Like any mom, I have dealt with my fair share of stress and anxiety. And, I’ll admit, while I know that things like working out, journaling and meditation are means to decompress and cope… sometimes those options are just not as fun as a sleeve of Oreos, am I right?
Either way, I’m always down to learn about new ways to de-stress and relax. And when floating businesses starting popping up near where I live, I started finding out that a lot of people I know, including my husband, have tried this method.
What do I mean by floating? Float spas are popping up across the country, featuring rooms with pods filled with warm salt water–and I’m talking extremely salty water (I read somewhere it was something like 80 gallons of salt in one pod)–enough to effortlessly float the human body on its own. And while you are floating, there is no light, no sound, no smell. All of your senses are turned off.
My husband has done this once or twice before and has been raving about it since learning that it’s becoming more common. He was a huge fan. He said his experiences completely cleared his mind and regenerated him–for the better.
So, this past week, when we headed down to Indianapolis for a low-key, last minute, no-frills getaway, I was researching things to do close to our hotel. I noticed there was a float spa right around the corner, and booked us an appointment at A Place to Float.
We were sans kids of course (ahhhhhhhmazing), and slept in that morning. We eagerly headed to the spa, and filled out a form where we rated our stress levels and what we hope to treat from the float. In addition to words like “stress” and “anxiety,” I was intrigued to learn that people also use float therapy to help with addiction, weight loss and goal visualization. The owner of the spa told me that the magnesium levels in the tanks attribute to helping control serotonin levels, which all corresponds with overeating, addiction, etc.
We got a brief tour and were escorted to our individual rooms. The room had a shower next to the tank, which looked like a kind of like a hot tub and a spaceship had a baby. It was kind of like a contemporary, oversized coffin. The lighting was serene, and there was a small dish with earplugs, ointment to apply to any cuts or wounds (since the salt would burn those like whoa), and towels.
So I got nakey, and popped in my earplugs, climbed in, and closed the lid. Inside the tank was a button to turn off the light. I laid back and there I was, floating like a dead fish. I was wandering around this tank, bumping into the walls and trying to relax. It was set to 96 degrees–to correspond to body temperature for sensory reasons–and it felt too warm to me. But I practiced my breathing as I floated around and had a harder time turning my brain off than usual.
Five to ten minutes into the float, I started sweating and getting nervous–which was unexpected. I’m not usually a claustrophobic person, but I felt somewhat panicked and definitely uncomfortable. But, I kept breathing and trying to turn my thoughts off, and I powered through.
In the middle of the float, I was fascinated thinking about how this is what babies do all day long for 9 months in their mother’s uterus. That was a little trippy.
Once I got more acclimated, I did start to feel like I was falling into the “not quite dreaming, not quite awake” place I, as a mom, know so well. Just when I felt like I was getting into what I thought the float experience should be like, the soft music started playing which the receptionist told me would happen to help “bring me back to reality.”
Afterward, I showered off the salt, got dressed and met my husband in a really cozy quiet room to help us gain our footing. He enjoyed his float–but said he would have wanted to go another hour. I, on the other hand, felt lukewarm about the experience overall. But, I do feel like I need to give it another shot since it was my first time, and I didn’t know what to expect or what I should be doing.
Would I go again? Absolutely!
