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Floating - The Ultimate Wingman for New Year's Resolutions

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As you consider what changes you want to make in your life for the new year, it’s worth also spending some time thinking about how you are going to make sure that you actually follow through with them. There are people who joke that their main New Year’s resolution is to not break their New Year’s resolutions – and there is actually a good amount of wisdom in that quip. Especially for those of us who don’t have the best track record of following through with our well-intentioned goals, it’s important to engage in activities and behaviors that can help us on our journey. There are many tools and tricks out there to help you keep your New Year’s resolutions, from goal journals, to accountability apps, to prescribed morning routines. These  are all designed to help you overcome one of the frustrating realities of being human: we are creatures of habit. For the most part, this is a good thing – we have countless routines that allow us to live our lives and get through our days consiste
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Making the Most of the Holidays

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It's the holiday season. You've booked your time off from work, planned where you're going (or who's coming to you) and you’re excited to finally reconnect with loved ones after an unusually busy year. Holidays are meant to be a break from the craziness – they give us a chance to enjoy special moments and make memories with the people we love. Sadly, actually fulfilling that yearning for a few nights where “all is calm and all is bright” can be quite stressful. Misbehaving children, older relatives that need extra care, bickering couples, organizing transport and accommodation, spending time to find the right gifts, catering for dietary requirements – with multiple distractions, time can easily feel like it's running away. This was supposed to be a holiday right? Modern lifestyles are making us stressed, especially in the winter holiday seasons when advertising is at its peak. With so much of our lives being spent in front of screens and digital devices, the exposur
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Location: 326 Junction Rd, Madison, WI 53717, USA
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Alone, but Not Lonely

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In many ways, our culture has fostered an unhealthy relationship with time spent alone. Even the words that we use to describe alone time are often steeped in some kind of negative connotation. Solitude. Seclusion. Withdrawal. Loneliness.  Loneliness is especially telling: the etymology of the word is simply in the act of being alone, but the modern meaning and most common definitions refer to it as an unpleasant emotional state in which you desire the company of others, but for one reason or another can’t satisfy that desire. When we’re thinking of things that we want to do next Friday night, being “lonely” rarely finds its way to the top of the list. Fortunately, our relationship to loneliness is changing, and many of these terms and notions are being gradually replaced (or at least supplemented) with ideas that aren’t as negative: me-time, down-time, self-care, treating yourself, and decompressing. As our technology and culture have pushed us to be constantly connected to other peo
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Location: 326 Junction Rd, Madison, WI 53717, USA
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Promising New Research into Floating for Anorexia Nervosa

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  From helping with anorexia nervosa, to regulating the immune system, to reducing general and acute anxiety, new findings on floatation continue to flow out from researchers around the world. While much of the science news these days is taken up by stories and discoveries about COVID, countless labs around the world carry on with their studies, many of which began years before the pandemic, and the world of floatation is no exception. At the recent 2021 Float Conference at the end of August, we got to hear highlights from some of the world leaders in float research. Of special interest was the ongoing research at the Float Clinic and Research Center at LIBR (the Laureate Institute for Brain Research), and the research relating to patients with anorexia nervosa was the furthest along. In addition to the float clinic, LIBR houses a treatment and research center for anorexia, including a large population of inpatients who live there for longer periods of therapy and treatment. Dr. Sahib
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Location: 326 Junction Rd, Madison, WI 53717, USA
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Floating Up from the Depths

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As a vehicle for both relaxation and recovery, float tanks are fairly unparalleled. There are lots of studies and anecdotes about the benefits that even a single hour float can offer. The most profound (and often inspiring) results, however,  actually come from floating more regularly. We hear this everyday in our conversations with our members and regulars, and so for this month’s blog, we wanted to highlight some of the personal stories from long term floaters that have been shared  publicly. While these are just a small sample of the incredible stories we’ve heard, they help to illustrate the wide variety of benefits floatation has to offer. Stories like these are why we opened our center, and why we’re so proud of the work that we do. Emily Noren, as a young teenager, developed anorexia and bulimia. Maintaining her weight occupied much of her thoughts and actions for the next decade and a half of her life, and the treatments and medications she tried never provided long-term soluti
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Location: 326 Junction Rd, Madison, WI 53717, USA
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Where Did Float Tanks Come From?

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  Hopping into a soundproof, light-proof box filled with saltwater may be a popular relaxation therapy today, but those just discovering it are likely asking themselves: “who came up with this strange device, and when were float tanks developed?” In order to answer those questions, we first have to ask “why did they want to make them in the first place?” In the early 1950s, neuroscience was a relatively new field of study, and how the brain worked was much less understood than it is today. One prevalent theory at the time was that our brains were designed to react to stimulation and that everything we did was solely a reaction to something external. Because of this, some scientists thought that if we were to remove all sensory stimulation, our brains would simply shut down. Early experiments to test their theories involved rooms with white noise (such as fans) blocking out sound and goggles with bright lights to keep participants from seeing anything clearly. Physician and neuroscienti
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