You live on the east coast. You commute to work. You respond to texts and emails and calls all day long. You juggle the competing demands of work and family life. Chances are you feel stressed. It seems inevitable. But does stress have to be a feature of your everyday landscape?
The answer is no. Stress is never about the specific circumstances, no matter how challenging they may seem. It’s always the result of how you respond to those circumstances. And the good news is that your responses to external circumstances and people are something that you can change. Floating is a great first step to alleviating stress and rewiring those responses because it relaxes both your body AND your mind.
Here are four significant and documented benefits from reducing stress.
- You sleep better. There is a growing body of research showing that regular, good-quality sleep keeps your body and mind healthier and helps you learn. https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/sleep-deprivation-and-deficiency Research shows that regular floating not only reduces stress, but also improves the quality of sleep. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4219027/
- You protect your immune system. Stress weakens your immune system. The immune system helps prevent everything from colds to disease. https://www.apa.org/research/action/immune
- You benefit your relationships. There is a lot of research showing how stress may be damaging to your relationships. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/could_stress_be_causing_your_relationship_problems Stress puts your mind and body into an ongoing “fight-flight-freeze” set of responses that were built into our bodies to protect our species in life-threatening situations. When you are continually primed to respond to everything as a threat, you may experience conflicts and frustrations and feelings of isolation in everyday interactions with your partner, family members, and coworkers. Floating allows you to examine how you are currently responding to people, in a relaxed state, without being caught in a continuous fight/flight feedback loop with them.
- You have more circuitry for mental tasks. When your mind is racing with a hundred worries and fears, you have little circuitry left to concentrate on what’s really important to you, or to remember new things. Brain researchers call this effect of stress on the brain “cortical inhibition.” The Heartmath Institute in Colorado says: “The phenomenon of cortical inhibition helps to explain why smart people do dumb things. Simply said, stress inhibits a small part of your brain and you can’t function at your best. “ https://www.heartmath.com/blog/health-and-wellness/stress-facts/ Many clients at Quantum Floats report that one of the benefits of regular floating is that this inner chatter quiets down and they are better able to focus.
If you are chronically stressed, we recommend that you float as often as you can, even if that is only monthly. Many people are finding an unlimited float membership especially beneficial and cost effective during times of great stress. Do you have questions about how floating can help stress? Call us.
