - relationship, writer’s block, work issues, creativity issues - literally anything. Then start to visualize that problem. Look at it from all angles. And then you can go one of two directions: Brainstorm ways to overcome the problem. OR, and this is where it gets fun - destroy or defeat the problem. Get creative! Put it in a box and bury it. Hug it. Smash it with a baseball bat! This is where you have to explore what makes you feel good!
Which leads me to the last way to use flotation therapy, at least here at Victory Float Lounge in Pittsburgh - visualize your victory! Our manager Lindsey ran her first marathon last fall. In preparation, she floated weekly leading up to it. And she would visualize, over and over, her crossing the finish line. And she plotted out the course and predicted where it would get hard, so she would visualize herself pushing through those hard points. And what happened? She beat her goal of four hours by a full ten minutes in her first marathon! Powerful stuff.
So, whether you are looking for a supplementation to your yoga practice via mindfulness and meditation, or you’re looking for a girl’s day or a spa day, or you have an obstacle in front of you that you want to overcome, floatation therapy is a powerful tool that is worth exploring! Find us in Lawrenceville, just outside of downtown Pittsburgh for your first floatation therapy experience!
