What's The Best Form Of Cryotherapy?

Does the idea of cold water get you shivering from the thought alone?

Despite the challenge and initial shock, many people are still braving the cold for the benefits that it provides, including reducing inflammation, improving mood and mental health, and even supporting weight loss.

But as you dive into the research on the different forms of cold exposure, also known as cryotherapy, you’ll find that there’s more than one way to face your fears.

You can turn your shower to cold and step under those icy droplets, plunge your whole body into an ice bath, or enter a cryotherapy chamber that drops the air temperature with liquid nitrogen.

What’s the best way to brave the cold?

Here are a few findings from research as well as experiences from our Flow Spa clients on what they prefer.

Rain Down On Me

Many people will start on their cold water journey by taking cold showers. It’s accessible and realistic for most of us to do, at least part of the year.

Online communities for cold water afficionados often kickoff new recruits with one month cold shower challenge. Mentally this is very challenging because you have to force yourself to turn that tap to cold and stay under the icy needle points of water as they land on you. This in and of itself is a great and powerful usage of cold water. It helps to build self-confidence and comfort in facing other challenges in your life.

But taking a cold shower isn’t likely going to work as well for the other benefits of cold water immersion as you’re not getting the whole body anti-inflammatory effect of submerging yourself up to the shoulders. So it doesn’t seem as effective for improving recovery.

Depending on where you live, cold showers are also only available for about half the year because as the water supply temperature warms up in the spring and summer, the water coming out of the tap can be above 60 F and no longer very effective for deliberate cold exposure.

Do You Get 10X The Results with a Cryotherapy Chamber?

Cryotherapy chambers are marketed as being more effective than cold water immersion but are they really?

At more than 10 times the cost of a cold water immersion set up, it isn’t feasible even upon first glance to think that a cryochamber could be that much better. And research leans far in favour of cold water immersion being superior. Over 90% of the studies done on the effects of cryotherapy have looked at cold water at the mechanism for cold exposure.

Anecdotally, from our clients who have tried both cryotherapy chambers as well as ice baths, they have found the cold water to feel much more challenging, which increases the mental toughness boost from the experience, but also have felt better from their recovery from training after the cold water.

So what makes cold water that much better?

Cold Water Immersion

All of the options we’ve discussed are cold, so what’s the biggest difference that has cold water immersion reigning supreme?

It’s likely due to the better conduction of heat away from the body when immersed in cold water. The shower doesn’t cut it because you can’t get your whole body covered in cold water enough and while the air in the cryochambers gets much colder, our body creates a warm air vapour barrier against the cold air that mitigates the effect.

So having heat drawn from our body all in one encompassing effect in the cold water helps to create that anti-inflammatory effect and the challenge is much higher mentally than the other options because our body sends out the signal that we must get out. This is what creates the spike in dopamine and norepinephrine in cold water that promotes a boost in mood and mental health as well.

But because it is so cold and challenging, it can be hard to get started in doing full cold plunges, which is why there’s one more level that’s our own secret weapon to the best and most beneficial cryo experience.

Our Pick of Plunge - Contrast Both Hot and Cold Tubs

Contrast thearpy involves alternating between extremes in heat and cold. With our setup, we like to use the infrared sauna to relax into the experience and spend some time warming up before entering into the extremes. Then alternating between hot tub and cold tub will allow you to brave the cold without as much of a problem since you can immediately transfer back into the hot tub when you need to. This allows you to spend more total time in the cold than you would otherwise, extending the benefits of the anti-inflammatory effect.

The contrast also acts like an additional pump for circulation to enhance blood flow and recovery by dilating the blood vessels in the heat and constricting in the cold.

It provides the right amount of challenge for the mental toughness benefits of the cold plunge while also generating a massive boost in feel good hormones because you accomplished something tough and pushed your body through the extremes.

Book a session for yourself or challenge a friend to come in and feel the difference with you!

What Are The Benefits of Infrared Sauna?

Using an infrared sauna has many benefits, including improved circulation, reduced stress, and a deeper, more restful sleep. When the weather is cold and you want to stay cozy and warm, there’s nothing better than relaxing with the penetrating heat of an infrared sauna. And there are a lot more benefits that come from using the sauna that you might not know about.

Improving Circulation

Using an infrared sauna can be incredibly beneficial for your health and well-being! Its ability to increase circulation helps reduce pain, inflammation, and fatigue and improves overall skin health by delivering oxygen and nutrients to the skin cells. On top of this, regular infrared sauna use can help clear toxins from the body and reduce the appearance of wrinkles and fine lines for a glowing complexion. Plus, infrared heat can help to boost your immune system - keeping you feeling strong and healthy.

Reduces Stress

Using an infrared sauna can provide numerous benefits and help reduce stress and anxiety levels. This is because infrared saunas can increase dopamine levels in the body, which is the chemical associated with mood regulation.

In addition to this, infrared saunas can help the body to stimulate endorphins, which are the hormones responsible for the feeling of happiness and well-being.

Regular use of an infrared sauna can also promote relaxation of the muscles and joints, helping to reduce tension and stress in the body Incorporating an infrared sauna into a regular wellness routine can have a positive impact on physical and mental health.

Sleep Quality

Using an infrared sauna can help improve the quality of sleep by providing a gentle, relaxing heat. The sauna's warmth helps relax tight muscles, reduce tension and stress, and can even help relieve common aches and pains. By promoting the body to relax, an infrared sauna can bring a deeper, more restful sleep, allowing the body to restore and rejuvenate itself. One of the factors that signal our bodies to fall asleep fast is a drop in body temperature which can be enhanced by relaxing in a sauna in the evening to trigger deeper sleep. With regular use, an infrared sauna can help improve the quality of sleep and help provide a more restful night's sleep.

Experience The Benefits For Yourself

Using an infrared sauna has many benefits, such as improved circulation, reduced stress, and a deeper, more restful sleep. At Flow Spa, we offer sessions for individuals and 2-person sauna sessions, as well as packages for anyone looking to make sauna a regular part of their wellness routine.

You can find out more about the options we have available here:

Managing Holiday Stress To Enjoy More This Season

Making the holidays less stressful

The holiday season is upon us once more and with it comes much holiday cheer but also many challenges.

I want to help make life as stress-free as possible so that you can rise to the challenge of those experiences that you actually want to be able to have.

Managing stress successfully is all about recognizing your own situation but there are a few considerations that'll help us all with the stress that tends to come at us around the holidays.

Watch this as a video here, or continue reading below.

Make a basic plan for the holidays

I know everyone doesn’t love being a planner and having everything in their life mapped out but a little preparation can go a long way when entering a more stressful season.

Financial Stress

Look at your gift list and space those purchases out over the next four weeks if that helps you to experience less financial strain. By planning ahead and spacing gifts out over multiple paycheques it won’t put as much pressure on you.

I go so far as automatically scheduling a savings account to drip deposits throughout the whole year so I really don’t have to think about it by the time Christmas comes around. I just look at what I have saved and create a budget for all the gifts I’m wanting to give.

Social Stress

Plan your social engagements for the holidays if you are more introverted and find that all of the interaction drains you.

While attending holiday parties may not be as negotiable, you can look ahead to incorporate more me time or recovery time in there to balance it out. Take care of yourself as well with a little more me time and attention to your deep health. With that being said, this time of year is extra special for getting together with friends and family so look at the upside of those get-togethers and cherish them.

It seems like those gatherings are becoming less frequent. And we can all use them, especially after the last few years of experiencing more social isolation.

Planning To Get More From Your Vacation

If you have a vacation coming up, taking time to plan it out for yourself or with whoever you’re travelling with can enhance the experience that you have.

Humans are funny and often don’t even take the time to appreciate the rewards of our hard efforts.

When you are sitting on the beach basking in the sun and listening to the ocean waves and you catch yourself thinking about the next thing instead of appreciating where you are at here and now, it's a part of human nature.

The lesson we can take from this is to actively plan your vacation, think about it, and talk about it so that you also get the positive feelings of something to look forward to as you make that last push at work before the holidays.

Avoid Burning Out At Work

This is a stressful time of year at work for most of us too, and to enjoy this holiday season beating burnout is important.

Join me on this free lunchtime webinar hosted by the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce on how to beat burnout in the workplace.

Does Athletic Taping Work For Recovery?

The world of sports is something amusing. Different athletes from around the world get paid millions of dollars to play competitively, and in order to do that they must prevent themselves from getting injured. From LeBron James to Lionel Messi, these athletes train and do whatever it takes to improve their performance and body.

