Black Friday Specials 2021

Black Friday Frenzy is upon us (although it seems like it's now a race to whoever can launch their sale earlier in November).

However, I see a lot of us fighting back against the craze and looking to be more thoughtful with supporting small businesses with our spending and gift-giving.

And what we all want most this year is not a shiny new object but is to de-stress.

What we all want most this year is to de-stress.

I see it every day.

This year give them what they need the most, and you've got early access to this special deal. (The links down below are private so don't share them before they go live.)

Friday-Monday only, we've got the following specials on float memberships:

Gift One Month of Basic Membership - $55 (One float credit)

Gift Their First Two Months of a Biweekly Membership - $175 (Four float credits)

For the avid floater or flexible membership, 12 floats for $500 (12 float credits)

Even though there's no expiry on these float credits, you already know that regular floats are one of the best ways to include recovery time in your schedule.

So whether you want to gift yourself with some floats, or spread the joy of floating this holiday season, now's the time.

View all the offers here:

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!

New Research Supports Float Therapy For Treatments of Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia is a notoriously difficult condition to treat but new research into float therapy has opened up a promising solution for supporting those with anorexia.

While much of the news and many scientists around the globe are still inundated by the pandemic, research continues to go on towards quieter pursuits. And as we continue to face stress and feelings of overwhelm, there’s some good in knowing that all hope is not lost for the things that make us feel good.

Floating is known to be an effective treatment for reducing generalized and acute anxiety and new research into the depths of float therapy is now looking at its effects on helping with anorexia and the immune system.

Dr. Sahib Khalsa has been looking at long-term research on anorexia nervous a patients over the last four years at the Float Clinic and Research Center at the LIBR (Laureate Institute for Brain Research). Anorexia continues to be one of the most severe mental disorders in terms of mortality rate and difficulty of treatment. Looking at the effects that floating might have in the treatment of anorexia nervous is highly important and shining a spotlight on the great benefits that natural and safe therapies like floating can have.

So far what the research is uncovering is that floating seems to benefit anorexia patients in two main areas - anxiety levels and body image.

The most significant findings from the research has been showing that floating helps in reducing the anxiety levels in patients, which reflects similar results on float therapy done in studies on healthy individuals as well as those who are dealing with chronic anxiety.

Anxiety levels in the patients with anorexia were reduced by up to 20%, and the biggest effect happens on those with the highest baseline anxiety levels. So floating is great for everyone with anxiety but has the most pronounced effect on those who are in need of the most relief. This is consistent with other research that regularly finds the greatest reductions in anxiety come to those dealing with the most severe anxiety.

The findings on adjusting perceived body image, while not at dramatic as the changes in anxiety levels, is still a significant result coming out of this research. Anorexia tends to be a long lasting and chronic condition in part because there’s a misalignment between the patients’ perceived body weight and real body weight and image. The patients incorporating float therapy saw a shift in how they viewed their body and their idea body type started to realign with a healthier body type. This change was viewed after only a few floats so as further evidence comes out, this result may become even more significant for what long-term float therapy can do for patients with anorexia and body image disorders.

Because of the nature of long-term research, the full results of Dr. Khalsa’s research won’t be complete until 2023 at the earliest but this information is still promising enough at this time to take note of.

If you know anyone with anorexia, consider inviting them in for a float or sharing this article with them to explore float centre’s in their hometown. Dr. Khalsa spent much of the early work into this research establishing the psychological and physical safety of floating for patients with anorexia to be assured there weren’t any contraindications.

Try This To Bust Stress and Boost Your Immune System This Fall

As we start a new school year, we’ve all got a mixed sense of optimism and concern over what colder weather and classmates gathering together might bring.

Needless to say, it’s been stressful. And that’s exactly the last thing you want when trying to stay healthy this fall.

Stress negatively affects our immune system when it goes unchecked and staying healthy and having a strong immune system has undoubtedly become one of the most important goals we all keep top of mind.

So whether you’re a teacher, student, or concerned parent, let’s talk about how to get a handle on your stress levels to become healthier and prevent illness.

Floating Helps Improve Your Immune System

Chronic stress happens when we get stuck in a never-ending loop of fight or flight fear. The sympathetic nervous system helps us to engage with threats and we react to our environment with a heightened state of alertness. In our modern world, this threat detection system has gone haywire due to nonstop stimulation whether the threat is real or perceived. Over time if we don’t get a chance to calm down, this wears down our bodies though, making us experience symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, and a compromised immune system.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve had your fair share of sleepless nights lately, ruminating thoughts of the negative news and uncertainty about what’s coming next.

Float therapy works so well against anxious thoughts and by reducing our stress levels. Clinical evidence shows that it helps to reduce cortisol levels, the hormone that gets out of control when we are chronically stressed. The safe, relaxing, and quiet space of the float tank also is a miracle when it comes to reducing anxiety. By having no distractions or stimulation around us, the float pod or float cabin is like a sanctuary for the mind and with peace and tranquility, our thoughts slow down and settle into a more calm and clear state.

This state of calm is exactly where we need to get to on a regular basis to counteract the stressful situation we are living through and dealing with. By taking the time to float, or practice any other restful state of recovery, you are proactively recharging in a way that supports a healthier immune system and you’ll better handle the stressors of your daily life.

Small Doses of Stress Train Your Immune System to Become Stronger

Even better than floating alone to strengthen your immune system is through small doses of stress in safe and healthy ways. Stress isn’t all bad, it’s only when it becomes a constant in your daily life that it gets out of control and will start to negatively impact you.

Short exposure to stressors makes you more resilient.

These small doses of stress come from healthy practices like

• Working out

• Sauna

• Contrast therapy using hot and cold plunges

Add in a relaxing float after any of these small and short-lived doses of stress and you’ll be actively training your nervous system to handle stress better, which will also improve your immune system to help you fight off illnesses.

Make a plan to include a sauna session before your next float or book in a float on a day that you’ve done a hard workout to help reset your body and recover.

Float Into A New Way To Relax and Feel Your Best This Summer

After being cooped up for most of 2020 and the start of this year, we’ve all been eager to get back to some level of normal and that means prioritizing self-care as well.

