How I Float Now

As a new float centre owner, you should float every single day for a month

This is some of the advice that I received which has been bouncing around in my head all month because, well, I haven’t floated every single day. In fact, far from it. I’ve got customers who have floated more times than me so far.

And I’m ok with it.

Because I didn’t start a float centre just for my own selfish pursuit of floating every day.

I started a business because I wanted to provide something more to myself in terms of growth and to my community in terms of a legitamite benefit to a broad range of people

Do I have time to float every day? I suppose if I wanted to set aside the other important things in my life I could but I don’t think that would bring me much contentment or fulfillment. Maybe I’ll try it later on as an experiment like one of those BuzzFeed articles - “I tried floating every day for a month. You won’t believe what happened…"

And to say I dont have time for it may seem alarming to some - it always tickles that quote in the back of my mind about how if you don’t have 20 minutes to meditate, you need two hours.

But I haven’t given up on my daily meditation practice. It’s actually made a grand resurgence as I study Sam Harris’ Waking Up meditation course which I recently purchased for the benefit of the spa and the customers here.

There’s a big difference between practicing meditation for 10-20 minutes daily and floating for an hour. Not to mention the fact that only one month into a new business I have yet to stay in the float tank for a full hour once.

I’ve made it to 50 minutes so far, which is probably just as good as an hour for most since I already know what to expect when I get in there to float.

My mind doesn’t dissolve very well each time. Perhaps because the minute I step out of the tank it’s back to work.

The four or five times I have floated though have gotten progressively better - other than the one where I listened to a podcast the whole time - I don’t recommend doing that unless your intention really is to use the float tank to download information into your brain. It’s physically relaxing but didn’t come with that great sigh of relief and the post-float glow. It’s probably best saved for another round of experiments or maybe creating a “plugging into the Matrix to download a book into your brain” offer.  Any takers? Let me know.

So how do I float now?

As a business owner with an important mission at hand I need to be able to get that valuable recharge time in my week. Meditation is a must on a daily basis - it’s the floor sweeping of your mind - but as many smart business owners will tell you, it’s important to keep your batteries fresh so that you can do the deep work, stay in your flow, and accomplish the big goals that drive your company and your mission forward.

My friend Josh Martin shares his intimate story of what can and will go wrong if you let yourself burnout in his yet-to-be published book “What Is Next.”

So with that in mind, I’m committed to scheduling in my floats and my nature walks when need be. To unplug, reset, and spark creativity.

When it comes to the float tank, I go through the routine that I think most people do. I am not a guru; we are all following the same journey.

The first few minutes are getting situated, letting my heart rate settle down, and my skin temperature equilabrate with the water and the air - returning to the womb if you’re into humouring the Freudian nature of the experience.

It would really be fascinating to see what Freud thinks about floating - I’m imagining a float tank in place of the couch that he’s sitting behind and picking away at your subconscious.

After I’ve reached stasis I deepen my breathing and just try to become aware of the sensations in my body. In typical mindfulness meditation this often equates to the body scan or becoming aware of your surroundings but one of the fascinating things about the float tank is that your surroundings no longer exist in your conscious mind and so you can look inwards to explore deeper things. Whoa, that last sentence sounds like some deep profundity but it doesn’t have to sound so mystical - you’re just relaxing into an experience of nothingness that we rarely ever reach in our day-to-day lives.

Once I’ve let my brain process and settle down I start the final challenge which so far has without fail ended my float exactly when I intend it to - like the satisfying sense of completion that comes with closing the back cover of a really good book.

I count my breaths to ten.

In -one…… Out - one…..

If you’ve ever done this before without getting distracted by other thoughts and losing track you’ll know how challenging it can be.

In…. Two ……. Out…..Two….

I often incorporate this into box breathing to the beat of my heart for a while until I’m ready to let go of the numbers to keep my focus.

The moment I breathe out on ten I feel I’m ready to continue on with my day. And while my body may feel like limp spaghetti for a while after, my brain is firing on all cylinders again and ready to tackle creative masterpieces like this blog post.