Unfortunately, some things in life are inevitable, whether it be bruises, burns or even major injuries like dislocations or fractures, everyone at some point in their lives has gotten injured or has at least felt some type of pain before. Sports competitors usually try to prevent injuries from occurring or from getting worse by applying athletic taping. NBA players, soccer stars or volleyball athletes tend to use these special types of taping to improve their workout, rehabilitate and avoid injuries.

What is Athletic Taping:

Athletic taping is the process of applying tape directly to the skin in order to decrease swelling and pain by helping increase the amount of blood flow to the injured area.

Kinesio-type tape (KT) adjusts to the skin and accommodates movements. As you can see, there are different kinds of taping, people can use, it really just depends on what they prefer. We have all seen athletes on the court, field or pool wearing stripes of coloured tape that are not even wrapped around the limbs or muscles like an elastic support bandage.

Instead, it is a long tape is applied to the skin and sticks on, so what type of athletic taping do athletes use?

As we are talking about athletes, the taping that would be best for them is Kinesio-type taping. Physical therapists use it to treat pain from sports injuries and boost athletic performance, among other things. Sports and Medical Orthopaedists Dominic King, DO explain how KT tape is different than the others, by saying “It’s different than your standard athletic tape, which is used to immobilize a joint. Elastic therapeutic taping has the benefit of being stretchy. When you apply it to a joint, it helps to act almost like a rubber band, supporting muscles and tendons, and taking a little stress off the joints. It also can help relieve swelling in certain areas”. Most notably basketball star James Harden, who is known as a great scorer and known for staying healthy. He is always seen regularly with a sporting KT tape on his right shoulder, and even though he is not injured, he is taking the right measure to make sure that his muscles and joints are behaving the way they should.

Houston Rockets’ Head Athletic Trainer Jason Biles commented “I’ve been in the NBA now eight years, and I’ve been using it probably seven or eight years, right when I came in. I like the KT Tape specifically because it promotes a sort of natural healing response, helping with swelling reduction, encouraging optimal movement and proper movement, and the appropriate alignment of the joints. It gives the athlete great feedback of where their body is in space — we want them to be aware of if they’re in a vulnerable position, or if they’re in the proper position they can move optimally from… So, it’s the tape that we use for those things and also just to sort of encourage the movement that we would like. So, if a joint tends to want to, say, become maligned, then we can apply some tape to encourage the proper movement to achieve what the athlete needs on the court”.

James Harden uses it mostly as injury prevention and having the tape placed on his shoulders says it has helped him mentally as well “Whenever I’m sore, whether it’s my knee or my shoulder, putting the KT Tape on gets the blood flowing and circulating around my body… I’m able to go out there and play free, not really thinking about injuries. It just gives me that confidence. It gives me the confidence to go out there and not worry about getting injured. If you’re playing free and you’re confident, great things are going to happen on the court”.

Additionally, this method can help keep muscles or bones in a certain position in order to prevent an injury from occurring. For this to happen, athletes must put the athletic taping near the joints like the ankles, wrists, and hands for added support due to the elasticity of the athletic tape. It naturally returns to its original position, which alleviates some of the athlete’s muscle strain, which is one of the benefits of the tape; however, Dr. King explains that people report feeling a little more comfortable with the tape, and it seems as if it gives them some added support, and with backed up research, it also shows that people experience short-term benefit from using the tape. “For the short term it actually can help with some joints that might be painful, for a couple of hours or maybe for a day; but it doesn’t really have that type of long-term relief, where this is going to be the only thing, you’re going to need in order to take away all of your joint pain,” he says” Dr. King explains, as research indicates that Kinesio tape may help alleviate pain for individuals who suffer from persistent musculoskeletal pain, it is in no way superior to other treatments. In addition, he asserts that there is no scientific evidence that Kinesio tape can lessen disability among people who suffer from chronic pain.

Some other short-term benefits that KT taping provides are that it helps with stabilizing ankles, supporting knees, solidifying shoulders, opening elbows, supporting weak or injured muscles, improving muscle contraction, and preventing overuse.

Finally, King goes on to mention that the tape should only be used as part of a program that also includes physical therapy to treat muscle soreness as a last resort, nor are there any long-term benefits from Kinesio taping.  

Why is Athletic Taping Important?

Taping makes life easier for athletes as it can be effective for rehabilitation. Even though athletic tape can help prevent injuries brought on by exercise, accidents do still happen as it is expected to happen. Athletic tape might be the solution you need when they do. When limiting the range of motion for particular joints and muscles with conventional athletic tape, the body may heal more quickly than if the movement were unrestricted. It can also be used as a splint for sprained joints, which expedites the healing process. Traditional athletic tape can help reduce swelling by compressing the muscle, which can reduce pain and prevent further injury.

The reasons for using elastic therapeutic tape are the same but in different ways. Athletic tape reduces swelling and reduces pain by helping to increase blood flow to the injured area. The elasticity of the athletic tape can also provide the affected muscles with support. It naturally returns to its initial position, alleviating some of the athlete's muscle strain. The tape can help protect the previously injured area from re-injury and reduce pain when the athlete is well enough to resume their sport or activity.

Additionally, the athletic tape can assist in correcting any form of issues caused by injury or other conditions. A trainer can do a runner's analysis to apply the tape in the best position for their injury, which will help them fix their form and stop them from hurting themselves again. Again, Athletic Taping is more beneficial short-term than long term and shouldn’t be depended on without addressing injuries.

How can athletic taping help you?

Whether you’re a competitive athlete or just want to stay healthy, KT taping can help you to reduce injuries and feel your best.

And we offer sports taping at Flow Spa.

Flow Spa is the premier float therapy and sports recovery centre in Peterborough, Ontario.

Our centre focuses on helping people deal with stress and pain so that they can recover and feel better.

We ensure that we make our customer’s experience better than any other float centres. As a team, we provide the customer’s needs and wants and deliver phenomenal services.

Our mission is to provide the ultimate relaxing and rejuvenating experience to help you ease your stress and pain.

Flow Spa has the best tools and treatment options available: float therapy, massage therapy, reflexology, reiki, infrared saunas, cold plunges, contrast therapy, Normatec compression therapy, and health coaching.

KT Taping can be included as part of your massage therapy session. Book your appointment online and mention you want taping done or give us a call at 705-230-8575.

Practicing Self-Compassion Is Hard

Why is it that people are fundamentally better at being compassionate and caring towards others than they are towards themselves?

What is it about self-compassion that makes most of us not very good at practicing it?

In this article we will dive into:

• The underlying scripts from society - how we’ve learned to value other people’s opinions and compare ourselves.

• There’s a misconception that self-compassion means complacency. We find meaning in progress because we are hard-wired that way

• Self-compassion feels soft and vulnerable and most people avoid that.

Self-compassion is an important part of having a growth mindset and learning how to develop into your best self. But most people suck at practicing it. Why is it that we push ourselves relentlessly or tell ourselves that we could have done better with our efforts?

When was the last time that you actually let yourself feel a sense of accomplishment at something you did? And I’m not talking about a 5-second pause before starting up the next project on your list.

The skill of self-compassion is made up of three elements:

• Self-kindness

• Common humanity

• Mindfulness

Self-kindness is about being generous and decent to yourself.

Common humanity is recognizing that you are a part of a greater whole of humanity. You’re not isolated in your suffering and problems.

Mindfulness is also a part of self-compassion as you need to work on being non-judgemental and consciously aware of what you’re doing, thinking, feeling, and experiencing.

This is a hard skill to develop in yourself. There’s a lot going against you that makes practicing self-compassion so hard.

But self-compassion will positively change your life and so you owe it to yourself to put in the effort to rewrite some of these invisible scripts that you tell yourself about self-compassion so that you can go further while also being appreciative of where you are at now.

Underlying scripts from society

How we’ve learned to value other peoples’ opinions and compare ourselves.

Fear of other people’s opinions or FOPO holds us back from being self-compassionate. When you’re hurting and need a day off from the gym, you find yourself watching Navy SEALS on Instagram waking up before the sun to run 100 miles and you think about how if they can do that, you shouldn’t be taking a day off.

Or when your eyes are bugging out of your head from working at a computer all day but you think about that entrepreneur online who appears to be hustling hard 24/7 and so you just keep on working through the exhaustion and digging a deeper hole for yourself.

Comparison, undoubtedly, is the thief of joy.

These underlying scripts tell us that we will be judged and criticized for doing what we feel in our hearts we need at the moment to recharge or just take care of ourselves.