Floating is one of the best ways to improve almost any experience, whether it’s through the serenity of practicing self-care alone or to help with recovery as you get back to doing the other things your love after many months off.

The Cooldown Float

As we get back into our workout routines and local sports leagues, floating after you get your heart rate up can be a great way to bring it back to baseline.

Research shows that athletes at any skill level who incorporate floating into their training and recovery programs are able to recover faster and increase their performance more than without floating.

Because the water in the float tank is the same as skin temperature, you won’t overheat. Floating helps to reduce blood pressure so you’ll come out of the float feeling restored post-workout.

Appreciate the Little Things

The post-float glow that comes after getting out of the float tank is one of the greatest blissed out feelings that we can have. And this is a perfect time to stop and appreciate the beauty around you.

Your senses become heightened after the sensory reduced environment of the tank, so there’s no better time to stop and smell the roses, literally! As all of our senses are vibing out after a float, food tastes better, music sounds better, and sunshine feels cozier than ever after getting out of a float.

So take some extra me time after your next float this summer to snuggle with your pets or relax and enjoy the sun in a hammock. You will come to find you’ll appreciate new things about these experiences.

Floating Into The Sunset

This already sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Given how much floating relaxes us and adjusts our reactionary behaviours, many floaters will adjust their schedules for the rest of the day after a float.

Sunset is one of the most magical times of the day and we need to more often stop and bask in the awesomeness of it. Finding a good spot to watch the sunset like at the lake, during a hike, or on a patio is always a worthwhile moment to pause for and that much better after a float has turned down the chatter going on in your head.

With longer days in the summer, it’s easier to book an afternoon or evening float to unwind and still time it perfectly to get to your favourite lookout to watch the sunset.

Float when you go on vacation

As your local float centre, we hope that you think of Flow Spa as, if not a second home, at least a second living room, and one of your favourite places to go. For regular floaters, it can feel like a trade-off when going on vacation because we miss out on the comforts of our familiar float tank routines.

But just because you’re out of town or on vacation doesn’t mean you have to give up your regular floats. There are float centres starting in more and more towns all the time. It can be fun to see how other float centres operate and if you find any cool ideas, be sure to let us know!

Floating is also beneficial for resetting your circadian rhythms so if you’re feeling jet lag from travelling, it can really help you to stay on track with your schedule.

Be sure to book an extra float with us when you get back to continue on that vacation feeling and make the transition easier as you return home.

Late night floats are great for winding down

Whether it’s gathering with friends and family again after so long, or getting back into a workout routine, we’re all trying to make the most out of this summer and doing it big. It’s important not to overextend yourself when celebrating or getting out more often to stay healthy and avoid burning out as your capacity ramps back up.

Whether you’re training for a marathon or long-distance bike ride, crossing things off your bucket list, or just hanging out at late night bonfires to take back this summer, going for a float as a way to decompress and recover is going to help you to prevent exhaustion and burnout.

And this list just barely scratches the surface of all the ways you are likely going to make the most of this summer. But hopefully it gives you some inspiration to make floating a part of your summer routine as a reminder to appreciate the small things that we so often take for granted.

After a year of forgotten dreams and quiet isolation, let’s make the rest of this summer worth the wait and float to make the most of 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.

Float Therapy for Sports Performance

Here’s a sports trivia question for you:

What do the New England Patriots, Golden State Warriors, The Manchester United Football Club, Michael Phelps, and Peterborough’s own Cody Crowley all have in common?

Looking at this lineup it’s easy to think “well, these teams and individual athletes all have performed and won at the very pinnacle of their sport!”

And indeed, they are all winners, but that’s not all. They also used float tanks.

And they aren’t alone either.

The New Zealand All Blacks, the Chicago Blackhawks, The Seattle Seahawks, Carl Lewis, J.J. Watt, Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman, and many other professional teams and athletes have added floating into their training and recovery programs to gain a performance edge.

Floating is one of the best-kept secrets used by high-performing athletes and there’s lots of good research that helps to back up why athletes benefit from floating.

Raising the Bar - Performance and Visualization with Float Tanks

If someone told you that laying in complete darkness while suspended weightlessly in saltwater could give you superhuman strength, speed, and accuracy, would you believe them? It’s may not be as bold a statement as it sounds.

Research on floating and sports performance found that high-level athletes who had reached a plateau saw a rebound improvement in performance after floating in conjunction with visualization techniques. The performance increase was seen even without additional physical training.

Therefore, athletes were able to increase their performance just by floating before a competition by using that time for mental imagery of their sport. A follow-up study not only confirmed the results of the original research but showed that floating multiple times between games or competitions led to significant improvements compared to just a single float.

This confirms something that most floaters already know - the more you float the better it is for you.

Improving Accuracy in Target Sports

Beyond just looking at general athletic performance and floating, a few studies from research groups have looked at specific benefits linked to floating in athletes.

Several of these studies have tested how floating affects marksmanship in different fields including rifle marksmanship, darts, and archery.

In the rifle study, 75% of the participants saw a statistically significant increase in accuracy from pre- to post-float compared to no such increase found in the control group that relaxed but did not float.

A similar result was found in the study on darts performance with 80% of the participants' improved accuracy. 

In both studies, these improvements were seen regardless of skill level.

While the archery study didn’t see any significant increase in accuracy after just one float session, It did find that the floaters had more consistent scores than the group that sat in a chair and relaxed for the equivalent amount of time. Likely due to the lower perceived exertion and muscle stiffness during the archery test. 

Float Tanks Reduce Recovery Time

One of the suggested reasons for the benefits described above and how they lead to improved sports performance is through stress reduction. But there’s, even more, to take into account with how floating can help physical performance.

Going deeper with athletes on a physiological level, researchers in a 2013 float tank study looked at the effect floating has on lactic acid build-up.

Athletes are always looking for ways to mitigate the effects of lactate buildup in the muscles during and after a workout or competition as a way to maximize their performance.

It was found that floating after exercise showed a 62% reduction in lactic acid buildup compared to the control group.

The participants in the study also reported feeling less pain and were able to return to a peak performance level sooner.

