[Warning, this is not a normal post about exercise or food. It gets a little weird and silly in places, so if you don’t feel like reading it, no hard feelings, there will be more talk about exercise and food coming later in the week.]
Whenever possible, I try to take at least a small part of each Wednesday (at least an hour, hopefully much more) for redirection, goal setting, strategy, assessment, and if at all possible some form of relaxation/reflection. Sometimes, if things are not too hectic (and that’s cause enough for reflection…) I’ll even take the whole day.
I took a half day two Wednesdays ago (or equivalent to 4hrs, I technically work much more than 8hrs a day, but who’s counting), and used a big chunk of that to check out floatation. Yes, as in “sensory deprivation tank” time. For those of you who have active imaginations and watch crazy tv, or are Joe Rogan fans, it’s not like that, and well I just went in there “as is” aka, me and my naturally interesting brain. Other friends were quick to remind me of that wildly entertaining 70s movie Altered States… to which I immediately and “maturely” responded with a little monkey gesture and sound. Joking aside, for a very long time I’ve been at least casually interested in optimal mental performance, and how eating the best possible natural foods, getting enough exercise, and rest/recovery can support that end. I’d also been curious about the tanks for a while after talking with a kid at the olive oil store who has reasonably similar sensory experiences in this world and who can correctly suggest an olive oil if I give him a general direction of “do you have one that’s more ‘blue tasting’ and less sharp?” Apparently he had had some great experiences (it is so very wonderfully quiet) when helping on a project at UCF.
Considering all the excessive landscaping that happens around here at 7AM on the dot, the idea of extreme quiet and no light sounded just fantastic to me. Anything beyond that would just be extra credit.
Besides, sometimes it’s good to take a little reflective time off as to “not lose your business edge” as demonstrated by this oh-so-informative favorite comedy sketch from the Kids in the Hall:
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWL! Right.
I’d gotten impatient waiting for the new shiny floatation spa to open over in Baldwin Park and had noticed that this odd little place out in Casselberry, Total Zen Float had some good reviews, a back-to-basics attitude, mentioned Onnit products (demonstrating a level of good taste), and had a Groupon. Taking these signs to mean “no-brainer, buy now” I got the Groupon then made an appointment, being sure to upgrade to the recommended 90 minute float for the first go around. The 90 minute first float is recommended because it seems to take everyone a little bit to figure out how to best position themselves and to acclimate to this unusual situation.
I took an Uber* ride out there and back. After arriving at Total Zen Float‘s non-descript retail/warehouse-looking location in Casselberry, the friendly guy I’d spoken to on the phone had a typical informed consent form for me and I had of course plenty of questions. Having done a fair amount of reading etc. I knew better than to have any particular expectations other than a nice block of serious quiet time.
It’s been interesting to hear how some people react with fear to the idea of floating in total darkness in big tank of water with 800lbs of epsom salt dissolved in it. Having mentioned what I was planning to do, at least 1/2 to 1/3 of friends and casual acquantances responded with some form of “omg. I’d be afraid to do that!” Then again maybe they watched Altered States or Fringe too much? Living this life so far has already required me to ask myself more than a few hard questions so I have very little fear left of anything between these ears. It’s a weird thing to say, but I know there’s really no surprises in there at this point, and if there are, then there are and that’s fine.
This thought is similar to a discussion some of us have had about the Andrei Tarkovsky movie, Stalker** (a movie you’ve heard about if you’ve had to endure any version of my “You have the keys to the kingdom, why don’t you unlock the door and stop wallowing around in the moat?!” rant). In the movie, the characters go through many (at least perceived as) dangerous situations and walk quite a ways into a forbidden zone. They do this to reach an exact spot inside a dilapidated building, where if they cross the threshold of a certain room, their most inner wish will be granted. (Tarkovsky holds one shot so long at this point that a short rain shower comes and goes adding to the tension and emotion of the moment. I think it’s fascinating, others have found it to be akin to watching paint dry. To each their own.) Even though the various characters have different beliefs, fears, and ideas, none of them end up passing into that area after all the trouble, time, and risk getting there. I was reminded of this specific brand of fear of the unknown, and of the unknown inside each of us as I listened to the interesting reactions from a few people who had heard of what I’d be doing on that Wednesday. Granted there were also plenty others who were seriously curious and wanted to immediately try it too.
I’d arrived early and needed to wait while the tank ran through it’s filtration cycle before my turn. While I was waiting, the door opened and a tall young man walked in and sat down with the level of comfort and familiarity of someone who is very much at home. Turns out he would be logging his 109th HOUR of floation today, and had been making good progress with his meditative practice which before floatation had been somewhat stagnant. (Speaking of stagnant, while the place did not all together smell bad, having large tanks with a heavy saturation of epsom salts dissolved in them apparently has this sort of stale water smell that made me think of a 1980s YMCA on some bizarre level. This location certainly is all about the floatation, and while clean and serviceable, should not be confused with any sort of “high end spa” setting.)