We only get the picture of what people want to share of their life online though and this is why is can be such a harmful image when it seems like all go and taking no days off.

Self-compassion and complacency.

The misconception about self-compassion means complacency.

We find meaning in progress because we are hard-wired that way. Our brains are constantly seeking out the next step on our journey.

Recognizing that we are driven by dopamine is an important part of having more self-compassion. By knowing this, we can identify when we are feeling unease at sitting still or seemingly not making enough progress. And once we can recognize this, we can accept and embrace that progress looks different for everyone and sometimes the best progress comes from taking a break to recover and recharge. Or that it means pivoting to something new when what we’ve been attempting is no longer working for us.

Self-compassion feels soft and vulnerable.

Most people want to avoid vulnerability at all costs. They keep their secrets held close and don’t open up about anything to anyone.

While there are many thought leaders expressing themselves out in the world and sharing the importance of vulnerability, this is still not the default for most of us.

Have you ever been on a car ride with someone where the silence was deafening? You know that something is up with them but they’d rather stare out the window with lips held tight instead of having a conversation. You can sense it because our ability to read a situation goes far beyond just language.

One of the reasons we like to follow people like Brene Brown and Russell Brand and all those influencers online who have expressed a part of their story to the world is that it’s brave and we have a strong desire to feel the same way.

Being self-compassionate does not mean you are soft although it often means opening yourself up, at least to yourself, so that you can correctly understand what and how you are feeling.

Only through practice will you come to understand how to express yourself.

So then, with the three elements that makeup self-compassion, self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness, think about what you can do to work a little of these into your day.

4 Ways To Keep Your Immune System Healthy This Fall

The concerns around COVID-19 are not done yet and the fall flu season is upon us.

Now is the time to make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep your immune system healthy so that you don’t get sick.

Think about these 4 Ss when it comes to helping your immune system: Sleep, Stress, Shock, and Support.

Read on to learn more about each strategy and how it’ll help you.

Sleep

Sleep is like the Batman of recovery: the hero you don’t want, but the hero that you need.

It’s unrivalled in its importance in promoting recovery, including keeping your immune system healthy, keeping your brain sharp, and your body functioning well.

Sleep is also challenging to try to tackle because we all have preconceived notions of how good or bad our sleep is and why we just have to accept it as it is. Trying to deal with it as a “bad sleeper” is not a good time, as everything else in your life gets affected.

But I'm not suggesting that you try to completely overhaul your sleep routine with what the latest health guru is saying you need to do every hour of the day to prepare yourself for sleep. There are things that can help, but what helps the most is to start with what you're comfortable doing. If that means just maintaining what you're already doing, that's great.

If you have a change in mind that you want to make and you think it'll help your sleep, try that out and notice how it helps your sleep and how rested you feel. Notice the difference it makes and if it doesn’t seem to be doing much, try to add on something else you feel ready to do.

Stress - Manage It Your Best

We all experience stress in many different ways. Stress is as unique to our life as our fingerprint. Managing stress well becomes not just a practice in following a few steps from a template but to understand and explore your own stressors.

By recognizing our own triggers and reactions to stress, we can better come to respect our need for balance and when it's most essential for us. Whether due to life transitions or unexpected events in your life, we can’t go off of a pre-made plan for managing stress better, unless we’ve thought about it ourselves and created it or shaped it to fit our own needs.

So stress management becomes as much about the give and take as a Jiu-Jitsu match. React to everything you experience so that you can keep pushing toward your ultimate goal of getting everything managed as best as you can.

This is exactly what we do in my stress management success course where I teach you how to apply the steps of making changes in your life and creating an action plan for becoming unstressable.

The next cohort for the course is starting soon and you can join the waitlist here: www.flowacademy.ca/stress

Shock

Use deliberate heat or cold exposure to give your immune system a boost.

Sitting in a sauna feels really good but on top of that, it carries with it some powerful health benefits, including being able to strengthen your immune system and reduce the stress hormone cortisol.

When our bodies are exposed to extreme heat or cold, we are giving it a healthy, acute dose of stress. This triggers many of the systems in our body to be stimulated, including our immune system which builds up under this process.

The same happens to us with cold exposure, like doing a cold plunge. This can be harder for people to want to initiate but it certainly feels invigorating after you’ve done it. And the cold creates a great anti-inflammatory effect to reduce pain and promote healing while also turning up the dial on our immune system.

Research suggests that the best practice for this is doing 3-4 sessions per week for a total of 57 minutes of heat exposure above 80 degrees Celsius and 11 minutes total of cold exposure below 10 degrees Celsius. These numbers may be optimal, but certainly, any amount of shock, even one session per week, is going to make a difference that will help you to stay healthier.

Support

Support yourself and your immune system. During cold and flu season, it’s important to turn to our friends and family for support when it’s needed as a way to feel a strong sense of connection that will help to keep stress levels down. It’s also often needed when we do feel the sniffles coming on and need to be proactive to not get sick any further by letting others lend a hand where we need it.

Furthermore, you can support your immune system and your health through supplements. While these aren’t the first step in good nutrition, there are some nutrients that are important for the immune system that become harder to access through our diet as the colder weather approaches, most notably, colourful fruits and veggies and vitamin D. Supplementing with a greens powder can help to cover a lot of micronutrients that we need to stay healthy and keep our immune system strong, and getting vitamin D through supplementation are virtually essential for Canadians once the summer is over and we’re getting less direct sunlight. This one is extremely important for our immune system so I highly recommend it.

Look to supplement with a scoop of a high-quality greens powder, like Genuine Health’s greens+ every day and 2,000 IUs of Vitamin D3.

What to do next:

• Look at what you can do to support your sleep and write down a few ideas of what you’re willing to try.

• Book in for a sauna or cold plunge to start deliberate exposure to the extremes that will stimulate your immune system.

• Join the waitlist for SMS to go further with your stress management plan to become unstressable.

5 Ways To Reduce Stress Right Now

You don't even have to be great at meditating in order to reduce your stress right now.

You don't have to be a great meditator to live stress free. Put these five practices into place regularly to beat burnout and feel like your best self again.

Physiological sigh

This is as close to a hack as you will find for immediately reducing stress through activation of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Think about if you’ve ever caught yourself sobbing and felt like you couldn’t catch your breath. Or if you’re a steely-eyed stoic who’s never made a face, you’ve probably seen someone in a state of hyperventilation. Breathing is very rapid but shallow. And when we’re helping someone through this situation, we get them to breathe into a paper bag or breathe through pursed lips, helping to slow down their breathing.

The physiological sigh immediately activates a state of calmness in our body. You breathe in fully and then try to sip some extra air into your lungs with a second inhale before fully exhaling. Your exhale will naturally be longer but you can also consciously think to exhale slowly. Repeating this for about a minute is all it takes to start to shift your body out of a reactionary stress response and into a more calm state.

This is so powerful because it can be done anytime, anyplace to help you to slow down and regain traction. You don’t have to plop yourself onto a cushion and get situated in a lotus position with eyes closed to reduce stress.

Get outside for a walk

87.4% of excuses for getting outside for a walk are made up. And while that statistic is also made up, we really can in most circumstances organize our day and plan our time to spend even a few minutes outdoors moving at a relaxed pace. The movement alone can be great for promoting a calmer state of mind and reducing stress, but so can being in nature and getting some sun when possible.

Getting outside in nature for a walk checks off all these boxes at once but any one of them can suffice to help you to reduce stress, assuming you’re not allergic to the sun.

Research suggests that positive health benefits from nature exposure can come from just 15 minutes a week, but I’d challenge you to make the time to hit that goal most days if you’re tying to build a stress-busting routine.

Pet a dog (or a cat)

Our bond with our animals is so powerful that it can even reduce stress.

Therapy dogs and seeing them in the hospital wards serve a purpose in delivering joy.

Petting a dog or a cat creates a calm connection that helps us to detach a bit from whatever is overwhelming us to fill us with their unconditional love (so long as you’ve kept up with your belly rub quota).

This action might be a little less practical for some of us due to fears, or allergies, or just not having pets around, but it’s still a really quick way to reduce stress and feel better, so make use of it if and when you can.

Go to sleep or take a nap

Sleep is our recovery superstar and if you’re reaching your limits, the best thing you can do might just be to close your eyes and get to sleep.

Do some restorative exercise

Movement can be medicine, especially if your work is not very active or you spend much of your day seated. You might not always be up for a hard workout, but stretching, yoga, or any type of activity that gets the body in motion is great and can be meditative for those who aren’t very good at the whole sitting still thing.