In 2016 another study was able to repeat these findings in a larger sample size of athletes over 9 different sports. In this study not only was lactic acid reduced, but there was also a significant reduction in muscle soreness and improved mood and reduced fatigue in the participants that floated. 

Looking at the Big Picture of Float Tanks on Sports Performance

Taking all of these benefits into account, it becomes clear why floating has been one of the best-kept secrets of successful athletes. Stress needs to be kept under control to perform at a peak level. On top of this, floating can help athletes stay sharp mentally.

And maybe the best part of all of this is that floating is helpful for athletes at all skill levels. You don’t need to be a professional for it to benefit you. whether you’re recovering from a long run or a weekend baseball tournament, floating can help your recovery to keep doing what you love.

Learn even more about sports recovery at Flow Spa here.

The Benefits of Float Therapy During Pregnancy

Answering Your Most Common Questions About Float Tanks And Pregnancy

Float therapy has become more popular with pregnant mothers as a safe way to get great physical and mental relief and relaxation during pregnancy. Let’s go over some of the most common positions that mothers like to lay in while floating for maximum comfort.

Can You Use A Float Tank When Pregnant?

Floating while pregnant has become a growing trend, which is not surprising to see as float therapy has many potential benefits for both mom and baby. Some turn to floating as it helps to relieve back pain and relieve a lot of pressure, while other new moms just love to be able to hear their baby’s heartbeat in the quiet isolation of the float tank.

Float therapy is safe to do during pregnancy although it is understandable that expecting mothers have questions about whether you can float and the best way to do it.

We always recommend that you direct any medical questions to your doctor, but wanted to take some time to provide tips for one of the most common questions which is “how can I float comfortably while pregnant?”

It is generally safe to float on your back or on your belly because of the weightlessness created by the buoyancy of the sensory deprivation tank. The situation is different from outside of the tank where laying on your back can be risky for the health of the mom and baby. *

Getting Comfy For Your Float

Try out the following positions as starting points when you come in to float. Height, body type, and personal preferences really make a difference in what you will find more comfortable. If you’ve never floated before you will be surprised at how buoyant you are in the float tank because of the 1,000 lb. of Epsom salt dissolved into the float tank solution. It’s totally effortless!

Belly down floating can help to release pressure during pregnancy. The weight of the growing uterus pushes against the rest of the mother’s organs and so this pressure release for 60 or 90 minutes during the float can offer a lot of relief.

One position that is often said to be very comfortable for pregnant floaters is floating face down with their arms across or under a pool noodle. The noodle is kept under the chin to keep their face out of the water. In this position, even if you fall asleep for some deep rest and a well-deserved nap, your head will stay supported by the noodle out of the water.

Some other expectant mothers prefer to do the same face-down position without the pool noodles, just using their arms crossed under their chin to keep the face dry.

Another belly-down option for floating is to put your elbows on the floor of the tank and cradle your chin in your hands. The shallow water is the same depth as most people’s forearms, so you can keep your face dry in this position.

An added benefit is that this position can provide additional stretch and traction to the spine.

Once you’ve gotten your doctor’s approval, if floating on your back seems like the best option for you, you can use a noodle under your low back or go without it.

The Epsom salt concentration in the water will support you and your baby very well as it is.

Potential Precautions For Floating When Pregnant

Every pregnancy has its own unique conditions and while floating is a highly safe and effective therapy, we ask that all expecting mothers speak with their doctor for approval before floating.

We’ve seen some sources online say that women should not float during their first trimester but there is no data to support this concern. It likely originated because it’s more likely for miscarriages to happen during the first trimester.

This article is for informational purposes only and you should consult your doctor before making any decisions but from reports of floaters at Flow Spa as well as the community globally, floating through pregnancy can be an incredible relief on the body and mind.

Here’s one mother’s personal blog about floating while pregnant: https://floatingpregnant.wordpress.com/

*The risk related to a pregnant woman lying down on her back on a solid, flat surface is due to constriction of blood flow to the placenta. This can interfere with the development of the baby. Also, the weight of the uterus can put pressure on major veins, causing dizziness and discomfort for the mother. In a float tank, this doesn’t seem to happen, because there is no rigid surface underneath the mother to put pressure on the circulatory system. Floating has been shown to have other positive health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and reducing stress, which can also help a pregnant mother to have healthy blood flow to her heart and to the baby’s placenta.

How Ready Are You for Change? (And Using Float Tanks to Help)

When Dr. John C. Lilly, the inventor of the float tank, entered into the darkness and solitude of the sensory-deprived environment, it sparked in him the realization that he had just ventured into a whole other world inside of himself.

Our brain rings out in response to this lack of input from the external world like a wake-up call.

Turning inward allows us to raise our self-awareness and with that, we can start to transform ourselves.

Change awaits us.

And that’s exactly what we’re all longing for right now.

The Changes We Seek To Make

What is life going to look like on the other side of lockdown restrictions?

Are you ready for a change or are you already taking steps to make changes in your life?

While there has been a lot that isn't under our control lately, something that is in our sphere of control at all times is our actions and choosing to become more aware of how we make use of the time we have. The past year has shifted the regular routines for many of us and opened our eyes to the need for change.

We get stuck in our routines and what we are used to because it's familiar and becomes automatically ingrained as a habit. Kind of like how we pull into our driveway after a long day of work only to realize that we were barely conscious of the drive home, unless we are actively trying to identify and understand our habits they will take control before even we know what we are doing. This includes the bad habits that we may be thinking about changing or feel really ready to take a stand against.

Float tanks can help you with making change by allowing you to focus on and understand your bad habits through deep introspection. This can also help you to understand the underlying motives behind the new habits you are trying to create change from.

When creating and refining the first float tanks, Dr. John C. Lily used the quiet isolation of that environment to develop a system around how to alter unwanted behaviours. He used this safe and controlled environment to focus on the negative aspects of bad habits and their underlying source.

Knowing yourself at this deeper level is one of the first steps to making long-lasting changes for the better.

What Is Your Goal?

Because we are creatures of habit, we all long for some return to normal in our lives. We get distressed when our routines are upset and we’ve all been experiencing some not so gentle disruptions to our routines over the past year.

