I've been under an inordinate amount of stress lately. Instead of going into the details on that, I'm going to go into the details of what I did to try remedy the situation, because you, my equally-stressed-out-friend, may want to try it too — even though it didn't exactly work for me.
In two words: floatation therapy. In four other words: reduced environmental stimulation therapy (which, appropriately, boils down to the acronym REST). REST is said to promote pain relief, stress relief, better circulation and endorphins galore. In fact, according to the team at Chill Space NYC, where I went for my floatation experience, an hour of REST is equivalent to a week-long vacation. I haven't been on a vacation in more than a decade (which is probably one of the reasons I'm so stressed out), so that was the claim that made me jump at the chance to try it.
Ironically, the REST set-up can induce a little more stress before it starts relieving it. Although I'm not claustrophobic, looking at the glass-walled six-feet-by-eight-feet tub had me seriously wondering if I was a few moments away from a less-than-glamorous obituary about how I somehow managed to drown in less than a foot of water, and naked to boot.
But lying on your back in the "float cabin," it's literally impossible to drown. The half-ton of Epsom salt in the water makes you unsinkable. I reminded myself of this and carefully stepped into the tank, closing the door behind me.
I had been instructed to press buttons to turn off the lights and music as soon as I was ready to start floating, and I was proud of myself for doing so within a minute. I was also told there's no wrong way to position your arms, so after a little experimenting, I ended up with them nearly straight up over my head; even fully extended, I didn't reach the edges of the tub.
It's surreal to be suspended in water that nearly perfectly matches your body temperature. Once that weirdness passes, however, it's quite a comfortable sensation, like there's no defined border to your body. I closed my eyes and realized, much like my body temperature and water temperature matched, the darkness of the tank and the darkness of the inside of my eyelids also matched. It made keeping my eyes open or closed a nearly identical experience.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of trying to scratch an itch near my eye, and I got some of the very salty water in it. (When I said there's a half-ton of Epsom salt in there, I wasn't exaggerating.) My eye started stinging badly, and I awkwardly sat up and started reaching for where I thought the light button was. But it turns out, in what I'm guessing was only about 10 minutes since I'd started floating, that I'd rotated away from my original position without even sensing it.
Luckily, upon finding the light button, I also found a spray bottle full of tap water in the corner of the tank, because apparently a lot of people make the same mistake I did and need to rinse out their eyes.
The team at Chill Space NYC recommended focusing on my breathing or heartbeat as if I were meditating. Unfortunately, I'm that person who, when trying to meditate, can think only about whether or not I'm meditating right, so I ended up letting myself just think thoughts.
Interestingly, I didn't find myself obsessing about the stressful things that brought me there in the first place. Although I couldn't clear my head like a seasoned meditator, the thoughts I was having weren't heavy, serious, bummer thoughts; instead, my mind challenged itself to figure out which cardinal direction I was facing, to think up new tattoo ideas, to more or less write this article in my head before my hour was up. (I definitely cranked out at least two paragraphs while floating.)
And when that hour was up, the lights came on automatically and I stood up very slowly so as to not ruin the experience by slipping and cracking my head open. I felt a little woozy, but fully functional, and after a quick shower, I found myself back on the corner of Stressed Out and Uber Surge Prices.
I never fully relaxed the way I'd hoped to during my REST session — I suppose that's the bad news. But there's good news too: I didn't drown. Okay, that's not the only good news. I also realized that, even though floatation therapy didn't eliminate my stress or instantly allow me to empty my head, for an hour, it seemed to encourage only creative, playful thoughts that had nothing to do with my worries. My mind stayed active as my body did the exact opposite, and it seems as though that contrast brought out the more clever aspects of my brain while quieting the more anxious side.
Was it a week's long vacation in an hour? Well, I wouldn't really know, now would I? It's probably not, though, unless you're already the type who finds it easy to relax. (Please teach me your ways.) But it was an unexpected spark of energetic, positive brain activity that left me inspired to be more creative in my non-floating hours. To book a session, go here.
Marci Robin is a freelance writer and editor specializing in beauty and lifestyle content. With over 20 years of experience, Marci has served as a contributing editor for Allure, senior beauty editor at GoodHousekeeping.com, executive editor of xoVain and senior online editor at NewBeauty. Her writing has also appeared in her writing has also appeared in InStyle, MarthaStewart.com and Refinery29.
