Serenity Now! 5 ways that floating reduces anxiety

Why I float

It is no secret that my very first float experience showed me that I needed floating in my life.   As someone who has lived with anxiety and depression most of my adult life, I remember getting out of my very first float thinking “So, this is what NORMAL feels like”.  I felt so light, so free, so blissful, and just at peace. I was able to ‘just be’ for the first time in a very long time.  My racing thoughts were gone, my heart rate had returned to normal and I just felt this overwhelming sense of calm – a feeling that was very foreign to me.  Clearly, I needed floating in my life.

Recently, I will admit, that I was quite overdue for a float.   My ego and my anxious thoughts are tricky beasts – they lead me away from exactly the self-care tools that tame their power.  My nerve endings felt like they were ’split ends’ like you would see in the ‘before’ picture of a Hair Conditioner commercial.  Not only was I was having trouble concentrating, but I had issues sleeping too. 

Finally, I convinced myself to JUST GET IN THAT FLOAT, even for a few minutes.  Well, instantly, like a muscle memory, I was transported back to that feeling of calm, bliss, and peacefulness.  I could literally picture my nerve endings being smoothed in the water as my racing thoughts slowed down completely.  My ‘few minutes’ easily turned into a little over 90 minutes, and I emerged feeling physically and emotionally lighter.  I learned a huge lesson that day. For me, floating is not a luxury but an absolute necessity for my mental health.  Now, my floats are the first thing that I schedule into my calendar. I have learned time and time again that my to-do list ‘magically’ sorts itself out.  

Emerging Float Research

As powerful as my own experience was, I am always curious to know exactly how things ‘work’.  So, I was inspired to review (again) the clinically proven benefits of floating, and would like to share them with you.  Dr. Justin Feinstein, of Laureate Institute of Brain Research, is the leading researcher into the world of Floating   The notes below are from his presentation at the 2017 and 2018 Float Conference in Portland, Oregon. His presentation showed the results of his study on the effects of floating on symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD.

Here are 5 clinically proven ways on how floating helps reduce anxiety.

1. Floating reduces muscle tension.  As your stress level and anxiety level increase, do you notice yourself clenching your jaw, holding tension in your neck and shoulders?  Holding tension is part of a vicious cycle – muscle tension increases feelings of anxiety, which then brings about even more muscle tension.  During your float, you can’t help but unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders from your ears. You may even release tension in places that you didn’t even know that you were holding it.  Try taking a deep breath, paying attention to all areas of your body with a slow body scan, and release tension from all of those hot spots.  By interrupting the cycle of muscle tension, there is a good chance that your anxiety will melt away with it.
2. A 20 hour post-float glow.  You know that post-float feeling – Calm, peace, bliss –  words don’t do it justice.  If you check in with yourself the day after floating, there is a very good chance that you still feel pretty blissed out.  Perhaps crazy drivers in traffic don’t make you mad or your kids or spouse seem less demanding.   Even your cranky boss seems to be nicer today.  Did you know that the Calming effects of a float have been proven to last up to 20 hours after your session?  If you compare these effects to the 4 hour average effectiveness of most anti-anxiety medications and their long list of serious side effects. floating is a clear winner. .
3. A training ground for your mind.  Not only does floating help you shut out the chatter of the outside world, but it also helps you look inward.  Interoception is is a lesser-known sense that helps you understand and feel what’s going on inside your body.  It can be said that floating allows for Internal Sensory Enhancement rather than sensory deprivation. You can really pay attention to your body, your heart beat and your breath during your float.  As a result, it is easy to observe what your body feels like when it is resting, peaceful and calm.  By noticing, paying attention, and practicing this deeply relaxed and meditative state, your mind captures this feeling and remembers it.    With a regular float practice, you can train your mind to revert to this float state while outside the tank.  Feeling stressed out in traffic?  Tap into this stored feeling.  Kids are being hooligans?  Take a breath and remember how peaceful you feel in the tank.  Your float training will bring you great reward in the outside world because floating trains your brain to be cool in the face of a stressful environment.
4. Avoidance.  Anxiety is the 6th leading cause of disability in the world, with less than 1/3 of people suffering seeking treatment.  Why you may ask?  Anti-anxiety medications often come with significant side-effects. Many talk therapy treatments used in treating anxiety involve re-visiting the source of your anxiety.  If you are already in a highly anxious state of mind, chances are the last thing that you want to do is re-visit the source of anxiety.   Floating reduced anxiety levels in 100% of the 50 participants.   And, not by just a little bit – by more than half in many cases.  The more severe the anxiety at the beginning of the float, the greater the decrease in anxiety. Gender or the type of anxiety that the patient was suffering had no impact on the results.  Did I say that the success rate was 100%?  No re-visiting your anxiety.  No drugs and no major negative side effects.  Just a pure, natural body and mind response.    Trust me, I am a fan of talk therapy, but doing it in a post-float state has been much more effective for me.
5. Serenity now!  Are you are a Seinfeld fan? You may recall this hilarious episode where the characters use the mantra “serenity now” when faced with stressful situations and experience mixed results.   Dr. Feinstein’s study has also shown that not only does floating reduce your feelings of anxiety, but it also enhances your levels of serenity.  All 50 patients in his study reported increased feelings of serenity after their float session. Again, this was a 100% success rate! This is an important mirror effect in the pursuit of reduced anxiety. Not only does floating decrease symptoms of mental illness, but it also increases the state of mental wellness -something that a lot of other treatments for anxiety don’t offer.  

There are so many other findings that I could share with you.  I highly encourage you to book a float and experience the difference for yourself.  

For more information on the impacts of floating and anxiety, and for full articles of Dr. Feinstein’s research and additional scientific references, please visit www.clinicalfloatation.com.

Interested in trying floating? Book your appointment HERE