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Flotation Therapy For Health and Wellbeing
London's Premier New Floatation Centre 'FLOAT' Opens Oct 15, 2005 in Notting Hill
What is Floatation Therapy?
Simply put floatation therapy, or a float, involves lying in 25cm deep warm water with enough Epsom salts to support the body to float effortlessly in a weightless state. External distractions like light, sound and touch, are minimised to create a space where a deep sense of relaxation and peace can be achieved.
Research shows that when the brain is freed from all sensations - gravity, temperature, sight, sound, touch - it enters a theta brainwave state which can normally only be achieved through deep meditation. Essentially, floating is a short cut to the beneficial effects of years of meditative training.
The benefits of floating
Floating is amazingly beneficial for a myriad of problems including:
• Stress
• Muscle pain
• Back pain - endorsed by UK Back Pain Association
• Arthritis - endorsed by UK Arthritic Association
• Rheumatism
• Insomnia
• Migraines
• Jet lag
• Injury recovery
• Breaking addictions
• Alleviating discomfort in the later stages of pregnancy
As well as assisting healing, floating promotes general well-being and self-improvement:
• Epsom salts leave skin feeling super soft
• Promotes accelerated effective learning, e.g. languages
• Perfect environment to listen to self-confidence or weight loss suggestion CDs
• Inspires creativity
• Improves athletic performance - regularly used by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and Carl Lewis used a float tank during preparation for his gold medal long jump at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Floatation therapy achieves such wide ranging effects by inducing a state of deep relaxation which harnesses the natural recuperative powers of the body to:
• Improve cardiovascular efficiency to stimulate blood flow
• Reduce the heart rate and blood pressure
• Strengthen the immune system
• Reset the body's hormonal and metabolic balances
• Release the body's natural painkillers - beta-endorphins
Floatation therapy is such a simple idea that the range of benefits may seem too good to be true. Just remember the age old proverb "a good night's sleep can cure many ills” - a good float will do the same, and more.
What to expect?
A floatation session will last one hour and 20 minutes including time to shower and dress.
Usually it takes around 15 minutes to enter the first deep stage of relaxation, and the remaining 45 minutes pass quickly, effortlessly and pleasurably.
A brief history of floating
Floatation therapy was developed in the 1950s by Dr John C Lilly during his research into the physiology and psychology of the meditative state. He noted that sensory deprivation was a key element of the successful meditative state and so created the float tank as a short-cut to achieve this.
This new therapy was named REST, an acronym for Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy. Lilly soon discovered that his experimental subjects actually enjoyed the experience of floating, not surprising since they reached levels of relaxation normally only found in deep meditation.
NASA picked up on Lilly's findings and began to employ floatation to simulate weightlessness and isolation in its space research. At the same time a few people began to build their own tanks and this was the beginning of the growing floatation industry of today.
The Float Tank
FLOAT has four specially commissioned tanks, one for each dedicated float room, which are curvaceous and friendly featuring a full length 'dolphin' style door. The tank is designed so it can operate with the door open or closed and the internal light on or off, the controls for this are on the interior within reach of a person whilst floating.
Clean and safe
The outside of the FLOAT floatation therapy tanks are made of toughened fibreglass with a specially formulated inner skin, very smooth to the touch and ultra hygienic. An advanced filtration system filters the water between each float session.
Contra-indications
People suffering from clinical depression, epilepsy or schizophrenia are not advised to float.
FLOAT
2A Bridstow Place, Westbourne Grove, London, W2 5AE
Opens October 15, 2005
Booking line: 020 7727 7133 www.float.co.uk
PRESS CONTACT
Rowen Ward
Tel: 020 7384 9328 Mobile: 0785 581 4937 rowen@bornpr.com