Now, are you ready for the real secret? Pick just one of these things and try it out. If you’re already feeling stressed out, trying to check off more boxes isn’t going to help. Whatever sounds like something you’d like to do and can make work, do it consistently and see if it is helping you.

Have fun, get curious, and Find Your Flow

Is What We Know About Sleep True?

Is what we know about sleep true?

On average, we spend about a third of our life asleep. It’s a necessary function, and it impacts our physical and mental health. We know that a good night’s sleep makes us all feel good in the morning, but it can also help your digestive system, immune system, and even your heart.

But are we getting the sleep that we want and need?

There are so many things that prevent us from sleeping for as long as we should, and as deeply as we should. Many of us are guilty of spending hours on our phones before bed  - mindlessly scrolling through social media, stimulates the brain, making it harder to fall asleep. The brain can’t just turn off like a switch, it needs to unwind and our habits are basically only winding it up.

But poor sleep can also be caused by other lifestyle choices, such as caffeine or sugar before bed, that keep your mind and body awake. Other times it can be a lack of exercise - for some people, having an unusually sedentary day means you have excess energy that can’t just go away when you need to sleep.

The good news is that if you are struggling with sleep, there are ways that you can help yourself!

Empowerment is the key to changing your sleep patterns. Some people have very serious, legitimate health conditions that can negatively impact their sleep - in these cases it is very important to seek medical support. But for others, there are tools you can use to change your own life.

One of the first places to start is your knowledge base. There is so much information floating around about sleeping and good sleeping habits. It can be hard to know what is true, and what is actually negatively impacting your rest.

So let’s help you to find the facts, so you can start to make some healthy changes.

Our sleeping habits can’t be changed: True or false?

FALSE

Some people think that because a sleeping habit or pattern has been going on for so long, it can’t be changed. If they have always slept for only a few hours at a time, or they always take a long time to fall asleep, they can’t do anything to change it.

The good news is, that you CAN change your sleeping habits.

As with any habit, it will take time to see changes, but perseverance is key. Start by creating a healthy routine for yourself, then commit to sticking to it. Some good ideas you can incorporate:

• Give yourself a set bedtime, so your body naturally begins to get sleepy around the same time each night.

• Make sure that you put aside all your devices. A screen should not be the last thing you see at night, as this can stimulate your brain into waking back up. Try and put those away relatively early in your routine, giving yourself time to really focus on what you are doing.

• If you find yourself very stressed and anxious while you are trying to fall asleep, try and incorporate some relaxing physical and/or mental activities into your night routine. This might be five minutes of light yoga or stretching or some meditation. Whatever works for you!

My phone is keeping me awake: True or false?

TRUE

Whether it’s your phone or tablet, technology is designed to keep you focused and alert - the exact opposite of what you want when you are trying to sleep!

As much as you can, you need to reduce the number of devices in your bedroom and the time you spend on them when trying to get ready for bed. Most of us use our phone as an alarm so turning it off isn’t always a good idea, but you should put it on Do Not Disturb. Notifications are designed to draw your attention, but in reality, they can wait.

And if you find you can’t avoid checking your phone, investing in an alarm clock to get your phone out of the bedroom can be one of the best things you do for your sleep.

If you are someone who loves to check social media right before bed, consider swapping the action for an alternative, like reading a book. Even though you need to focus, reading still helps to slow you down, because the pace at which you receive information is drastically reduced compared to your phone. If you really can’t leave social media alone, at least consider limiting the time you spend on it, so don’t accidentally scroll for hours.

Sleeping medications are addictive and therefore can be dangerous: True or false?

TRUE

It is true that some medications designed to help you sleep, like ones that are prescribed by a doctor, are addictive. They are still useful and they can help people, but only when they are taken correctly. You should never use any form of prescribed medication for someone else, and you should only take them for as long as you have been prescribed them.

If you have been prescribed sleeping pills or tablets by a doctor, make sure that you take them according to the instructions, and always seek help if you find yourself struggling with side effects.

All sleeping medications are bad: True or false? FALSE

Prescribed sleeping medications are designed to help you sleep and when they are used correctly, they are safe. The danger is when you use them differently from the instructions, e.g. taking too many at once, or taking them longer than recommended.

The good news is that you can also find over-the-counter sleeping supports that are safer for more people to use and still offer the same great support. A great option is Deep Sleep by Genuine Health. This is a natural supplement that utilizes natural ingredients that work together to promote better sleep health:

• Reishi mushroom extract - This has been used for centuries to help cure a range of ailments. It can help to stimulate your adrenal gland, which in turn increases the amount of cortisol in the body. Cortisol reduces stress and can increase feelings of relaxation, helping you get to sleep faster and stay asleep for longer. Deep Sleep can also help you to enter deeper sleep cycles, which promote brain rejuvenation and can improve physical health over the long term.

• GABA - is a natural amino acid found in the brain. Supplements safely increase the Gaba levels in the body, making them more functional, by reducing the neurotransmitter actions that are leading to stress and anxiety. This results in a more relaxed and peaceful feeling.

• Melatonin. This is found in a lot of sleep supplements, and it helps to regulate the internal circadian rhythm of the body, so you sleep as your body is intended to.

• L-Theanine - Found in tea, L-theanine is another calming compound that helps to get our body out of a stressed state and into more deep relaxation.

• Magnesium - Magnesium is an important mineral for many of the functions in our body and can help to relax the muscles and promote better sleep.

Even more good news: Deep Sleep is safe to be used by anyone. It is soy, gluten, dairy, and egg-free so even people with dietary requirements can take it and experience its success.

I’m having trouble sleeping, so I’m a bad sleeper: True or false? FALSE

Many people think they are bad sleepers when in reality they probably aren’t! There are a number of reasons why you might wake up still feeling tired, or not as relaxed as you want to be. In reality, this might not actually be a sleep problem!

People who think they are bad sleepers may internalize this belief, which can result in a lot of stress and anxiety. You may focus on your sleep problems, but not the other things in life that may be impacting your sleep. Are you very busy at work at the moment? Are you only sleeping five hours a night because you are trying to juggle work and children and a million other responsibilities?

Our sleeping behaviours can sometimes be a reflection of other behaviours or habits in our lives and it’s important to recognize that everything is connected. Always be kind to yourself - health is a constant journey and as long as you’re working on it, you are moving in the right direction.

Deep Sleep is available at Flow Spa - Pick it up in-store today!

What Is Compassion Fatigue?

Emotional labour is one of the most challenging jobs that we do as humans. Not because of the physical toll it can take, which can also be the case, but because it can be never-ending. And when you are a giver, you'll drain yourself completely and then some until you are completely burned out and start to lose your spark.

That's compassion fatigue.

A state that's become much more common in the last several years, so it's important to know what can cause compassion fatigue and how to prevent it so that you can continue to be your best self and not reach that point of burnout.

Compassion fatigue is a form of burnout that comes to caregivers. While we often assume that it’s a result of giving too much, it’s not that we’ve selflessly given too much of ourselves so much as it’s from feeling the ongoing suffering of others and assuming that our efforts are not enough.

The other big factor with compassion fatigue and burnout from being a giver is the style in which you give. Seeing the results of your efforts is one way to combat burnout, which is why certain fields like teaching and medicine lead to higher rates of burnout.

When the turnaround of the humans you’re giving care to is very rapid in which case you don’t get feedback or see the results of whether the support you’ve given helped or not, compassion fatigue can start to kick in.

Give More, But Respect Your Boundaries

Counterintuitively you can give more of yourself without burning out, but you must respect your boundaries.  When it comes to giving of yourself, it’s important to respect your boundaries and know your limits.

Selflessly giving all of yourself is not the answer.

You will burn out from following this style of giving.

Even people who give a lot of their extra time to volunteering or other giving work can find that they can manage if they chunk it all together instead of scattering it through the week. By dedicating a large block of time to giving work, you again see the returns from your efforts in the others that you’ve helped and this makes a big difference in your motivation to keep giving and not develop compassion fatigue.

By having some set blocks of time for giving outside of work, or even sticking to the confines of your work hours in your job that requires a lot of emotional labour, you’ll be better able to find time to recover and recharge which is the next point.

Have weekly recovery time

You have to create balance and let yourself recharge and recover too. In performing caregiving, your body is in need of recovery time. Even if you aren't burning out because you've been able to give selflessly, to perform your very best, you need rest and recovery.

