At the time of this writing, I’ve floated for eight days straight. I had originally planned to float for just two days in a row, but then I decided to see what it would be like to float every day for a week (or just over a week in this case). I’m so glad I did and I’ll share my experiences in the remainder of this post.
Normally, I float with lights and music on at the beginning and end; the middle portion (about fifty minutes) is dark and quiet, which I enjoy since nothing else in my life is like that and it’s a great way to escape from everything. This week, though, I played around with the lights and sounds, and, in one case, the length of the float (I tried floating for thirty minutes instead of my usual hour). I enjoyed floating with different settings and seeing how I reacted to them. I liked most of the options I chose, including having sound on the whole time with the lights off and lights on the whole time with no sound. The only combination I didn’t like was both lights and sound on the whole time. I think I disliked that one because the lights and sound usually come on toward the end of my floats, so having them both on constantly made me feel like the float was about to end and prevented me from relaxing as much as I usually do. Overall, though, the experimentation got me out of my usual routine and enhanced my floating experience. I went in to most of my floats without knowing what to expect, which I think made them more enjoyable and restorative. Plus I now know what other settings I like in case I decide to mix things up once in a while.
As usual, each float messed with my perception of time; even my thirty minute float felt much longer than it actually was. I think this happens because the pods are free of external distractions, so I’m better able to stay in the present moment and less likely to get lost in my thoughts. Either way, it felt like I had a lot more time each day, so this past week has felt more like several weeks to me. And, since things have gone so smoothly for me lately, I’ve appreciated the extra time.
For most of the past week, I’ve felt more relaxed than I have in a long time. I can’t remember when I last experienced such a deep sense of peace that’s stayed with me for so long. I was feeling pretty good almost all the time after the first few days and hardly anything has been able to bother me this week. Every time I started getting upset about something, I would remember to stay in the present moment, focus on my breath, watch my thoughts, and avoid stressing about the future. These reminders came automatically, as if I had nonstop access to my higher self. As you can imagine, this made it much easier to handle each day, get along with the people around me, and enjoy each day to the fullest. I hope that this will become my normal state if I continue to remember and make use of calming life hacks. I don’t know what it’ll be like to resume my normal routine of one or two floats a week, but I think I’ll still be feeling pretty good for quite a while from the eight consecutive floats. This experiment has been the best thing I’ve done for myself in recent memory and I’d like to do it again sometime, or maybe try going even longer. If you enjoy floating and have an opportunity to try something like this, I highly recommend it. And if you do, I’d love to hear what you thought about it.