“Some of us think that holding on makes us strong,
but sometimes it is letting go.”
By: Bridget Bachman
The art of floating helps us to let go of the things in life that are not currently serving us. Letting go has a lot to do with forgiveness of self and of others. While working through the grieving of the past and letting go process, floating provides a relaxation like none other. There are numerous mental and emotional benefits of floating. It cures anxiety and depression, allowing your body to heal, reset, and be restored. It brings so much peace to a mind that is constantly processing information. If one shortcut to meditation exists, it is without a doubt floating! Although many people find it challenging to attempt meditation, floating forces you to simply let go and just breathe. The water temperature in a float tank is at the most comfortable degrees of 94.2. This allows there to be an essence of not being able to tell where the water ends and where you begin. You get lost in the peace of feeling one with the water. Since there isn’t any distraction, noise, or lights, it allows you to gently relax.
Another mental and emotional benefit of floating would be the fact that it combats addiction. One of the most common additions in our society today would be phone addiction. The float tank allows us to get away from constantly checking notifications, emails, and text messages. Floating helps our brains overthrow the feedback loops that come with technology addiction. Our brains need the positive re-wiring that is ushered in through floating. My mind feels the most at rest during a float and after the float.
Along with healing addiction, floating also soothes anxiety and PTSD. Floating reduces all of the activity that occurs in the cortex of our brains and decreases the production of stress hormones. This enables us to go into a deep relaxation which then releases the happy feelings that endorphins bring. We all love endorphins! If you want to feel joy, peace, and happiness, consider floating as an answer. When someone experiences an increase of endorphins, they also feel creatively inspired and even more productive. I have personally found that my consciousness rises to a whole new level after each float. I will discover solutions to problems more quickly through floating than any other means. It requires relaxing, rejuvenating, and being at peace to produce the resolutions, clarity, and positive results that we desire. I find that when I experience the bliss of a float, I can use that creativity to create new things in my life instead of holding on to the old. There are often better and higher paths that we are being guided to journey, yet it is in the letting go that we can get there. This is a very counter cultural principle, since our society tells us to labor, stress, and toil to receive results. Floating is an access point to release the old and embrace the new.
I believe a large part of letting go is learning to let other people live their lives the way they would like to live their lives. Give yourself permission to let go of the outcomes of other people’s choices, for all that you truly can control is your own perspective and inner peace. When you release other humans to have their own individual life experiences, you in turn receive a gift because you are free from control, being bound to what they think of you, and liberated from finding validation through another human. Floating frees you from the opinions of others because when you are in the float tank, you truly are connecting with your own soul and discovering inner truths about yourself. We are all on our own journey and while we should love one another, connect, encourage, and be light to each other, we truly are only responsible for ourselves. The longest relationship you will ever have in your life is with yourself, yet we constantly neglect ourselves. It is time to discover how to become your own best friend. A great way to do this is to spend quality time with yourself through floatation therapy.
When alone in the float tank, you will experience deep inner soul healing. Sometimes our past struggles can weigh heavily on our shoulders, holding us back and preventing us from living in the moment and being who we really want to be. We all have a past and we are all shaped and influenced by it, yet we are not defined by it nor are we restricted to it. Only we have the power to define ourselves. Only we can take responsibility of our lives, our present and our future. This revelation leads to knowing that every day and every moment is truly a new chance to let go, open ourselves up to fresh experiences and take action to create a significant future.
We spend too much of our priceless time dwelling on the past. You are not able to go back and change the past, but you can choose to not suffer any more, grow from it and let go. Floating helps you let go! It is such a divine relief to let go in the float tank. It has helped me take responsibility for myself and my future. When you release your past mistakes and struggles, you make room for something new to arise. We live in an amazing, incredible, loving universe that is full of exhilarating new opportunities that are waiting for you to discover them! Once you release your fears, these new endeavors will be knocking at the door of your heart. Are you open to them? If you desire an openness, floating brings you there.
When we don’t forgive others and our past, it is heavy baggage that we carry. Imagine hiking up a mountain with a heavy backpack full of stones and rocks. These stones and rocks are all of the hurtful past experiences that you have had. Each one represents a mistake you made, a setback you had, or a past relationship that did not work out. This backpack of heaviness may not be visible to you, but it is there if you haven’t fully let go yet. Today is the day to throw away and release each stone and rock that is holding you back and keeping you stuck from the new life of freedom that is easily accessible. Be brave and take each rock out of your backpack, throwing it as far away as you can. This act of forgiving yourself, others, and letting go of everything negative that has happened in your past will create a sacred space in your soul for healing, fresh energy, and new vision to appear. Letting go in the float tank means letting in joy, happiness, growth, and personal development. You will appreciate yourself more for doing this and you will be so much stronger because of it.