If you can't afford the cost or time of doing anything else, sleep is and always will be the recovery superstar, so even making changes to improve sleep by just a little bit can make a difference. And if you are able to make time to get outside for a walk in nature or go to your favourite spa for a float or massage, you'll be positively contributing to the rest and recovery that'll keep you strong for the others you care for.

Know your limits

And also in terms of respecting boundaries and making time for recovery, you have to know your limits.

At the end of the day, Emotional labour is highly rewarding but also very draining. It involves a lot of social connections that you might feel the need to detach from if you're naturally more introverted or you've just been giving all of yourself for a long time.

Think about your personality type, as well as what type of giver you are and what you're doing for recovery time, as we talked about, and see what opportunities you can find for making changes.

By becoming more self-aware of how we are doing and the types of patterns we tend to fall into that lead to burnout, we can start to shift towards being more resilient and avoiding any crashes in the first place.

If you found this info helpful, share is with another selfless caregiver you know that could use this reminder.

What Stress Management Techniques Are Most Effective?

Our ancestors lived in a world much different from our own. A world where behind every bush a predator could be waiting for them. The slightest snap of a branch could mean trouble. To fight or to flee was instinctual and prepared us for moments like this.

It sounds stressful thinking about it but these incidences happened acutely and typically didn’t pervade every waking minute.

What happens when our ancient threat detection system gets immersed in the world we face today?

Escape versus Approach Techniques

When it comes to managing stress, we all have our own default methods that we lean into. But there are definitely some techniques that are more effective than others.

Knowing not only what types of stress affect you the most, but also how you should manage your stress is what’s going to help you to feel the best and recover better.

So let’s talk about understanding your deep health assessment and where stress is affecting you the most.

We’ll also touch on forms of escape versus approach techniques for stress management and what the best long-term solutions are for dealing with what’s bothering you.

Understand Your Deep Health and Stress Assessment

Sometimes we have a really great grasp on what’s causing the most stress in our lives but it can often come as a surprise or not be exactly what you think it is.

When you develop an awareness of the different dimensions of your health, that is your Deep Health and the stress that is intertwined with each of those dimensions, you’re better able to pinpoint your sources of stress in any given timeframe.

To do this, you want either look at the wheel with the six Deep Health components and rank or draw out how stressful each aspect of your health is right now.

Alternatively, if you need further guidance and understanding, you can fill out the Deep Health Assessment and Questionnaire which will ask you a series of questions about each dimension and give you an overall score. The areas you score lowest in correlate with which dimensions are currently most stressful to you. I will include a link down below to do the deep health assessment for yourself.

Now that you have some answers to what direction your stress is coming from mostly, you can start to strategize ways to better manage that stress.

There are lots of great ways to manage stress and recover so that you feel better but all solutions are not created equal and will depend on your sources of stress. Sometimes a hard workout at the gym is just what you need to reduce mental and emotional stress but if you‘re already dealing with a lot of physical and environmental stress, the additional strain on your body and crowded and loud gym may not help you to adequately recharge.

Should You Run, Or Stand and Fight?

When most of us face stressors in our lives, just like our cave-dwelling ancestors,  we turn to one of two solutions to cope with them. We choose to escape from them in ways that allow us to avoid what we’re dealing with, or we can approach and work on handling it directly.

Usually, avoidant techniques feel like the easy short-term solution and sometimes they can be constructive if it allows us to step back and get a better perspective or find a place of safety to start from before we deal with whatever we’re facing.

Ultimately though, the more that we practice and use approach solutions, the stronger our resilience to stress and ability to manage it will be.

Approach and Avoidance Techniques for Stress Management

So how do you practice these approach solutions to your stress? If this isn’t your default method of stress management and you do tend to avoid anything that feels threatening, it will be helpful to start slowly and with anything that’s not too intimidating for you. If mental stress is affecting you because you’ve been putting off having a conversation with your boss about something important that needs to change, this might be much harder if you’re not used to approaching and handling your stressors directly. Maybe in this case, depending on the timeline, you could start by approaching that mental stress through a meditation technique, to get control of your thoughts and even practice visualization of the crucial conversation you need to have. That way you can build up more resilience before tackling those bigger stressors.

We can do this for every type of stress that we face. There are approach and avoidance techniques in every dimension of deep health.

And if you’re trying to do a complete reboot on your system because stress seems to be coming from every direction, you should try floating.

Float therapy is one of my favourite recovery methods and is uniquely effective at reducing stress because how it can help us to recharge in all aspects of our deep health. The quiet and dark comfort of float tanks eliminates environmental and physical stress while also allowing us to go deeply within to approach and work on our mental, emotional, and existential stressors. And the solitude of the float tank is also the perfect reset for social stress. So if you haven’t tried floating before or it’s been a while since your last float and you’re feeling stress build up again, I can’t recommend floating enough.

Find Your Flow

Want Better Time Together? Start By Spending Time Alone

“Pardon? Can you say that again – I was distracted.”

How often do you hear those words come out in conversation because something on the other person’s phone caught their attention? I’m willing to bet it’s far more often than you’d like. To the point that sometimes you wish you could just snap that stupid phone in half and stomp it into a million pieces.

Now that we got that out of our system, let’s move on.

Distraction Isn’t All Our Fault

In a lot of ways, it’s less a sign of personal failure and more an indication of the digital world we are consumed by that is distracting. And while some may argue that this is no fault of the technology, it seems apparent that there’s a lot of intention behind these devices and social media platforms being designed to grab our attention and keep it for as long as possible.

But this constant assault on our attention stresses us cognitively and being in an on-demand state of distraction all the time leads us to greater overall stress and anxiety to our society as a whole. And it’s no surprise that many of us have started to fight back against being plugged in all the time as we’ve seen an increase in the popularity of meditation, mindfulness, and practices that disengage us completely like floating.

Floating Helps Us Connect Deeper

Floating lets us escape from all of the external distractions for a time, allowing the mind and body time to relax and reset.

Stepping back out into the world after a float brings more colour to the world. Senses are literally heightened, including our more emotional ones like feeling connection and empathy with the people around us. This is often mostly directed towards close friends or loved ones who notice these changes the most, but we’ve heard plenty of stories about small acts of kindness towards total strangers post-float.

When you take time to take care of yourself, you develop the resilience that allows you to take care of and love others more too. It’s just like the emotional and mental health version of putting on your oxygen mask first before helping others. And floating is a great example of one way to nurture your deep health to recover better and manage stress with benefits that extend beyond your time spent in the tank.

And while it’s a practice of spending time completely alone in the float tank, the practice of floating can help with forming deeper connections with others. Friends will often come in together so that they can relax and hang out together afterwards while feeling lighter and more relaxed. Many couples also find that floating is the perfect way to start off a romantic weekend together or just a casual date night. Taking the time to process the thoughts swirling through your head and letting go of deep stress from the many aspects of your life is the perfect way to free yourself up to be more to be present for the things and people that are right in front of you.

There is an openness and joy to being able to flow in the present moment. Connections just seem to click into place. When something goes wrong, it’s easier to shrug it off and laugh it away. And when fully immersed like this, those normal distractions we all face go unnoticed. Plus, if you’re having lunch or dinner post-float, food really does taste amazing by being in this effortless state.

Benefits Backed By Science

All of these effects and experiences are more than just a collection of anecdotes - research on float therapy consistently shows reduced stress and anxiety, and increased feelings of serenity and well-being. There’s also evidence of increased creativity after floating which may be part of why spending time with others after a float can be so much more enjoyable. There is also some newly emerging research showing improvements in attention and quality of life for those diagnosed with ADHD.

Our brains are wired to be on alert for threats in our environment. It’s what has kept us alive and got to where we are today but with everything that goes on around us now - from the constant noise and bright lights to screens everywhere and busy cities - most of us can’t avoid being on edge. And being mentally overloaded all the time, there’s no wonder that it can be hard to focus on the person right across the table from you and what they’re saying.

So in whatever you accomplish, it’s important to practice the ability to tune out the distractions from the world around you, as well as the ever-present mental chatter. Floating is the ideal tool and way to recover from this and you’ll find that those distractions clear away as your focus and attention resurface, whether you come in to float on your own, with friends, or with a romantic partner.

Fundamental Steps to Launching a Health-Based Business

Article By Jason Lewis

You want to start a business that helps people live healthier, more fulfilled lives. Maybe you hope to launch a local health food store or an e-commerce company that sells wellness products. Perhaps you wish to become a nutritionist or personal trainer.

The only problem: You don't know where to start.

Getting a company off the ground requires much more than a good idea and a name. You have to consider various legal and financial factors while creating a strategy for achieving your goals. And that's just the beginning!

