“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.” — Anne Lamott
This is for the high-performers., the movers and shakers, the ones making an impact in the lives of others, their communities and the world.
In other words — the ManTalks Tribe.
Don’t get me wrong, everyone needs to float. However, this post is specifically written for high-achievers like you and I that have a hard time switching off our overactive imaginations.
My name is Andy Zaremba. I’m a classic Type-A personality. I’m always striving to build and create. From running multiple businesses like The Float House, to podcasting, to speaking, to being a lover, father and spiritual seeker.
I always have multiple projects, and it’s a good thing. The average person lives somewhere in the middle of the bell curve, which is why most people are average.
Personally, the thought of living a mediocre life makes me cringe. The way I see it, we have one shot at this life. One shot to make a difference, one shot share our gifts with others and one shot to give back to this amazing world we live in.
In the quest to make the world a better place, even the most self-aware and self-loving person can get caught up in the “doing” of life.
That’s why I believe it’s so important to have some sort of check-in (or maybe a check-out). Some way of unplugging from the hustle.
Some like to get into nature. Others like to exercise. However, there’s no other form of disconnection from the rigors of life that rivals floating (also called sensory deprivation).
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of floating.
Vancouver, my home town, has quickly become the float capital of the world. My brother, Mike, and I are proud to have played a vital role in this growth.
We opened The Float House in 2013, making it Vancouver’s first Float Centre in over 20 years. Of course, many copycats have sprung up. Just like yoga, cold-pressed juice and taco shops, The Float House too has been copied. However, there are now five Float House locations in BC with more on the way.
…for the rock-dwellers of our community:
The water is heated to 93.5 F (the temperature of the surface of your skin), which makes the water skin receptor neutral and reduces tactile sensation. Because of the density created by the epsom salts solution, the effects of gravity on your body are minimized and you literally float as if you were in the Dead Sea.
The idea is to minimize the amount of sensory input being detected by our bodies.
Without sight, sound, tactile sensations and gravity, the float tank gives our bodies a much-needed and unique break from the constant stimulation we experience..
How Floating Minimizes the Effects of Stress
Bare with my while I get a little bit scientific…
We have two sides to our nervous system — the voluntary and the autonomic.
The voluntary system controls movements, like when your crushing a workout, playing basketball, or rolling on the jiu-jitsu mat.
The autonomic system controls all the things you don’t want to think about like heart rate, breathing, organ functions, and sensory processing.
The autonomic nervous system has two sides within it — the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems.
The sympathetic is responsible for the stress response, also known as, “Fight or Flight.”
[Editor’s Note: Click here to read all the nitty-gritty details about the Fight or Flight response on Wikipedia]
The parasympathetic system controls the relaxation response.
It should be noted that the stress response is a normal biological process. In the short term it is not only important, but it could save your life by giving you the needed burst of energy to survive a life threatening situation.
The problems start occurring once the stress becomes chronic, something our society seems designed for.
Effects of Chronic Stress:
Chronic stress is defined as a, “state of prolonged tension from internal or external stressors, which may cause various physical manifestations – e.g., asthma, back pain, arrhythmias, fatigue, headaches, HTN, irritable bowel syndrome, ulcers, and suppress the immune system.”
In other words, it sucks.
Chronic stress takes a more significant toll on the body than acute stress does. It can raise blood pressure, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, increase vulnerability to anxiety and depression, contribute to infertility, and hasten the aging process.
Results of one study demonstrated that individuals who reported relationship conflict lasting one month or longer to have a greater risk of developing illness and show slower wound healing.
Similarly, the effects that acute stressors have on the immune system may be increased when there is perceived stress and/or anxiety due to other events. For example, students who are taking exams show weaker immune responses if they also report stress due to daily hassles.
The Question Is: How Does Floating Help Reduce Chronic Stress?
Floating reliably generates the relaxation response in the body
The relaxation response is the counterpart to the fight or flight response, and it occurs when the body is no longer in perceived danger. When this happens, autonomic nervous system functioning returns to normal.
During the relaxation response, the body moves out of a state of physiological arousal — increased heart rate and blood pressure, slowed digestive functioning, decreased blood flow to the extremities, increased release of hormones like adrenalin and cortisol.
These are all the hallmark of fight or flight.
You then move to a state of physiological relaxation, where blood pressure, heart rate, digestive functioning and hormonal levels return to their normal state. Doesn’t that sound healthy?
Triggering the relaxation response helps any Type-A personality deal with the greatest performance killer on the planet: burn out.
Burning out will not only stop your productivity in its tracks, but it can literally kill you.
If you’re aiming to perform at a high level consistently you must manage your stress.
In many urban environments there is little seclusion from the hustle and bustle of the everyday life. The Float Tank is simply the best tool to combat burn out, so we go back out into the world to move mountains.
At the Float House, we have a great relationship with Connor and ManTalks. Before writing this I had a conversation with Connor about how we could serve the ManTalks community.
We agreed to offer a 20% discount on a single float to anyone reading this.
To claim your discount go to our website, book a float, and use the promo code, “recovery” to receive a 20% discount on of a single float.
The offer will only be available for the next two weeks, so please do it now if you’re interested.
Now go out and build your empire…peacefully.
Listen to Andy discuss floating, psychedelics, and the experience of having a daughter born prematurely on the ManTalks Podcast.
Andy Zaremba is co-founder (along with his brother Mike) of The Float House, one of the world’s leading floating and sensory deprivation companies. The Float House has 5 locations in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, including their cornerstone location in Gastown, Vancouver.
Andy is also co-host of the hugely popular Vancouver Real Podcast, the Canadian West Coast affiliate of the world renowned London Real with Brian Rose.
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