Disruptions, like the ones we’ve experienced, do have an upside though, because it causes a degree of discomfort that makes us motivated to change. Whether we like it or not, the hiccup in our routine that has been the pandemic is something of a catalyst for change and the initiation of your mission if you choose to accept it.

Rebuild It Better

We can rebuild our lives in the way that we so desire and this past year has been a wake-up call for many who have wanted to make a change for some time. People have retired early and set off on new adventures, many others are quitting jobs they are unsatisfied with and analysts believe that a mass exodus from unhappy jobs is still coming as we move into the post-pandemic world.

Right now you have the opportunity to ask yourself, how do you want to rebuild?

Why not build a lifestyle that’s better than before? One that gets you excited to jump up out of bed in the morning.

Floating Your Way To Deeper Understanding

Dr. Lily was a different thinker in many ways, even by academic standards. Some of his work was related to how float tanks might affect our ability to “meta-program ourselves” Thinking of our brains like computers, everything that we experience - thoughts, emotions, actions - are all programs written by code in our brains. And yet, this code isn’t written from a little guy at a control station in our brain, but from our reaction to everything in our environment.

Dr. Lilly believed that if we focus on how our programs are written, we can modify the code and adjust and improve upon those programs. This is why he called it meta-programming but in simpler terms, it’s just another way to think about mindfulness and analyzing our thoughts and actions. Kind of like being your own shrink but instead of laying on a sofa and talking things out, your body is weightlessly suspended in Epsom salts as you do the talking inside your head.

Not only was it Dr. Lilly who found that floating could really help with the process of analyzing his thoughts, but many people who try floating and take it up as a regular practice for improving their health and happiness come to discover how helpful this can be.

Using Changes In Awareness To Make Change In Your Habits

We become much more aware of what is going on internally when we get to escape from the external world for a while through floating. We can use this time to let our bodies deeply relax while also exploring our programs and habits on a deeper level to sort out the cues and triggers and underlying origins of our habits.

This level of recognition is important and one of the first steps that I take when working with clients to understand the “Why” behind their desire to change.

We know that floating helps you to become more aware and present at the moment because there are no other sensory inputs from the external environment that you have to process or to cause distraction around you.

Many of the tools and techniques that we use and that are suggested in the scientific community today to improve mental and physical well-being include raising awareness, also known as mindfulness.

And it sounds simple to just pay more attention and become aware of the present moment but we are all facing the constant external pressures that make this more difficult than ever.

We feel like we’re being pulled in every direction.

Our external world is more and more distracting.

And we feel overburdened by responsibility in our lives. It’s hard to become aware and initiate change even when we still desire it.

We all crave freedom and because of the discomfort that restrictions have itched out in us, we are more mindful of the need for change right now.

Change is scary though. Starting anything new brings with it some excitement and anxiety. But our body and our brain do adapt, and rather quickly, with consistency.

And with change in ourselves, we can also help to initiate and inspire change in others. A lot of what we’re hoping for more of in the world right now.

How Ready Do You Feel For Making A Change?

It is daunting to make changes in our lives. Each of us has the ability to change if we choose to and part of that is knowing on a deeper level what you want to change first. This needs to come first before setting arbitrary goals that sound good on paper.

Are you ready for a change?

Take this quiz to find out.

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.

Take Action Towards Wellness At Home This Spring

This spring feels a little like the same old and it’s honestly been challenging to get a system in place to nurture wellness and start to feel better.

Fortunately, we’ve made it through the coldest season and now that we want to take advantage of the warmer weather and longer days, we face a situation of having to get creative by spending the majority of our time at home.

So as we consider what we can do to feel our best this spring, here are some ideas that you can start to incorporate. Remember, it doesn’t have to be a complete shift in your whole life in order to have a positive impact on how you are doing.

Gratitude

Gratitude shifts our brain to a more positive state and allows us to operate from a more optimistic state of mind. When everything around us feels a little to dainty and depressing and the negative news is overwhelming, maintaining a gratitude practice to look at both the big picture and the small things will help out.

Gratitude practices work best when we don’t repeat the same things all the time and when we either write the list down or at least spend a minute reflecting on each thing that comes to mind.

Get Outside More

The nicer weather is starting to come and that means longer and warmer days can work wonders for giving us more of what we need right now.

Fresh air is one of the ways we can revitalize how we feel and the bonus with longer and brighter days is that we’re also getting more Vitamin D from the sun. We’ve all heard how important Vitamin D is for just about every system in our body, including hormone production, mood, immunity, bone health, and strength but how often are we taking action to implement what we know?

If you’re working from home or on a more flexible schedule right now, aim to get outside every day. Being outside around sunrise and sunset can help with sleeping better and mid-day leads to the greatest UV light exposure for getting more Vitamin D production. Short breaks throughout the day can also be a great way to break up the monotony of working from home to stay energized and alert.

Connect With Others

The loneliness epidemic that is a part of our society today is not newly a result of the pandemic but has certainly been exacerbated by our situation of lockdown and isolation.

We often feel better about ourselves when we’re doing our part to lift others up, so start making a list of people that you want to stay in close contact with or rekindle a connection to and spend a part of each day reaching out to others.

Make use of technologies like Zoom and FaceTime that allow you to see and hear your friends and loved ones real time but also know that everyone always appreciates a hand written card arriving in the mail. Communicate in whatever form feels best for you depending on your stress levels.

Maintain Your Exercise and Nutrition

Over the past year as we’ve gone through waves of lockdowns and spending more time at home, which often means winning back extra hours in our days, eating right and exercising has not become any easier.

We don’t have win a physique competition or deprive ourselves of food but we undoubtedly feel better when we eat right and get regular exercise in our lives.

Find More Stillness

We love floating as a way to practice a deeper state of relaxation and meditation but something we need to focus on right now is a practice of stillness on a daily basis, or as close to it as you can realistically accomplish.

When we’re bombarded by negativity through the media and the stress that the uncertainty has brought to work, family, and housing, we need to return to a grounded state regularly. Our bodies can accomplish this if and only if it is given the stillness that it needs. This can be accomplished in many ways and doesn’t have to look like a formal meditation practice, but if that’s something you’re willing to work on, there are a whole bunch of additional benefits that will come from that.