Below, Flow Spa has given you some practical tips for turning your dream health business into a reality.

Set Up a Business Structure

One of the first legal steps you will need to take when starting a company is to choose a business structure. There are essentially four types of structures to consider in Canada:

• Sole proprietorship

• General partnership

• Incorporation

• Co-operative

The most accessible and least expensive to establish and maintain is a sole proprietorship, but it also comes with more risks. For your health-based company, consider forming a corporation to protect the owners. This will yield limited liability, potential tax benefits, and possibly present more funding opportunities.

Write Out a Budget

No matter what type of business you start, you can expect startup costs. Your expenses will depend on your unique company, but it's critical to do your homework and write out all expenses you expect to incur. It’s a good idea to add another 20% to this number to be more realistic on what your starting costs will be.

Maybe you need to invest in market research and product development. Perhaps you will need to spend a considerable amount of time, energy, and money building and promoting your brand. The key is to know what you need to pay for so that you can figure out how to cover all of your bases for a strong launch.

Look for Grants

When it comes to funding, grants are ideal because they provide money that you don't have to pay back. There are many grant programs in Canada available to entrepreneurs (including, but not limited to):

• Regional Opportunities Investment Tax Credit

• CanExport

• Canada Digital Adoption Program

• Venture for Canada – Hire an Intern

Be mindful as you research and apply for grants. You must create a thorough business plan that outlines your goals and strategies. And you will also need to know what types of grants are earmarked for your specific industry and how to fill out a grant application effectively.

Explore Other Financing Options

If you need additional financing, you have other options. Explore the various small business loans from government and private organizations. Research angel investors, venture capitalists, and incubators that can help you get your health company up and going. And don't rule out the possibility of launching a crowdfunding campaign.

Build a Team

Maybe you want to operate as a solopreneur during the early business stages. But at some point, you will need help with running your company's day-to-day. Whether web development, content writing, administrative tasks, marketing, accounting, or any other responsibilities, look to online job boards to find qualified freelancers you can hire within your budget.

Promote Your Brand

Finally, you will need a solid brand to promote and build your company's reputation. This starts with creating a logo that accurately and attractively reflects the products or services you are offering. You will also need to choose what colour palettes and typography to use on your marketing materials.

Make your brand stand for something that you support.

And, of course, you will need to create an eye-catching website that is easy for people to use and navigate. Once you have these foundational elements of your branding in place, explore the various marketing channels that can help you build your business: social media, email marketing, paid ads, and local advertising is an excellent place to start!

If you have a passion for helping people improve their health and wellbeing, starting a health-based business could be right up your alley. Consider the tips above as you lay a firm foundation for your company, and keep researching other ways you can position yourself to flourish for many years to come. You will soon be making a living while helping others achieve optimal health and wellness!

Would you like to read more helpful content or learn about our float, and wellness centre? Explore more on FlowSpa.ca today!

Why Floating Makes The Perfect Resolution Wingman - Sticking To Your Goals in 2022

It might seem like New Year’s resolutions are often made for the sole sake of not sticking to them.

Many people joke about how their resolution for the new year is to not break their resolutions. And as funny as it may be to hold so much value to a particular time of year when it comes to goal setting, it’s also very clear that the challenge is real when we see all those new gym members dropping off from their workout plans 6 weeks into the New Year.

What it comes down to is that we need to place more intention into our goals as well as think about what we can do to help support us on our journey.

Getting strategic with using tools and different methods is one way to help with sticking to your resolutions. It’s human nature to revert back to the habits we already have in place, whether they are good or bad, so turning to solutions outside of our own willpower will be helpful.

Think about what your preferred method for keeping track of notes is. Do you like the traditional feel of putting pen to paper? Or do you thrive in the digital world to keep your todos all organized? Try using a journal or your calendar to help you plan the actions to take that will keep you working towards your goals.

One particularly helpful practice when it comes to reinforcing new behaviours and breaking bad habits is float therapy. Behaviour change was one of the initial inspirations for Dr. John C. Lily, the inventory of the first float tanks. Dr. Lily wrote several books on using float tanks to reprogram your brain. Floating is a great way to get deep recovery across all six aspects of our health. We dramatically reduce stress and anxiety through floating, get a chance to escape from all the noise and busyness of our lives, and also go deep on self-reflection and visualization of our future best self.

Reflecting on your goals and seeing the path forward from where you are to where you want to be is one of the keys to success.

Without planning and learning along the winding path that is goal setting, we are bound to repeat the same mistakes. And when you look deeply at your goals and uncover the core values that drive those goals, you come to find more harmony with the aspects of your existential health and live in alignment with your deeper purpose. This will ultimately also help you in seeing your goals and resolutions get fulfilled.

Self-reflection and visualization are two of the common reasons that regular floaters come in for float sessions, because the float tank is such an ideal place for those practices. Without external distractions and in a perfectly comfortable state, your mind is able to wander and also direct its attention to things that we often miss out on during the chaos of our days, like thinking about New Year’s resolutions and goals and what they mean to you.

And because of the physical and mental benefits of floating, incorporating wellness practices like floating into our routine can relieve the stress and anxiety that often is an obstacle in our way of achieving big goals. By finding better balance with stress levels and practicing deep recovery, we will find the energy and drive we need to take the steps towards making real changes in our lives.

Research continues to show how important it is to give ourselves a time out and disconnect from the constant demands of our lives. It just takes some purposeful planning to make it happen.

Floating may be the perfect way to escape the stress but even 10-15 minutes of calm breathing can help us to manage stress better, improve focus, and lower blood pressure, all of which can help us towards greater health changes.

It might seem like by simply declaring our resolutions at the start of a new year that you’ll be able to effortlessly follow through to make it happen but reworking the patterns that are we are used it is a challenge. It’s important to use whatever practices and tools you can to stay on track. Use a journal or calendar to plan out the actions you’ll take to work towards your goal, start your day mindfully with some breathing or get outside for a walk, and, of course, schedule some time to float regularly.

Making The Most of the Holidays

In preparation for the holiday season we buzz with excitement from the plans we have to reconnect with loved ones and celebrate. And usually that feeling goes overboard as we try to orchestrate a million things at once.

But holidays are also meant to be a time for us to get away from our crazy busy schedules. It should be our chance to enjoy special moments with the people we love.

It often turns out that this is one of the most stressful times of the year for us though. Trying to get to that peaceful moment where "all is calm, all is bright" tends to pack even more into the last frantic dash. The holidays don't quite feel like they live up to the name when we have a houseful of kids, in-laws, and finding the perfect gifts to take care of.

And on top of our social stressors, we've got sales and advertising coming at us from every direction on all of our devices. It can be really easy to forget about ourselves during this time with our attention pulled by the needs and demands of others.

Taking time to ground yourself and find balance amidst the holiday stressors is so important because it allows us to bring the gift of your presence to the festive gatherings. Your relationships benefit from this and you'll feel happier to be able to resist the overwhelm that comes so easily this time of year.

Despite all of your obligations during this time of year, it's also a time for reflection as we cross the threshold on another year and we recognize the importance of our health in so many ways. And not just your own health but for your loved ones as well.

For many of us, gift giving rituals feel more like a chore than a joy but that's where putting thought into the gifts we choose can make a big difference.

A gift can be an expression of how well you know somebody and that you care about that relationship you have. Nailing the right gift choice can not only have a positive impact on the relationship you have with the other person but also contribute to their life as a whole. These are the gifts that most people want the most. We recognize the importance of health and the often neglected self-care that we all need.

Gifts that refill that need for recovery and empty the tank of stress don't have to be extravagant. You can plan some quality time together to go for a hike or to go skating. Make a nice meal together, book them a massage, or pre-pay for babysitters or house cleaners to help encourage some more downtime for them. And of course, a gift card for a float is the perfect break from responsibility with serenity in the quiet darkness.

The gift of float therapy is restorative in so many ways and you'll even notice that their time spent with others is more joyful and connected because of this time out to practice peaceful presence.

Scheduling a float before a day out can be a great way to relax before sightseeing or going to an event. It's also a nice activity to do as a small group to all reconvene after your floats to chat and connect on a deeper and calmer level.

People rave over receiving floats as gifts because so many of us have always wanted to try it and experience the effects of the float tank and those who have already floated will glow with excitement over getting back into the tank for more deep relaxation.

In so many ways, floating is about something that so many of us are missing - connection. Connection to our deep health during the float session, and the lasting tranquility that comes afterwards and allows us to connect that much more with the people around us.

