Lindsey’s Float Story
Floating was not something I expected to like. A few posts back I mentioned that I’d always considered myself to be an “anxious person” - like being jittery and constantly on edge was a personality trait at the core of my being. So the concept of getting into a little tank and floating around for an hour with no light or sound seemed terrifying. My thoughts were already all over the place and truthfully, pretty negative and pessimistic, so I didn’t want to do anything that might amplify it.
I met Casey in 2016 and we were fast friends. Within the first few weeks of our knowing each other, he’d pushed me to start journaling and doing a gratitude practice where I literally had to text him things I was grateful for every morning. It was helping, so for a birthday present he gifted me with three 60-minute floats. I put off going for awhile, but Casey persisted, and I hate to be ungrateful, so I went.
And it was truly one of the first times I’d ever felt at peace. Like my brain just let go of the death grip (on worrying about the future). The background noise was gone, and my mind could rest. It was bliss, and I was hooked.
The second time I floated, I was able to watch my anxious, pessimistic thoughts float by as though they were on clouds, something a dozen therapists had instructed me to do before. I never had success with it, but I could do it in the tank.
In 2019, I turned 30 and set a really lofty goal for myself: to compete in a powerlifting meet and run my first full marathon in the same weekend. It had been stewing in my head for the better part of 5 years and I found a weekend and a location where I could pull it off. I started really training for it in August of that year, with the both events happening at the end of November.
Training was intense, time consuming, and exhausting. I needed to use every tool in my arsenal to recover from those workouts, which included floating. I already knew the weightlessness would be a godsend to my joints after heavy deadlifts and long, long runs each weekend. I also knew I was likely in desperate need for more magnesium. So floating was an obvious winner.
What I did NOT realize was how useful floating would be for my mental game.
I was confident that I would finish both events, but obviously I had goals for each. Notably, I really wanted a sub-4 hour marathon time. My half-marathon PR put me in range for about a 3:50 finish, which was my real A goal.
I floated every other Saturday during that prep, and every time I got in the tank, I visualized some part of either the meet or the race. I made weight in my head over and over again. I went through my opening attempts and felt how easy and smooth they were. I watched myself on the turnaround part of the Philly marathon, not feeling defeated despite having to cover miles that we already did. And most importantly, I watched myself cross the finish line with 3:50:xx on the clock. Over and over and over and over. I was obsessed.
I won’t recap the whole weekend, but I’ll show you this:
Visualization is a POWERFUL tool, and there is no better place to do it than in the float tank. I still float with the intent to visualize the future I want for myself and for our business. While I think a lot of my early “success” with floating was due to my lack of expectations and judgement in HOW I was floating, I can now go in with an intention and see it through.
I say this all the time - there is no right or wrong ways to float. Visualize, relax, or sleep! Clear your mind or think intently about one thing (or everything). It’s all good.