Stillness is a deliberate slowing down. Maybe for you this means getting outside for a walk, or creating music, it could be practicing yoga, or cooking a meal by yourself or with your family. There are many shapes and forms to stillness and it often can overlap with the other strategies for wellness you can work on this spring but what it usually looks like is getting away from digital devices for a while.

Want to learn more about how to apply this in a sensible and actionable way?

Download our free guide to wellness that will help to hold you accountable and map out your progress!

Reflecting on 2 Years at Flow Spa

We’ve made it to Year 2.

It’s been a wild journey as everyone can appreciate what’s happened in the past year.

This time last year I was having fun making a day in the life of a float centre owner video. Everything was rosey and great as we made progress each month all the way up to year one.

The momentum train was rolling and it felt like business was picking up.

Then a week later, we started to hear reports about COVID-19 become more than just some bug a few people had. There was talk that the whole country would be shut down.

And a week after that, I watched Trudeau make that announcement and my mind rebelled at the thought of Flow Spa having to close after all the traction we had just built.

I didn’t want to close the doors.

But people were also being responsible and starting to stay home and stay away.

So we entered into a strange season where the business was shuttered. I took my passion for helping others and wellness online and started to share strategies for staying well at home when your favourite stress-busters and recovery and mindfulness practices weren’t available for a while.

The vision for finding your flow stayed the same but the mission looked a bit different as we couldn’t float or meet up in person.

And so the year 2 was a roller coaster like that. Several months of no activity at all in the spa. Followed by a few months of regaining traction and things looking very good again. And then entering into lockdown yet again for another six weeks to once again lose some momentum.

Everyone talks about the long-term vision needed when starting a business. Unfortunately there’s no game plan for when a pandemic strikes a startup.

All I know is that what we do at Flow Spa makes a significant difference to the well-being of our community. People need floating when all other options for pain relief and anxiety and stress reduction aren’t the right solution for them.

The science behind why floating works is rock solid and that’s what caught my attention so much from the beginning. I’m all in for what works and is validated by science. Stillness is the key to it and since we don’t give ourselves enough of that in this on-demand world we live in, there is an essential space available for float centres to offer up that much-needed escape from it all.

So while it’s unclear how many times we’ll be sent back into lockdown, we will keep striving on this journey because as I see floaters every day come out at ease and with a sense of stillness that wasn’t there an hour earlier, I know that what Flow Spa is doing is grounded in actually making a difference for many people.

And so whether you like floating or not, even in these challenging times I hope that you can continue to seek progress in yourself with your wellness, and passions, and continue to Dream On and Find Your Flow.

Love Yourself This Valentine's Day (And How To Practice Better Self-Love)

As the middle of February rolls around, it becomes that Hallmark moment each year where we take a stand and celebrate the love that's in the air. We are either celebrating our self-love or showing our affection to someone else but it turns out that the self-love really needs to be at the centre of it all.

After the year of isolation and, in many cases, loneliness that we've gone through, let's talk about practicing self-love and learning to love yourself like your life depends on it. Because just like the oxygen mask analogy on the airplane, taking the time to show care and consideration for yourself will rise the tide on all of your relationships and the people that you surround yourself with.

What Is Self Love?

While self-love is about care and doing the things that you know support your well-being, it's also just as much about coming to terms with who you are and Braving the Wilderness as Brene Brown refers to it.

When you start to accept all your perfect imperfections, it becomes that much easier to focus on loving and supporting those around you because you recognize your own needs as well.

When we accept instead of dwell on who we are under the surface, we can start to notice more of the beauty in our lives and in our connections with others instead of getting caught up in our mistakes or sense of inadequacies.

Where To Draw Your Focus

We all know that too much focus on our own faults and flaws can spiral out of control and leads nowhere positive, even if it's often easier said than done to avoid. Dwelling on the negativity is not how we break free from that vicious cycle though. Guilt doesn't inspire change. It creates an emotional sinkhole that our mindset fixates on. Furthermore, our brains are drawn towards negative information as it alerts us to perceived threats, and so what we want to do is lean into the positivity whenever possible and with the right strategies.

First, we want to recognize this negativity bias and know that it's a perfectly natural response in all people, although as Jonathan Haidt suggests in the Happiness Hypothesis, some of us have won more of the cortical lottery in being wired for more optimism. We often blame ourselves or get caught up on things that are outside of our control and when we do this, it can be easy to feel like we've failed at something. This fixed mindset thinking though can be course corrected though by using prompts to remind ourselves to think of what's in our control or practicing gratitude to seek out more positivity in our day-to-day lives.

Mindfulness and Self-Love

Taking our focus and self-love a step further, mindfulness is one way in which we can train our brains to counter the ruminating thoughts when done correctly.

Part of the reason that mindfulness originated as a religious practice was as a way to develop the self in a way that could help to have a positive impact on the greater community. We can use Metta or loving-kindness meditation to radiate compassion to those closest to us and the wider community and single-point focus meditation can help you to become more present and train your brain to counteract that fixation on ruminating thoughts.

Connecting Deeply With Your Self

Floating makes for a great self-love date as it is a powerful way to practice mindfulness and being fully embodied in the present moment. With such a reduction in external stimulation because of the unique environment of the float tank, your sense of self dissolves into the water you are floating in and the air around you.

So whether you treat yourself to a float this Valentine's Day or bring along a loved one for the experience as well, know that you are connecting deeply with yourself and doing what's best for you to support the loved ones around you.

Floating Your Way To A Better You In 2021

The new year brings about a desire for change and a renewal of energy towards the goals that we have for ourselves.

Many of us saw our goals and ambitions grind to a halt in 2020 due to the pandemic. We had to push things off or delay our dreams, whether it was seeing a business take off, travel around the world, or compete in a sports event.

So as we get started with 2021, we mostly want to approach things with optimism that this year will be brighter for our ambitions.

So as you set out with New Year's Resolutions and hope this year, here are some of the benefits of floating that can help you along the way with your resolutions.

