The benefits of floating
| Stress Reduction | Insomnia & Jetlag |
| Pain Relief | Creativity & Accelerated Learning |
| Sports Recovery | Muscular & Rheumatic Conditions |
| Pregnancy & Fertility | Addiction Therapy |
Floating helps to stimulate the body’s own powers of healing and regeneration and maintains homeostasis within the body, strengthening the body’s resistance to the effects of stress, illness and injury. Specific research shows the physiological effects from floating to be utterly profound, the effects of floating are cumulative – every time you float you strengthen your body’s resistance.
Medical conditions which have been shown to benefit from floatation therapy include:
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Additionally, Epsom salts are known to have therapeutic properties helpful in eliminating body toxins, soothing and healing skin conditions, balancing PH levels and has been reported to help with Arthritis.
Stress and Lowering Blood Pressure & Heart Rate
Stress can be caused by many lifestyle factors, we are also continually bombarded with external stimuli - traffic, telephones, people, television to name but a few and while a certain amount of stimulus is important, in excess it can result in stress. Floating removes these stimuli and thus allows one to experience total physical and mental relaxation. It triggers the opposite of the sympathetic nervous systems ‘fight or flight’ response, known as the "automatic relaxation response". This reflexive response includes reductions in heart rate, blood pressure, pulse rate, alterations in brain wave activity, muscular relaxation, decreased oxygen consumption, decreases in stress-related bio chemicals (including cortisol, ACTH, lactic acid and adrenaline) and increased endorphin levels (the body's natural pain killers). The lowering of these stress-related chemicals and the homeostatic set point has been shown to continue for many days after floating and has been termed the "maintenance effect".
Excess stress chemicals hamper the effectiveness of the autoimmune system, highly stressed people are more likely to succumb to infections and viruses than those who have well functioning immune systems due to the absence of stress. High blood pressure, also known as hypertension can manifest itself in the forms of strokes, heart attacks and atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) floating can help produce an immediate reduction in blood pressure and heart rate, regular floating can maintain this. Some digestive tract conditions are associated with high levels of stress such Irritable Bowel Syndrome and can be benefited by Floatation therapy.
Pain Relief
Floating really is a pain reduction technique, thanks to our natural response to relaxation, our bodies have natural pain killers which are just as effective called endorphins, a class of hormones. Hormones are very powerful chemical messengers which control all aspects of our bodies, we do not have conscious control of them but they work for us all the time. Floating automatically causes profound relaxation, in turn profound relaxation causes the brain to release endorphins which control pain.
Floating allows every muscle in the body to relax completely and allow deep healing, it is the only time where your body is totally weightless, compared to bed rest which always involves contact pressure requiring you to move and adjust your posture, therefore tossing and turning which is not good for pain relief. Floating has shown to be beneficial for injuries, backache, neck problems, arthritis, rheumatism and muscular problems.
Sports Recovery, Performance & Visualisation
Floating maximizes the benefits of fitness training, exercise, and workouts, although exercise stimulates muscle growth, the growth occurs during relaxation, some 30-40 hours after exercise, the deep relaxation of floating improves blood circulation, and accelerates the growth and regeneration of muscle tissue. Research shows that floatation therapy can help reduce lactic acid in the muscles caused by over training and offers deep muscular relaxation. Rate of recovery after physical exercise is improved beyond recognition, what normally takes a long period of time, usually days for recovery from a marathon floatation therapy compresses into a number of hours. By relieving the stresses of gravity floating takes the weight off strained bones, joints and muscles and increases the efficiency of the blood circulating through the body, recovery time after injury can also be much improved.
One of the main proving-grounds for floatation has been world-class sports and athletics where success depends on the athlete's ability to achieve "peak" performance under conditions of extreme pressure. Floatation is used in sports medicine to accelerate an athletes' recovery from sports injuries and visualisation to increase mental clarity, be more focused and be better prepared for an upcoming event. Many modern researchers see floatation as the optimal environment for enhancing an individual's powers of visualization and self-management. By combining deep physical relaxation with a highly receptive visually vivid theta brain-state floatation facilitates an individual's ability to generate and manipulate visual imagery, and use imagery to maximum effect.
It is now generally accepted that the most potent psychological technique for building up sports professionals motor skills and confidence simultaneously is visualisation - mental rehearsal of perfect sports moves.
Pregnancy & Fertility
Floatation therapy allows you to escape the added weight of pregnancy by floating in a weightless but supported environment. Taking the strain off the body and spine it soothes backache, relieves muscle and joint pain and helps promotes excellent sleep. Just lying on a bed can be extremely uncomfortable for women in the later stages of pregnancy due to massive gravitational strain placed on the body. Extensive research shows that floating is excellent for stress, anxiety and fatigue and can help lower blood pressure, all familiar problems during pregnancy. Often referred to is the ‘mirror effect’ of the baby floating in the womb of the Mother and the Mother floating in the womb of the float, the float room is a wonderful haven to which pregnant women can escape, a lovely time to bond with your baby and bring about a sense of wellbeing.