Floating inspires openness and ease in a way that not many therapies can for even those whose hearts are still two sizes too small.

This holiday season, take care of yourself and encourage others in your life to do the same. The gift of living in a beautiful state is the real greatest gift. And floating is one of many ways to spend more time in this state but it's also one of the best ones!

Achieve Better Physical and Mental Health in Your Golden Years

Guest post by Jason Lewis

As you age, it's essential to take care of your physical and mental health. Whether you want to participate in senior cruises, trek throughout Canada or beyond, or stay home and take up new hobbies, you can't enjoy any of that if you don't have good physical and mental health. With a few tips, though, you can optimize your health and make the most of your golden years.

Exercising

The exercise goal if you have no physical limitations or health restrictions should be 150 minutes of aerobic exercise weekly. But, since physical limitations caused by ageing may affect you as you get older, you should exercise as much as you can without sacrificing comfort. As a general rule, seniors should sit less and be more active.

Keep in mind that the goal of exercising is to have fun while you do it. If you're struggling to exercise alone, ask a friend if they'd like to go for daily walks with you. Join a gym that offers exercise classes, like water aerobics, for seniors.

Eat Healthier

Old habits are hard to break, but your health is immensely affected by the foods you eat. For instance, if you're overweight, you could be stressing your joints and cardiovascular system. Consuming too much salt can affect your heart and kidneys.

Therefore, you should gradually make changes to your diet. Start with one change and stick with it before making other changes. For instance, start by eating balanced meals. Then, work on staying within a normal caloric intake for your age. Next, reduce your bad eating habits, such as a high sodium intake.

Learn a New Hobby

A hobby is an excellent way to pass the time. You can learn a new skill you didn't know you had. You can also ward off depression and possibly loneliness with a hobby. If you're looking for a way to meet new people, consider joining a class or a club.

Additionally, a hobby can be a way you challenge yourself and feel accomplished as you improve at your hobby or complete projects.

Start a Business

You may have spent your entire adulthood working for someone else. However, during your senior years, you may have more financial freedom. Therefore, it's a time when you can take a chance and open the business you've always wanted.

When you first begin, you need to determine which positions you need to fill. While you can spend hours reviewing profiles to find the right staff, a recruiter or staffing agency can handle this task in a time-efficient manner and find you the top talent in Peterborough, Canada.

Begin Volunteering

One of the top reasons people don't volunteer is a lack of time. With more time on your hands when you retire, you could use this time to help others.

Consider fostering animals in your home. Another option is to volunteer to tutor or mentor children.

Better Health and a Better Life

When you take steps to better health, you can enjoy your golden years to the fullest in Peterborough. Focus on your diet, staying physically active, and doing activities you enjoy.

And don't forget to pamper yourself at Flow Spa.

If you’d like to learn more about staying mentally well in retirement, feel free to explore this free resource offered by RetireGuide.com.

Fight or Flight or Float?... Managing The Stress Response To Your Life

When your threat detection system goes off and your spidey sense starts tingling as the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, how do you respond?

Do you fight or do you flee?

We are all familiar with the feeling that floods in when we become aware of a threat in our surroundings.

Heart rate skyrockets, breathing becomes rapid and shallow, we get that tingling sensation as our blood flows from our core to our limbs to mobilize us for action to escape this threat.

While much less common today, this autonomic response to stress or threats was instilled to protect us from the jaguar hidden in the jungle only given away by the subtle sound of a twig snapping or the need to sprint after the deer to feed your family as it tries to get away.

When our sympathetic nervous system is engaged, we are in full-force action mode to handle anything in our way.

Working opposite to our sympathetic response is the relaxation response known as rest and digest. It helps to keep stress levels in check and takes over when we feel safe and secure. With this parasympathetic activation, our breathing and heart rate slow down and as blood can return to our core, our digestive system becomes more active again and we’re also more likely to be sexually aroused.

There are important functions to both sympathetic and parasympathetic responses in our bodies and we depend on the ability to engage in fight or flight to deal with short-term challenges.

The problem that we face today is that stress has become a constant in our lives. The kids are late for school, then someone cuts you off in traffic, so now you’re running late to get to work and you get chewed out by your boss.

And this is all before 9 am while guzzling down a stimulating pot of coffee.

Our days go by like this constantly and even if we try to stay positive, that threat detection system is used to working subconsciously to protect us.

Even before the booming threat of the pandemic, stress levels were already on the rise, especially in cities where there’s a constant din of noise, motion, and interaction keeping our nervous systems buzzing. Everybody says that they’re stressed and in a constant state of avoiding overwhelm and having to deal with COVID hasn’t helped anyone.

Finding ways to unwind and get our bodies into the relaxation response is one of the best things we can do for our physical and mental health. When the term “relaxation response” was first coined by Herbert Benson, he came up with a protocol for practicing relaxation and eliciting the response.

The original steps for the relaxation response look very similar to a beginner practice of mindfulness and that’s because Dr. Benson is often credited with familiarizing his Western audience with meditation through rebranding it as the “Relaxation Effect.”

Meditation is a tricky thing though because despite rebranding it or rephrasing the concept, most people don’t know how to get started with meditation in a meaningful way that feels like something positive.

But that’s where float tanks come in.

Most people are curious to try out the float experience and to escape from the world in the nearly complete way that only floating can allow for.

It’s not surprising given the many studies that have found floating in a float tank brings on the relaxation effect as well as the benefits that come with that. And this is in part due to how many people describe floating as a sort of training wheels for meditation. It’s like your mental filing cabinet where your brain is able to turn down the noise and sort out the thoughts that tend to swirl around uncontrollably.

People coming in to float notice in real-time the benefits for reducing stress, improving mood, and also helping to increase focus as you return to the outside world.

The float tank environment is the perfect place to turn off that stress response that is ever-present in our lives today. It’s a safe and comfortable space to engage our relaxation response and let go of everything.

Depending on how you like to float, you can completely tune out from all the stimuli that are normally present and keep our fight of flight response actively engaged. You get to choose calming music or blissful silence and the comfort of lights if you don’t want to immerse yourself in complete darkness.

The next time that you feel you're fed up with life and ready to lose it, instead of running away from your problems or getting into an argument, give yourself a time-out to engage your relaxation response. Or even better, treat yourself to a float and relax every muscle in your body while your brain gets to have a complete rest as well.

I Just Had My First Reflexology Appointment

Reflexology In Peterborough

As many of you have already heard, we are excited to introduce reflexology here at Flow Spa in Peterborough.

Heather has been doing her training in reflexology and holistic reproductive practices.

As a avid float member here at Flow Spa, when she reached out to me about partnering up to offer another service to help us all combat stress and relax deeply, I couldn’t wait to hear more.

We all know that people who float regularly have the best ideas!

So there I was, the first on board to get my feet treated by Heather this week.

The Best Foot Massage Ever

I was a little bit nervous about how it would go. Not that I don’t know how to relax well, but I’m very ticklish and my feet were about to be centre stage.

But as I sat down and lay back in the recliner, which is my favourite chair in the whole world, the pressure used for reflexology treatments was no issue for my sensitive feet.

Tension melted away and I felt super relaxed. The room set up works perfectly for these appointments and everyone has been really happy and feeling great with Heather so far.

The treatment is so relaxing that many of Heather’s clients fall asleep.

My feet and whole body were definitely thankful for this relaxing experience.

As a strongman competitor and ramping up my training, my feet bear a lot and take a beating all the time.

You’re going to love it!

Are You an Entrepreneur? Here Are Five Reasons You Need to Prioritize Self-Care

Guest post by Brad Krause of selfcaring.info

(Cover Photo via Pexels)

Ignoring self-care habits is easy to do. With the busy pace of life, pencilling in some extra “me time” isn’t always possible. This is especially true for entrepreneurs — both new and experienced. When you are your own boss, as well as the boss of others, your days can quickly get hectic. However, always having a mentality of needing to “push through” can rapidly escalate to burnout.

If you are a business owner or entrepreneur, explore the top five reasons you need to prioritize self-care.

You are human

Although it sounds almost silly to acknowledge, you are human. You are not a robot. Being human means that you need to take care of your needs daily, and that those needs ebb and flow. One day you might be feeling ready to run a marathon, while the next you may not want to get out of bed.

At all times, treat yourself as the beautifully flawed human being that you are. You cannot be expected to perform well without taking quality time for yourself. Having a self-care routine isn’t being indulgent. Instead, it is a repertoire of actions that refresh and invigorate you, and can help you be your best self.