Sleep

Sleep and getting a good night's rest is at the root of all of the goals that we have for ourselves because none of it is possible without sleeping well and restoring our energy.

Enhanced Learning and Performance

The relaxing state that we get in with floating can have a beneficial impact on our emotional state, which also helps us with memory and retaining information. We've all experienced the brain fog that comes from intense emotions. When we are stressed or in a negative emotional state we can have a hard time with remembering positive experiences and recalling specific details.

Partly through reducing stress and anxiety and partly because of the deeply restorative state our brains get into while floating, researchers have found that memory recollection is more vivid in people who have floated versus control groups that didn't float.

Floating is also used by athletes and high performers as a way to break through plateaus and reach greater states of performance. When it comes to mental training for sports and creative pursuits, the distraction-free environment of the float tank can help many people with their visualization practices and rehearsal.

Addiction

Even a short time away from triggers for cravings and addictions can be beneficial when trying to break away and prevent relapses.

Sensory isolation has been used in studies of combatting addiction with nicotine, alcohol, and narcotics. In these studies, it was also shown that prolonged isolation can help with withdrawal systems, lessening their intensity and making them more manageable.

Certain recovery programs have even begun integrating floating into treatment programs as a way to lower the risk of relapse in drug addiction.

There are also many personal stories of people who have used floating as a way to help with addiction. John Lennon shared in his biography Lives of John Lennon by Albert Goldman that he used floating to help him overcome his heroin addiction.

Mindfulness and Meditation

Practicing mindfulness is a more trendy and newer resolution for a lot of people and floating is the best training wheel support for your meditation goals that you can find. Float therapy is gently-forced meditation. When you are floating, your brain and body can't help but get into the same state as experienced meditators do. The theta brainwave state used to be only accessible to monks and people in REM sleep but float therapy has opened up this realm of relaxation to everyone. Because the float tanks have audio in them, a float session can also be coupled with a guided meditation to facilitate this learning process.

Unless floating is the healthy habit you're looking to do more regularly this New Year, it can't help directly with the habits but it can help to support you with your New Years Resolutions in many ways.

Goal Setting and Finding Your Purpose

Even if you haven't figured out yet what you want to accomplish for yourself in 2021, floating offers the perfect escape to find some time with your thoughts to sort things out. Use this time during your next float to think about what goals align with your deepest values and what you would like to focus on this year.

Float Your Way To Peace | Studying Serenity and Float Therapy

Finding serenity sounds nice right about now, doesn’t it?

As we’ve struggled through 2020, it can seem like a faraway dream to find serenity now.

With so much uncertainty, it’s difficult to tune out and relax to focus on the present, even though it’s one of the most important things we can do for ourselves right now.

We have to remember to focus on what’s in our own control and what we can have an impact on when the world feels so chaotic. And one of the things we can make a positive impact on is taking better care of ourselves. Finding our own sense of serenity and taking care of our mental health through positive routines is something we can and should control, especially at this time.

Because we so often talk about mental health from the perspective of negative symptoms, it can be hard to remember that mental health isn’t an on/off switch. We don’t often talk about mental health from the positive perspective without comparing it to the negative but the reality is that it exists on a spectrum and even when we’re not suffering, we still have room to make things better for ourselves.

And this is one of the things that floating does best for you. It improves your serenity by helping with mental and physical wellness while setting you at ease.

We often think of serenity as something that comes from meditation or the peace of relaxation but it’s also a specific term used by scientists. Serenity is a marker of mental wellness that gauges how well we stay present, our readiness to practice forgiveness, and how content we feel with our lives despite the negativity.

Serenity was also one of the many mental health factors studied in recent float therapy research.

In 2018, Dr. Justin Feinstein’s team at the LIBR were able to demonstrate the effect of a single 60-minute float on serenity, and the results are part of what makes floating such a promising wellness practice:

In anxious participants, serenity soared post-float, above the baseline for non-anxious participants in the study.

And in the non-anxious group, serenity increased a significant amount as well, demonstrating this mental health gradient.

Even more impressively, when looking at the data from all 50 participants in the study, every single one saw an increase in serenity post-float. And a quarter of them maxed out the serenity scale post-float.

Looking at the graph for all the participants’ data shows the significant results of this study. The red bar is how serene they felt before floating, and the blue bar shows the post-float improvement.

There’s a presentation on the full results of the study here, and the research article is available here. In addition to the study looking at serenity, the researchers also saw decreases in anxiety and muscle tension as well as increases in relaxation and energy levels.

This chart shows the different mental health traits impacted by a single float:

Regardless of what this year has been like to you, we are all able to cut through the chaos and choose to take control of what we can, including our self-care. And this can look like many different things that you find restorative, from meditation to yoga, to sitting by a fire listening to holiday music or even getting away to the complete stillness of a float tank to silence the holiday hubbub for a bit.

Serenity can be found closer to home than you think and isn’t just in some far-off oasis. But it does require you to take the time for yourself to rest and recharge.

Creating a Sleep Routine For Consistently Getting Better Sleep

We all have faced sleep issues at one point in time or another. It seems inevitable that sleep will eventually be impacted by our external circumstances and we’ll have to do something about it to get back on track.

Whether it’s a struggle to fall asleep or to stay asleep, we know what it feels like when our sleep isn’t as good as it should be.

Sleep is undeniably the most important step to improving your wellness.

If this critical component isn’t addressed first and foremost, it doesn’t matter what other health hacks you try to use, they will not fix the root cause of your issues.

So whether you think that you’re a world-class sleeper or you know that you can do better, read on and pick up or remind yourself of a thing or two that can help to make a difference in your sleep.

A Sleep Primer

Before we snuggle under the covers of the best tips to help you sleep, let’s take a really quick look at the importance of sleep and the different sleep stages.

Most of us are aware that sleep is essential to good health. We all need certain amounts of sleep each night in order to feel and function at our best. Usually, we can estimate this number pretty well based on our past but these numbers also change as we age. The simplest strategy is to test waking up without an alarm clock on a morning when this is possible for you. If you slept well and feel well-rested then you’ve got a good idea of how much sleep you consistently need. This test works even more reliably after several days of waking without an alarm, so make a plan to try it out for yourself and go sans alarm clock for your next vacation (or staycation).