This college-age young man was obviously very into floating and was not about to give away any “spoilers” which I appreciated. Given his 6’4″+ height, they had already thought to book him for the other tank which is apparently a little longer. He was not about to divulge too much about the experience other than he originally decided to try it after one of his friends (a yoga teacher) had suggested that he give it a try. Soon, we all started talking about meditation, qigong, chi machines***, and all that related good stuff. I had a fairly decent idea of what to expect given that I’d experienced a sort of “otherplaceness” many times with meditation, relaxation, being absorbed in the doing of an activity, flow state, theta brainwave activity etc. I was looking forward to being somewhere quiet too.
After putting the phone on silent, it was time for orientation. The tank above is the one I would use. It is in a little room outfitted with low lights, a shower, non-slip floors, and a heater in there somewhere since the air was quite warm. After having the tank introduced as “Your spaceship! Haha!” I was instructed to take a good rinse off in the shower before getting into the tank (can’t have any excess oils, lotions, etc. on you in there), and another shower after the float to get all that salt off (they even had a shampoo and soap dispenser too). If I had had any small cuts etc I would have needed to put a small amount of vaseline on them to avoid extreme ouch which is definitely not conducive to relaxation or meditative states! As a fan of topical magnesium oil, I sure knew why! OUCH OUCH! He also instructed me to be very careful to not get any of the tank’s water into my eyes for the same reason, even though a towel was carefully folded on top of the tank in case that happened. (If this does happen, you can get out at any time and rinse out your ouchy eyes in the shower). I opted to use ear plugs to keep the water out of my ears, and also to ensure silence (I have bat ears and can hear the difference in the UPS and FedEx delivery trucks when they arrive if I am home).
The small heater on a thermostat in the room maintained a consistent temperature of the air versus the water, and comfortably low lighting to eased the transition to and from total darkness inside the tank. So, with the room’s door shut, I took a short shower and gingerly got into the tank. Before doing so, I checked the weight of the tank’s door and familiarized myself with the location of the large handle on the inside. Carefully, I put my head at the other end of the tank as instructed, since there was a little better ventilation down there.
The first thing I noticed was how ODD it was to feel this bouyant. The closest thing I could compare it to would be floating on a half-deflated float in a pool. It was very obvious that there was no way to drown, that’s for sure, but I did also need to make some adjustments mainly because it seemed like my head was a little heavier than the rest of me, and also contained my eyes which I very much needed to NOT get any of that water into! Fortunately I’d spent quite a few late nights clicking through information about floating–some of it very informative which had mentioned a few different options for “where do I put my arms?!” At first, I placed my hands behind my head, elbows out which brought my head up a crucial inch or two, from there I figured out all the other places I was holding tension (there were many) mainly from the oddness of the floating sensation, and just a general reaction to “so…I’m naked and floating in salt water in a totally dark tank in an office/warehouse.” Which of course sounds weirder than it really is. Slowly, I was able to start experimenting with moving my hands/arms out to where I wouldn’t be so conscious of them “existing.” By this time I had gotten most parts and connecting parts to relax and just float and drift.
[Spoiler Alert for Floatation Experience From This Point Onward. I don’t want you to read what my experience was like and expect the same thing from your floatation experience. Everyone’s different and it really is best to have no expectations. Only after a whole lot of thinking about it (and considering who I may receive “concerned phone calls” from) I have decided to share what I think is a not too “far out” experience. Though when I explain it, it sounds pretty weird. At the time it didn’t seem at all strange, which may in itself be strange? Whatever! Oddly enough I had already experienced most of these things described below in some form from meditation, or the moments just before falling asleep, or when in a flow state.]That’s when things started to get interesting. Just there were these little flashes of dim light in the extreme most upper right and left of what would have been my vision if it wasn’t absolutely pitch black. At first I thought “ohhh man REALLY? This isn’t even really light proof?!” At that thought I was again plunged into total darkness. Relaxing everything yet again, they came back and upon observing their variances, I soon realized they were from me.
Then they got a little geometric, and I decided to just keep along for the ride, good silence, and what appeared to be the world’s most boring planetarium. Small “single stuck pixel points” blinked in here and there, just one at a time, and not like the “dizzy” stars people see, or that dreaded migraine aura I saw years ago. Then, at first it was very difficult to see, but a very dark dark purple blotch began to form in the center of my vision, and had a “galaxy from a distance” look, but very far off, and very dark purple. Were this a planetarium, by now you would have asked for your $ back. Somewhere in my subconciousness a joke began to form, because for whatever reason the “galaxy” decided to re-arrange into a distant and not-scary-at-all monkey head. HAHAHAHAHAHAH Altered States joke! Thanks brain… geez.