Pregnancy and Birth magazine gave Floatation 10 out of 10 as a useful pregnancy therapy
It is said that one couple in seven has problems when they try for a baby, there are many reasons but one of them can be stress. Floatation Therapy is the most powerful stress relief technique known, floating has been shown many times in controlled studies compared to bed rest to be the most relaxing experience on earth. It is recommended for women to try to have a float every two to three days through the fertile period. The degree of relaxation achieved is wonderful and will of course benefit you in many ways if stress is the principle cause of your failure to conceive.
Insomnia and Jet Lag
It is well known that relaxing sleep is essential to good health and often the best way to recover from stress and illness. We have amazing powers of recuperation and often just need the chance to relax to let these powers work, floating enables this but at a much deeper level. Found to be very effective for insomnia, just one session can be so effective as to break a long pattern of bad sleep, one hour of floating is equivalent to 4 hours restorative sleep so an excellent remedy for jet lag too. Many people fall asleep during a float session, this is perfectly safe, the dense salt water will prevent you from turning over. As the floating effect is physiological, your body will respond even if your brain and mind are anxious. Relaxation is automatic, it is an evolved response to floating, common to all of us, it will work if even if your brain remains active during the float session.
Creativity & Accelerated Learning
Many modern researchers see floatation as the optimal environment for enhancing an individual's powers of visualization and self-management. During a float you produce slower brain-waves patterns, know as theta waves, (normally experienced only during deep meditation or just before falling asleep). This is usually accompanied by vivid imagery, very clear, creative thoughts, sudden insights and inspirations or feelings of profound peace and joy. Beneficial for people who need to get through a creativity block, improve performance in the workplace or before an interview or presentation. Floating heightens visualisation and deepens meditation which expands awareness and intensifies your senses. As your mind is free from all external distractions it can absorb new information at a deeper level, the float room ‘in house audio’ can be used to guide the floater to peak performance in anything from learning a new language to overcoming addictions and phobias, used in Schools and Universities across the world as tools for Super Learning’.
Muscular-skeletal and Rheumatic Conditions
Chronic and acute pain of neck, shoulders, and lower back generally experience substantial improvement through the release of accumulated muscle tension and increase of blood circulation to the affected areas. It helps conditions such as fibromyalgia and tendonitis, etc
Floating really is a natural pain reduction technique, thanks to our natural response to relaxation, it releases our bodies natural pain killers called endorphins. Endorphins are natural painkillers that block the transmission of pain at the synaptic level. These decrease markedly the perception of pain and improve the frame of mind helping to break the vicious circle of chronic pain/depression that we often see in these cases.
Addictions & Self Help
Floatation therapy is a powerful tool for overcoming addictions, in a series of controlled studies of the effects of Restricted Environmental Stimulation (REST) in the cessation of smoking it was found that sensory deprivation was very powerful. During a float you produce slower brain - wave patterns known as theta waves, this is usually accompanied by vivid imagery, clear creative thoughts, insights and feelings of profound peace and joy, induced by the release of happy feel good endorphins, because of these effects floatation has been used effectively in the treatment of depression and addictions including smoking and alcohol.
In the period immediately after quitting a habit, floatation alleviates the pains of withdrawal and enables the user to feel some pleasure. Floating also reduces the level of such anxiety-related biochemicals which is released in great quantities during withdrawal.
Even after some time of quitting the habit certain circumstances can allow the return to the addiction, ie stress, depression, anxiety etc, by taking a float and stimulating pleasure pathways this will help and avert the return to the habit. Controlled studies into the effects of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) and cessation of smoking, weight loss and alcohol reduction shown powerful results, clinical studies shown combined sensory deprivation with messages played to the individual during the session to be very impressive.
For taped messages and self-suggestions to have the desired effect, deep relaxation is essential, many people find it hard to experience deep relaxation but the Floatation room allows you to go rapidly and easily to a deeply relaxed state, the information taken in will go in at a much deeper level and continue to work long after the float has ended.
Cherry Floatation offers special courses for individuals who want to stop smoking, free themselves from stress and anger, lose weight and gain control, the floatroom is a powerful form of deep relaxation and visualisation aid, through deep relaxation information will enter and be stored at a much deeper level and much quicker pace, this will continue long after the float finishes - excellent results combined with the many other benefits of floating such as muscular relief and the lowering of blood pressure and heart rate.
Course of 4 one hour programmed floats £100 (it is recommended to try to have the floats as near to each other as possible for maximum benefits).
To start your floatation experience fill in the enquiry form below or call us on 01244 535237