When we sleep, our brains and bodies use the time to go through a dishwasher cycle and scrub clean our internal systems. This is an essential recovery process for performing our best and without it, our health will decline over time. Sleep is used for memory consolidation, repair from physical activity, and for reducing stress on our brains and bodies.

We cycle through different phases during sleep and each phase is essential for a well-balanced sleep.

Pre-Bed Routines

The way we prepare for bed is one of the keys to better sleep. There are many different things that we can do to get ourselves ready for bed and the best way to know what works for you is to be open-minded to trying as many strategies as you can over time and sort out the tips that are too inconvenient for your circumstances.

Food

For many people, the timing as well as the food choices for our last meal of the day can impact our sleep quality quite dramatically. Going to bed too full or too hungry will make it difficult to fall asleep (sleep latency) and may also affect the amount of deep sleep that you get or the overall quality of your sleep.

Usually, it’s best to have your last meal a couple of hours prior to bed and not eat to the point of feeling stuffed. For individuals who eat relatively low carb diets or are on a stricter diet, also eating carbs with the last meal of the day is a way to signal the body into a calmer state and helps with relaxing and triggering sleep.

Experimenting with the right combinations of foods and timing for your best sleep quality, like with any of these strategies, takes some patience to find your own sweet spot.

Drugs and Alcohol

Nightcaps and other options for taking the edge off at the end of the day are sedatives that help to initiate sleep but they come at a cost. We know from research that alcohol, THC, and even prescription sleep medications all reduce the amount of deep sleep that we get which is the time when our brains and bodies go through most of the important restoration at night.

Whenever possible, we should try to get away from these options being our go-to strategy for sleep.

One alternative that helps to calm our minds and prepare for sleep and also seems to support better sleep quality is using a CBD tincture that doesn’t contain any THC. CBD is an anti-inflammatory compound found in cannabis and hemp and a dose of around 20 mg seems to effectively induce sleep and also contribute to better quality sleep overall.

Screen Time and Work

After the sun goes down, our brains are already thinking that it’s time to get ready for sleep. When the receptors in our eyes sense this change, our brains start to release the circadian clock hormone of melatonin which initiates sleep and also helps to keep us asleep.

The blue light from our digital devices is known to impact melatonin production to some extent which is why if you have trouble falling asleep, it may help to adjust your tech time in the evening so that the screens go away 1-2 hours before bedtime. Not only is this helpful for reducing blue light exposure that may blunt melatonin release, but it’s also a lot less stimulating which will also help your mind to calm down and get ready for sleep.

Whether you work on your device or just scroll through social media, an important part of getting better sleep is to let your mind settle down through less stimulation. A lot of people work relentlessly until the minute their head hits the pillow and then wonder why they spend all night thinking about their to-do list and the work they have to do the next day.

Winding Down

Instead of watching tv or playing on your phone, use the last 1-2 hours of the day to read a book, have a relaxing conversation with family or friends, get outside for a walk, or do any other enjoyable and peaceful hobby.

Sometimes watching tv at the end of the day is the truly pleasurable or mindless activity that someone wants to do, which is ok as well, and if this is the case, it’s a good idea to look into trying a pair of blue light blocking glasses. Blue light blockers help to reduce the amount of blue light your eyes are exposed to which can help if you are particularly sensitive to the effects blue light can have on your sleep quality.

When you give your mind permission to settle down, it will follow suit for you over time.

Sleep Hygiene

Sleep hygiene is a term that’s used to describe the environment in which you sleep, and involves making it as supportive of your sleep quality as possible.

When it comes to sleep hygiene, the three main factors we want to control are:

• Temperature

• Timing

• Light

Controlling the amount of light in your bedroom is important for the same reason that we want to reduce our blue light exposure when winding down to sleep. Ideally, we want our bedroom to be as dark as possible, which may mean looking into getting blackout blinds or using a sleep mask to block out the light. Any devices that emit light should also be unplugged in your bedroom, moved to a different room, or use electrical tape to cover up any tiny lights on the devices.

Our bodies signal to us that it’s time to sleep when body temperature drops by a few degrees and so much of us get our best sleep in slightly cooler rooms, typically in the mid-60s. When your bedroom isn’t exclusively your own bear cave and you’re sleeping with a partner, you may consider using a fan or a cooling pad on your bed to help with the temperature regulation. Using a fan can also create a helpful white noise if you live in a noisy neighbourhood that isn’t a constant sound.

Timing is another important factor with your sleep hygiene and schedule. Consistently going to bed at the same time will help with sleep quality and usually, the best way to initiate this is by waking up at the same time every morning regardless of if it’s a weekday or weekend.

When it comes to getting enough sleep and still waking up on a consistent schedule, most sleep experts recommend that you keep your wake up time the same even if you missed out on a full night of sleep and to try to catch up on the sleep you missed by going to bed early the following night.

Staying Asleep

Staying asleep can be a big problem for a lot of us. Maybe you fall asleep no problem because you’re super tired all the time but then your body jolts you awake in the night and you struggle to get back asleep. Some people will just get up and start their day, or pace the house, or go and watch tv or read a book.

It can take some experimentation to find what works best for you but sleep experts like Matthew Walker suggest that we don’t stay in bed, not even to try to meditate or read something. It’s best to get up and move to another room to do something calming, even boring, like that and once it feels like you’re ready to sleep again, go back to your bed. This keeps you conditioned to see the bed as the place to sleep and not just a cozy reading or meditation nook.

Healthy Wakeups

Being blasted out of bed by a blaring alarm may be one way to wake up but it sets your body off with stress first thing in the morning, which is not a great way to start the day. Our bodies naturally release more of the stress hormone cortisol as we start to wake up which helps with alertness but we still want to enter our days with relative calmness.

This is why it’s great to have a morning routine that lets you not rush out the door to start your day. Train yourself to wake to a soothing alarm or no alarm at all and do the things that set you up for a successful day in the morning, whether it involves meditating, exercise, journaling, writing, or another hobby that you enjoy. Unless the night time is when you perform your best, the peace and quiet of the morning are when we can do the things that we like that set us up for our best day possible.

