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I felt inspired to write about the importance of kindness because of the BBC Article Why being kind could help you live longer - By Lauren Turner BBC News, Washington. I was fascinated by some of the findings in this article relating to kindness and how engaging in kindness has its own therapeutic benefits. Columbia University doctor Kelli Harding has been examining the phenomenon in her recent book, The Rabbit Effect. She says: "It helps the immune system, blood pressure, it helps people to live longer and better. It's pretty amazing because there's an ample supply and you can't overdose on it. There's a free supply. It's right there." The Domino Affect This type of thinking made me reflect on my personal float journey. My younger years included a lack of self-care and awareness towards allowing myself time to reflect. I think I knew what I needed but did not necessarily have the tools to put this into practice. Once floating entered my life it felt like a whole new world started opening up for me which made me healthier, happier and kinder. I suppose you could describe it as a classic domino affect; being kind to yourself leads to kindness towards others. Being kind may come naturally to some which is brilliant and something the world needs more of. Yet, in an age of increasing pressures, financial insecurity, and an overall faster pace of life (without sounding too bleak) perhaps kindness does not range very high on one’s list of priorities. Is that why we have to dedicate a day to ‘World Kindness?’ Or write such articles like the one I have referenced or the one I am even writing? Do we need to be reminded of how to be kind to one another? This brings me to my point about self-care and why we may need not just want a self-care routine. Self-care routine We are commonly told how important it is to ‘be kind’ to ourselves, slow down and relax. Some of us get caught up in work and taking care of others that we neglect our own needs. We forget that we are not super-heroes and we deserve if not need to Rest and Recover. Here are a few of my personal tips on how self-care may lead to kindness: - Listen to your body’s needs and you may find you are listening attentively to others. - Allow yourself to become open-minded; it could open you up to people you never thought you could relate to. - If you experience negativity and unkindness around you then remind yourself, it is less about you and more about the other. Reflect on your own actions and choose to respond in a way that brings you peace of mind. - Enjoy being alone through meditation, walking or floatation therapy because this is where you discover peace which lends its hand to kindness. Floating as an act of kindness Everyday Michael and I feel fortunate to run a centre in a beautiful village that values health and well-being. Our clients come from near and far to float, rest and learn new ways to enrich their health. It’s the small details that made us realise how much of a difference floatation therapy has on our clients. After floating, we noticed how neatly our clients would stack towels ready for us to wash and collect, bring back their mugs and sorbet jars (even though its their time to relax.) Or talk to us about a certain friend, family member or partner who would enjoy the benefits of floating. They are eager to spread the joy that they have just experienced to as many others as possible. For us this is true kindness to become so content in yourself that it shows not only in words but actions. Your thoughts…. As we come to the end of the year, some of us will look back and wonder what we achieved in the year. We may make bigger plans for the months ahead, realise what we need more of in life. Whatever this time for reflection brings up; let us hope that ‘kindness’ is given a thought. By placing kindness at the forefront of what we do it could be life-changing. Or it could just mean you have a better relationship with yourself. Having a better relationship with yourself is pretty powerful in its own right. So spare an hour for yourself, doing something you love and the kindest thing you could do is to share that with someone.

In the last blog post I explained why a number of people report seeing colours and patterns during a float session. In this post I ask, Why do some of us have visual hallucinations during a float session? Before I answer that question, I thought I would give you a few examples of visual experiences that some of our clients and myself have had. It is worth noting that this is not as common as people think it is, some people are more susceptible than others, but it is not truly known why. One client stated they saw a small red dragon flying around inside the pod, another saw the most beautiful cat they had ever seen. They have all been positive experiences and childlike and intriguing in many ways. To date I have had 5 extremely vivid hallucinations during a float session, this has been over a period of 8 years with around 800 hrs of floating. There is one particular float session that stands out for me, I floated in the early evening with music at the beginning and end of the session. I am not sure how long I was in there before the magic started to happen. This was the fifth time that something appeared, I knew something was going to happen when I had the sensation of someone shining a bright light on my face (My eyes were closed at the time, the pod light off with my head away from the lid). This had happened on the previous three visual experiences, so I was aware of the sign so to speak. I could see the pink of my eyelids where the bright light was shining on my face. In my mind I knew it wasn’t there, but I let go of that thought immediately and then opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was that the I could see the room lights on through the lid of the pod, it was as though the outline of the top half of the pod was like a forcefield (imagine the forcefield on the Death Star). The lines of the pod were shimmering with some sort of electrical energy, the strangest thing was that the lights in the room were on. The lights were definitely off when I started the float session. I looked down and could see the shower in the corner of the room, I felt as though I was drifting down very slowly. As I was falling, I looked up and could see the walls of the room bending inwards (Think Inception). The more I