Relaxed everything again, and started to drift off a little more quickly this time. Dark purple galaxy appeared again, and I kept staring/not staring at it. It’s very interesting to be in a place so dark that it doesn’t seem to matter much if your eyelids are open or shut! This time a very slight spinning or turning feeling began, very convincing too. While a good friend had warned me that she had kept bumping into the sides of the tank during a float, I hadn’t had that happen much if at all once I got situated. While I knew there was absolutely NOT enough room for me to spin around with legs and arms straight, that was precisely the sensation I began to feel. The pivot point was somewhere near my navel from what I could tell. “Hrrmm, the dantian!” said my brain in a “Yoda voice.”
That’s right, remove essentially most sensory input and what does my brain do? It cracks weird jokes. Some of you will not be surprised at that. Once again, I relax everything and the spinning sensation comes back, starting very slowly and beginning to pick up speed, nothing unpleasant. Had no concept of time, so I’m not sure how long the spinning lasted, but at some point it began to slow and go in reverse for a little bit, when my brain decided to crack another joke by reminding me of the chorus of the 1975 classic rock hit “Slow Ride” by Foghat. (I had to look it up later, I’m not exactly a fan, so not sure how this came to mind fully orchestrated, and mentally remastered for 2014).
Relaxed again and drifted off into what was nearly a sleeping feeling, but not quite. And I feel like that may have (who knows) lasted for a good while. Again little to no concept of time. Then I started to think about the 1980s YMCA… and swimming pools. And along came a very old (and I am sure extremely frustrating to my folks) issue I had as a kid. I was inexplicably terrified of swimming pool drains. And in that moment there was nearly a little voice that whispered “heh heh you know this thing’s got to have some kind of freaky drain in it…” And for about 0.0005 of a second I had the panicked thought “omg. it’s 100 dark in here. I bet it’s right by my head!” But that feeling was surprisingly almost instantly shrugged off in a way that is difficult to describe other than I think it was my brain going for yet another laugh, this time even MORE at my own expense.
I wondered how much time I had spent in this thing so far… then relaxed everything again, and stared into the blackness which soon brought that slight flickering light at the upper corners. At some point some generic “relaxing spa music” faded in to let me know that my session in the tank would be ending in about 2 minutes and that I should probably figure out that my legs are there, stretch a little then get out and wash all this epsom salt off! I had managed to keep it out of and away from my eyes! Hurrah!
Upon leaving the tank, I was very grateful for the low lighting of the little room, took a shower, reclothed then stepped out into the lobby again. Wow it was bright, glad I had my sunglasses. Decided to chill for a bit, and was going to talk to the owner, but someone soon came in for his first float and much like my experience coming in, I didn’t want to color his expectations for his first float. In a way it was kind of like having passed some sort of amusing college initiation that is very mild experience but which you never tell the details of to the person about to do it. Not sure if that makes sense.
Lessons learned:
1. This is the ultimate quiet-time experience. For that alone I think it’s worth doing.
2. My brain snarks itself.
3. Brain may unknowingly contain hits of the 70s for no particular reason.
4. Everything typed above was actually a lot less weird than it sounds.
5. I hadn’t really confronted that weird childhood fear fully until now?
6. Aftereffects included being what could be miscontrued as “annoyingly insightful” so I was careful who I’d be dealing with on that day.
7. I’ve gotten “this far out” before during meditative times or extreme relaxation, so while it is absolutely a distraction free environment, it may not necessarily be necessary or recommended for everyone.
*New to Uber “Everyone’s Private Driver”? Get your first ride free when you use my code: ubergirya. Since we finally have this wonderful service available in our area. I’ve used this convenient way-better-than-taxi service in other metro areas for quite a while now. The link above is the signup that will give you a free first ride (up to $30 value). Around here I use the Uber app to go places with annoying parking situations (meetings downtown), to and from the airport, or for adventures on a “strategy day”. Despite what the sensationalist media likes to vomit out for clickbait, it’s fun, easy and safe. But enough about that.
**Stalker is one of my favorite movies, but much like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it can only be enjoyed by people with what these days is regarded as an extremely long attention span. It is also not a “date movie” by any stretch of the imagination.
***Long story but they are really nice for relaxation, even if I don’t talk about them much because they are weird and you might laugh at me. It’s helped to further teach me to relax in a basic level and definitely is nice after some serious exercise.
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