There is what seems to be this bizarre, yet genius form of stress relief expanding around LA called Float Therapy (also known as Float Tanks or Isolation Tanks). The idea is fairly simple: you get undressed, shower off and lie down in a shallow pool of heavily salted water. This allows you to float without doing much else but lying there spread out in Christ pose. This is typically done inside a pod or tank which is meant to be dark – you do have control over opening the tank or pod whenever you’d like – and many of them have colorful lights and music.
The main goal here is to relieve stress and anxiety through sensory deprivation – in other words floating in complete silence, in the dark with only your own thoughts – deprived of any stimuli to take your focus away from your own mind.
The even bigger idea here is to reach what is called the theta state, which often happens in the final 20 minutes of the float. Theta state also happens just as we fall asleep, when our brain waves go from alpha (or beta) into theta, the most relaxed our body becomes just before drifting into dream land. This can last for several minutes without you actually falling asleep, giving you a weightless feeling, as though you are floating in space.
So now that you know the science behind float therapy you’re probably dying to know where you can do this and how quickly can you get there.
Here is a short list of places I recommend around LA:
- Pause Float Studio – Santa Monica. 310.439.1972. pausefloatstudio.com
- Float Lab – 2 locations, Venice & Brentwood. 310.396.3336. floatlab.com
- Just Float – Pasadena. 818.639.3572
- Float Clinic – Torrance. 310.702.6870
So if you’re feeling stressed or want to know what its like to completely deprive your senses of any stimulation for a good 30 mins to an hour, book a session and let me know how it turned out.