Hi, I’m Emily Rowe and I help people when they’re sad to feel better, and begin to feel alive again.
Now, this is the final wrap up on the float tanks. I’m about four months down the path since I did those first two videos on the before the tank, and the day after the tank, and I’ve been using the tank regularly.
Actually, in the last month I’ve used it once a week, and I can’t believe the difference it has had in my temperament, my moods, and my capacity to get things done.
I have a lot more clarity about what I’m doing, and things have become much more concise, and instructions easier to follow over what I’m doing next.
It’s not an easy thing when you’re biology has hijacked you, when you suffered some serious traumas, or you’re dealing with trapped grief and sorrow in your body.
It can be hard to get back to some homeostatic level where you feel happy, where you just feel okay and you feel like you can face the future and go forward.
I have to say that the things that I talked about in the pre float tank, the meditation helps, and the training definitely helps.
The float tank is definitely the cherry on the cake. Just once a week going and falling back into 1000 pounds and magnesium and disappearing into the ether.
Like nothing to see, nothing to hear, feeling like I’m floating in outer space and just surrendering to the nothing has a lot of very, very beneficial effects.
Physically I feel great.
My body feels really loose and comfortable.
My shoulders were a little tired after training on Monday, but I’ve come out of the float tank today and I feel great.
Emotionally, I feel very calm and circumspect.
That feeling of isolation is a great reminder of your uniqueness and singular journey that you’re on.
And I also feel like things are possible.
You know, I have a more of a psychological resilience, I feel less overwhelmed.
I think that this relationship that goes on between our physiology and our emotional and psychological state is something that you can go and explore and have a look at.
There’s a lot of information around about the HPA axis, and our ability to reregulate ourselves after we deal with a kind of … a trauma or any kind of distress.
If you have repeated traumas in your life, your HPA axis will shift, and you will become less and less resilient in your response to stress and struggle.
Sensory deprivation tanks are an amazing tool.
They are really, really helpful at lowering your trauma response, and helping your body calm down.
And when your body starts to calm down, then your thoughts will race less, and your feelings won’t feel so conflicted in you.
You will just settle into a sense of comfort that everything is okay, and it’s going to be okay.
It’s a feeling that I haven’t had for an extremely long time, and I’m very, very grateful that I found a way to get there.
I’ve done a lot of therapy, and I think that therapy is really helpful. I think it’s great to develop some good insights and do some healing along somebody, a good practitioner that knows what they’re doing.
And I also think that exercise is amazing and meditation, if you have the kind of mind that can sit patiently in nowhere, is a great tool as well.
But for some people it doesn’t work. It can actually heighten their distress levels.
The float tank I think is just an amazing, amazing option to take if you struggle to find other things that will help you to relax, that will help your body to relax.
So, that’s it from me. Four months down the chart from that initial stream of consciousness rant that I gave you before I went into the tank, and after the tank.
This is me four months later. I’m going to continue with this practice and try and do it as often as I can.
People probably perceive it as being a little bit of a luxury, and an indulgent thing
to do, but I think that if you do suffer from trauma, you’ve got to find whatever tools are going to work for you, and you’ve got to use them to make your life better.
Because this is all we have. It’s just the moments, and they keep slipping through our fingers every day we spend our time, whether we want to or not.
So, better to use the time productively in a way that you’ll be able to face the future and feel relaxed, and a little more hopeful.
Rather than having that money in the bank and staying stressed, traumatized and miserable.
So, that’s it from me. Bye and bye, don’t go and see Altered States with William Hurt.
That is a movie about the guy who originally started float tanks and it’s very freaky.
He kind of turns into a neanderthal. There are a lot of drugs involved as well.
But I did watch it, and I found it quite hilarious, and a billion miles removed from my experience of a float tank.
So, get a little brave, go in there, cut your sensors off and see what happens.
You’ll be surprised at how delicious it feels, and how lovely and calm you will be on the other side.
And not just for a day, maybe a whole week, maybe even longer.
The effects are astonishing and they just keep rolling forward.
So, give it a go.
Thanks for your time and your attention, and I look forward to speaking with you soon.
Bye. (silence)