Let go of the idea that you can get by without any form of self-care.

You are ultra busy

Often used as an argument against taking time for self-care, being ultra busy means that you need even more “me time” than most. When life is constantly full of to-dos, big decisions, and tense moments, taking time to replenish is paramount.

Although you can’t add more hours to your day, you can use strategies to practice self-care while maintaining a super-busy schedule. If you’re looking to improve your work-life balance, take small moments for yourself during the day. Pause your work and reduce stress by setting boundaries with employees and vendors, meditating, going for a short walk to regroup, and working remotely as needed. Stepping outside of the chaos for as little as 5-10 minutes can do wonders for your overall health.

Your mental health needs ongoing care and maintenance

It has been estimated that one in five Canadians experience mental health conditions. With such a high prevalence of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD, caring for your mental health is critical. Whether you currently face one of these conditions, or suspect that you may be struggling with your mental health, this is one area of your life you need to take seriously. Not seeking treatment in a timely manner can have perilous consequences.

As part of your self-care plan, prioritize time off, visits to your therapist, and stress-relieving techniques. Make it a daily goal to do at least one thing that will improve your overall mental health. There is zero shame in seeking help for emotions that you don’t know how to work through, or for a condition you’ve battled for years.

...And so does your physical health

Your physical health is equally as important as your mental health. It isn’t uncommon for entrepreneurs to live off of a steady diet of convenient (yet unhealthy) foods, get too little sleep, and practice other damaging habits (such as smoking). Each day, aim to nourish your body with pre-made meals, supplements, and positive habits.

Self-care helps you be the best version of yourself

Ultimately, taking a neglectful approach to your mind and body will lead to burnout. When you are burnt out, doing easy tasks can feel like an overwhelming challenge. Being proactive about your well-being can prevent burnout, and help you be the best entrepreneur possible.

Additionally, making the most of your time off is ideal when looking to feel your best. Numerous entrepreneurs have found float therapy to be a highly valuable part of their self-care routine. Learn more about this therapy by contacting our team at Flow Spa today.

Flow Spa offers relaxing and rejuvenating float therapy in Peterborough, Ontario. We also provide massage therapy, Infrared sauna, and sports recovery treatments. Learn more about us and the benefits of float therapy.

Quick Practices For Mental Health and Wellness You Can Do At Home This Month

May is Mental Health Awareness Month and we all recognize the challenge to mental health right now.

The struggle is real regardless of who you are.

So this year it’s more important than ever to recognize the cause and notice how the circumstances of our outer world and inner turmoil are impacting us and have been for the last year.

Anxiety rates are higher than ever and so is substance abuse. Feelings of loneliness are spreading like wildfire.

We’re still in and out of situations of being told to stay home to reduce the spread of COVID and so today let’s look at some of the healthy and safe ways we can contribute positively to our own mental health and the well-being of those around us while at home.

Have Positive Conversations

Turning to the support of people close to you is important but are you having conversations with your loved ones that are actually supporting your mental health and theirs as well?

It feels great to sometimes rant and get those feelings off of your chest when something is bothering you. You want to go on and on about the things that upset you like that jerk that cut you off in traffic or the rude comment your coworker made to you at work the other day that you're still thinking about.

And the people you turn to for these conversations are often the most empathetic. They listen with patience until you're blue in the face and you feel good for a little while. But it turns out that reliving events in this way doesn't help you to work through them. What actually helps is sharing the emotion but also receiving some sort of guidance on what your next steps should be.

You don't have to go around telling all of your friends and family that you need a solution to the problems that you are ruminating on, but start to do this yourself for others and over time hopefully, they will recognize the value of doing the same for you. (Or share this article with them to nudge a subtle hint).

How to calm anxiety (when you’re freaking out). Read more in this article.

Get Outside

Spring is a truly wonderful time to get outside more and there are many mental health benefits to getting outside more often.

Nature acts as an anxiety and depression reliever in a number of ways. You've got the fresh air which our bodies crave, and the extra exposure to sunlight when it isn't raining for days on end helps with Vitamin D production in our bodies. Vitamin D also helps to boost our mood and immune system so that we can feel our best and stay healthy.

Natural surroundings can also help to create a sense of calm in our minds and to reduce the ruminating thoughts and endless internal chatter. Even if you have to go for a bit of a drive to get into more natural surroundings or away from crowded parks, it's worth it to schedule some time in nature each week or as often as you can.

Find Stillness

Social media can help us a lot with staying connected to our friends and family when we're in lockdown and facing restrictions with visiting in-person but it can also be mentally draining to constantly refresh our feeds and compare ourselves to other people.

Try taking a Tech Sabbath or digital detox. On the weekend, or one day a week when you don’t have to be at the demands of your phone for work, turn off all devices and go tech-free. Plan ahead so that this isn’t too hard to do and if you find that a full day isn’t possible right now, start with a morning or afternoon and go from there.

You’ll find this is also a great opportunity to accomplish some of the other beneficial actions like getting outside and you can even pair it with having in-person conversations with people in your bubble while you go for a walk together.

Spring Wellness At Home Guide

Making changes of any sort to your lifestyle and routine can be hard.

Download this free guide to making healthy and sustainable changes at home this spring.

You’ll get additional tips not covered in this article as well as printable habit trackers and worksheets to help you stay on track and accountable to your own goals.

5 Things You Should Do Today to Boost Your Spinal Health While Working From Home

Guest post by Dana Brown, Image via Pexels

Have you recently joined the work-from-home movement? You’re in good company. Though many people started working from home recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic, reports cited by Small Business Trends show that more than half of businesses expect the shift to working from home to be permanent for many employees.

If you’re planning to work from home or if you already have a home office, you need to give some serious consideration to your spinal health. Flow Spa cares about your well-being, so here are five things you should do every day to boost your spinal health while working from home.

1. Check Your Posture Throughout the Day

Take a minute to honestly assess your posture right now. If you’re currently feeling any back or neck strain, take note of that, too. Now, focus on stretching your spine towards the sky without arching your back. Imagine someone’s gently lifting your head straight up toward the ceiling by a string. Doesn’t this new position feel much better?

You might be surprised to learn that before the pandemic even broke out and workers moved to their homes, many Canadians had poor posture. When you’re sitting at a desk all day, it’s natural to allow your body to slouch into a lazy position. Though it may feel good to sit this way for a few minutes, it will undoubtedly lead to aches and pains in your back, neck and even your wrists, elbows and shoulders.

To maintain good posture while sitting at your desk, Greatist advises you should keep your elbows bent at 90 degrees, draw your chin back slightly, and focus on expanding your chest to open up your shoulders. This will most likely feel unnatural at first, but the more you sit this way, the more comfortable it will become.

2. Get Regular Therapeutic Adjustments

It’s natural to feel some back discomfort if you work at a desk for long periods of time. But that doesn’t mean you have to live with the pain. Scheduling regular therapeutic float appointments, massage therapy or other services from healthcare professionals is a great way to bring your spine back into alignment and release tension in your back and neck.

3. Reduce Stress

Did you know stress can have a big impact on your physical comfort levels? When left unchecked, stress can cause a lot of unwanted effects on the body, including high blood pressure, heart disease and back pain. Minimizing stress can help make any back pain you may experience more manageable. Relaxation and meditation are two great ways to reduce levels and improve your spinal health.

You can also do much to manage your stress levels by cleaning and organizing your home so there isn’t clutter everywhere you look. A tidy and fresh environment is conducive to improved mental health and a healthy atmosphere at home. If there are any areas of your home causing you stress and anxiety, find ways to rectify the problem now so you can start reaping the benefits of a clean home as soon as possible.

4. Take Breaks to Move and Stretch

To minimize the stress and discomfort associated with working at a desk, take time to move and stretch throughout the day. It’s generally recommended that for every hour you spend working, you take 5 to 10 minutes to walk, stand up and stretch. Focus your stretches on your shoulders, back, legs and any other area of your body that feels tense and tight. Hold each stretch for at least 10 to 20 seconds for optimal results.

5. Use Ergonomic Tools to Help You Maintain Good Form

Ergonomic office chairs can help encourage good posture and spinal health throughout the workday. There are many different options from which you can choose, including high-backed chairs, chairs with armrests and chairs without armrests. Try a few different types out until you discover the style that’s most comfortable for you.

If you can keep these tips in mind every day, you’ll increase your likelihood of maintaining good spinal health and comfort while working from home. And remember to connect with Flow Spa for more tips and information that will help you stay comfortable, happy and healthy.