Gratitude Friday 12 6 24 Fully Unplugged, No Stimuli

"[Floating in an isolation tank] is the first time that we've been without sensory experience, sensory environmental stimuli, since we were conceived. There is no sound, no sight, no temperature gradient, and no gravity. So all of the brain's searching and gating information from the environment is relaxed. Everything that was in the background-kind of 'behind the curtain'-can now be exposed. When done consistently over time, it's essentially like meditation on steroids. It starts to recalibrate the entire neuroendocrine system. People who are running in stress mode or sympathetic overdrive start to relax that over time, and you get this bleed-over effect into everyday life. It's not just what happens in the tank. It continues outside of the tank." - Timothy Ferriss

As we are moving fully into the final weeks of 2024, which for many of are a time of reflection. I would not characterize 2024 as an easy year by any measure, yet in the same breath also a year of great experience. One thing I have noted in recent years is that with age comes less tolerance for certain kinds of stress. What this has meant for me is that efforts to reduce stress or experience periods of low stress are things I need to be more intentional about. Over the summer, this search for new tools to reduce stress and experience moments of peace, combined with the personality that tends towards trying new things led to a new experience. I spoke at a conference in a hotel with isolation tanks. I booked a 90-minute float in a tank filled with saline water warmed to body temperature that was soundproof and light proof. It was incredible. My brain was forced into what could be described and a reboot. I felt calm and emerged with better concentration and creativity. The effects persisted. It was not my last float; I expect to have more in 2025.

I looked into the research on floating and found this article, Floatation Therapy for Mental Health Conditions, focused on the use of isolation tanks for mental wellness and this one Beneficial effects of treatment with sensory isolation in flotation-tank as a preventive health-care intervention - a randomized controlled pilot trial that focuses on the tanks as a preventative tool for physical health. Despite their benefit, a lot of people seem to get freaked out by the idea of getting into a soundproof and light proof tank filled with water and shutting the door. I get it, but for me, what I found on my first experience is that climbing and shutting down the stimuli was an incredible one. Like many people, I am bombarded by things coming at me all day and all night and the process brought me peace.

Float therapy, also known as flotation therapy, can have many benefits, including:

•        Mental health: Float therapy can help reduce stress and anxiety and improve mental state and quality of life. It can also help people achieve a deep meditative state.

•        Pain relief: Float therapy can help relieve muscle pain and tension and can be especially therapeutic for people with chronic pain conditions.

•        Improved sleep: Float therapy can help improve sleep quality.

•        Creativity: Float therapy can stimulate creativity by helping people release mental clutter and inspiring the right side of the brain.

•        Improved focus: Float therapy can help improve focus and athletic skill by allowing lactic acid to pass out of muscles faster.

•        Reduced blood pressure: Float therapy can help reduce blood pressure and heart rate.

•        Improved relaxation: Float therapy can help people achieve a deep state of relaxation by releasing tension and easing stress.

•        Improved recovery: Float therapy can help speed up recovery from physical health recovery.

When I take a step back, floating is similar to time in nature for me. In both, I reduce my connectivity to the modern world and feel my own pulse or that of the world. Obtaining solitude is increasingly vital to my sense of wellbeing and my capacity to navigate life. I expect I am not alone in this. In fact, I suspect that most of us are so tired of all the stimuli coming at us all the time that we could use isolation tanks in our homes. When I consider eras gone by, the generation prior to mine who had no internet, no wireless phones and TVs with less channels than we have fingers, time spent on the porch or in the living room talking with friends and family, reading or simply being with each other was how we would rejuvenate. There was less entertainment and more authentic being. Those days seem an age ago. I am grateful for finding the solace and healing properties of a float tank this year. I am grateful for retaining the inclination to try new things and find new tools to improve my life.

What are you grateful for today?