Getting exposure to the sun in the morning is another tool to use for setting your circadian rhythm and priming yourself for wakeful alertness throughout the day. Get outside near sunrise whenever possible in order to take advantage of this naturally occurring mechanism.

So don’t miss out on the opportunity to audit your morning routine for a more healthful wake up because it will set you up for continuing a positive spiral with your sleep cycle and continuing to see better sleep.

Sign up for early access to our complete wellness course, which goes further in-depth into optimizing your wellness with sleep, nutrition, movement, and more.

The Secret Behind How Floating Dissolves Your Stress and Reduces Anxiety

There’s an incredible amount of pressure put on us from the choices we make each and every day. Not to mention that we are also in the midst of a global health crisis. It’s clear that the stress we face daily can cause a lot of health problems. Many of us recognize the commonly associated physical problems like heart disease and high blood pressure, but stress can also weave its way into presenting as mental health issues like PTSD, depression, and eating disorders.

Most of us can feel the need to recharge and provide ourselves with some of the self-care these days as the world seems to spiral out of control. We want to turn to any solution that may help but there’s always a bit of skepticism when it comes to alternative wellness practices and whether they are as helpful as they claim to be.

Floating is no exception to this.

So let’s dive into some of the science on floating to see just how beneficial it can be for reducing stress.

Float Therapy and Stress Reduction

Dr. Justin Feinstein is one of the most well-known scientists studying the effects of float therapy in his custom lab setup at the Laureate Institute of Brain Research. In a recent Tedx Talk, Dr. Feinstein shared some of his study results about the effects of floating on stress.

The effects were incredible.

Every single person who participated in the study experienced some amount of stress relief. Furthermore, most of the participants saw a significant reduction in their stress levels that lasted for more than 24 hours after just a single float session.

If there was a pill you could take that would allow you to be stress-free for the whole day, who wouldn’t want that?

Floating to reduce stress may be more time-involved than just taking a pill but the benefits of it seem to be even more significant than most anti-anxiety treatments.

And just as importantly, there’s no concern about interactions with other medications or other negative contraindications. It’s one of the safest and lowest risk wellness practices there is.

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Dr. Feinstein isn’t just studying the effects of floating on people with normal, everyday stress though. He’s looking at stress-related illnesses like PTSD, depression, and anxiety, and finding that the individuals with the highest levels of stress before floating experience the greatest benefit from the treatment. Everyone who floats returns to a baseline level of relief, which means floating will bring you down to a similar level of relaxation as those people who always seems to be as cool as a cucumber.

What’s The Secret Behind Floating?

So the next big question is how does it work? Do we really just lay in the dark and let our minds clear out our thoughts for an hour or so?

This does seem to be the key to it all.

It’s difficult to find the effects of the solitude of floating, where we can’t be bothered by the outside world, anywhere else. Our minds and bodies slow down dramatically, our brains enter a state similar to dreaming, and this all gives us the ability to recharge more quickly.

Before float tanks took over as the most effective and relaxing way to experience this solitude, a psychologist named Dr. Peter Suedfeld did a lot of sensory deprivation research in the 60s and 70s by placing people in completely dark rooms in isolation for 24 hours. The term he used for this was REST (Restricted Environment Stimulation Therapy).

Dr. Suedfeld created a paradigm shift in the scientific community on sensory deprivation. Before this time it was only thought of as torture, as a result of incomplete research and questionable methods performed by researchers that would prime the subjects for a bad experience before the experiment even began.

By keeping the subjects at ease and making the process simple for anyone, Dr. Suedfeld found that participants actually enjoyed the sensory deprivation experience.

Over the years, Dr. Suedfeld found that the benefits of REST carried over to many areas including addiction treatment, helping with autism, enhancing creativity, and reducing stress.

This research was the foundation for the future of float tanks and helped scientists, as well as the wider community, stay open-minded to the benefits of floating and reducing stress.

Since these early days, we’ve come even further in seeing the light that shines in the darkness of sensory reduced environments. You don’t need to spend a full day in the darkness to experience the benefits, a single float session can provide similar benefits.

In his Tedx Talk, Dr. Feinstein comments on how we as humans aren’t designed to be constantly plugged into looking at screens, listening to the cacophonous noise of the city, or sitting under the glare of fluorescent lights all day. We also aren’t supposed to constantly let our minds go wild thinking about our to-do list and everything else that we cram into the 24 hours of our day.

Even if we enjoy having a full and vibrant schedule, these things can wear us out and add to the stress of our daily lives. Taking a break is our chance at hitting the reset button, and as we’ve seen, floating has been proven to be one of the most effective ways to do that.

Why Wellness Matters Now More Than Ever

We all need wellness now more than ever.

Our mind and body and are tightly connected and we’ve watched as a see-saw of turmoil has tilted us back and forth this year.

It’s no wonder that our health and wellness is on the brink of disaster. Cold and flu season is still the same old story but we’re also seeing much higher rates of stress and anxiety. As we go into the darkest and coldest season, everyone is feeling the effects of being downtrodden.

This isn’t to say that it’s all doom and gloom.

This is a wake-up call.

Our wellness is essential for our own life satisfaction and for our ability to thrive as part of our family and our communities.

What are you doing to be well right now?

Practicing wellness isn’t about fads, it’s rooted in what our bodies and our minds inherently need for flourishing.

We’ve got to water our Life Garden.

Take some time to think about what practices you have done that led you to feel your best. Write a list of them and put it up somewhere that you will see it every day. Then try to do something on that list every day if possible, or as frequently as you can.

The more balance that we create each week for ourselves, the better we will feel over time.

The start of your journey to greater wellness doesn’t have to wait until some arbitrary start date or until the pandemic dies down.

We need it now more than ever, so start today.

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Since the start of the first wave of COVID, I’ve been working hard with my friend Telsi to create a comprehensive wellness course that will help you weather the current storm that is the pandemic but live with greater health and vitality.

If you want early access to the course and special bonuses, click here to go to the special landing page for it over on our online learning platform at The Flow Academy.