fell the more the lights on the ceiling started merging together as the walls literally began folding in on themselves until the lights disappeared and all that was left was darkness. I closed my eyes and next thing I know the music came back on and it was the end of the session. I don’t know how long the visual hallucination went on for, it may have been 30 seconds or a minute, time doesn’t seem to exist in the pod. It was definitely the most vivid visual I have had to date, I would like to add that this was just from a float session. Since then I have had a few minor visuals, colours and shapes mainly. You are probably wondering why, I had the same thought after the float. I think part of the reason was that my mind accepted it and just went along for the ride, if you start focusing on a visual for too long during a float it will disappear. There are a few reasons that may explain why this happened which I will explore below. Upon reflection, the key aspect with all these experiences was the fact that I was overly tired prior to the float session. In the earlier days of starting out and working ridiculous hours to get the business up and running combined with the extra stress of maintaining the business, floating was needed! Hence the lack of sleep on a number of occasions. It is well documented that a common side effect of sleep deprivation is hallucination, as evidenced by, but not limited to, long distance swimmers, ultra-marathon runners and overly ambitious university students. According to one Stanford researcher, at least 80% of people will hallucinate if severely sleep deprived (severe meaning anything from getting only a few hours sleep in a single night to going for days without sleeping). Given such a high frequency, there must be a physiological basis for those induced visions of things not really there. Lack of sleep disturbs visual processing, which results in false perceptions that can manifest as hallucination, illusion or both as I found out. Your brain is constantly making up its own reality whether it receives actual reality-driven input from your senses or not. It works because your brain tries to fill in the gaps when it’s deprived of sensory stimulation. Basically, your brain constantly wants to find patterns in things. So, when you have an unstructured stimulus, like a uniform field of light or white noise in your ears – or both you’ll potentially start to hallucinate because your brain is trying to fill in those gaps, convincing itself that it is actually seeing or hearing things that aren’t there. Beyond a doubt, we ‘see’ with more than just our eyes. And what we see is affected by, among other things, by how much we have slept. This is also the case in a sensory deprived environment. In a study called, ‘Cognitive factors in source monitoring and auditory hallucinations’ by Morrison and Haddock, 1997. It was found that short term sensory deprivation was found to lead to increases in perceptual disturbances. Hallucination prone participants experienced greater perceptual disturbances than non-prone participants. This result can be interpreted as supporting a source monitoring explanation for the generation of hallucinations in the absence of external stimuli. Essentially this means that these unusual perceptions arise out of an abnormality in the brains’ inferencing mechanisms such that new evidence (including sensations) is not properly integrated, leading to false prediction errors. In the absence of external stimuli, perceptual distortions are presumably internally generated by the individual, and in addition are misattributed as external in origin possibly due to an abnormality in updating one’s experience of the world with this new data. You may be wondering why some people can have visuals and have a deep float experience whilst others just have a relaxing time in the shallows. There are a number of factors, some of which I spoke about in this blog and the previous post. Are there other factors exclusive to the individual? How can someone best approach their float to increase the chance of having a profoundly deep positive experience? Setting ‘Setting’ is comprised of the details of the space that you’re in physically, at the float centre the physical setting is already set up for you. There is a clean space with relaxing music and all the necessary amenities. All you really have to do is walk in, get in the float room, get naked and float. What we are responsible for is how we interact with that space i.e. Have you arrived in a calm manner or did you rush to get to the centre? If you rushed, then it can take you a lot longer to really get into the session. Being in the right frame of mind before you arrive will help you get the most out of your session. You may have a specific intention you want to focus on such as reflective practice or just a simple intention to relax and refresh. The biggest difference between those that have ‘deep’ and potentially visual floats & those that have ‘light’ floats is in their concept of the pod itself, this can be interpreted as a reflection of how one views themselves. Is it just our physical & mental self that enters the pod or something much, much more? There’s a great difference in viewing the float pod as a large salty bath to help you relax and a microscope to explore the unknown mysteries of consciousness. The key lies in our expectations, these directly influence the outcome. Even more so in an environment that involves our private mental world. So, the float pod is only a vehicle. You simply have to open yourself to it, there may be mental resistance or ego boundaries at play that limit the potential of visuals and consciousness exploration. If you enter the pod and are only concerned with comfort and psychological security, then once you lower the lid you are not only shutting out the outside world you are also shutting out the unknown from your experience. By letting go you are potentially inviting significant insight, spontaneous moments of ‘no-mind’, ideas and possibility of vivid visuals. Once the physical self is merged with the water, only then is the mind truly free to explore. It is the fear of losing a firm grip on the situation that holds us back, relinquish control and trust in the security of the pod and your mind. Just go with it and feel the moment. What you will experience could well be profoundly significant in many ways. When we relax the mind and our fears of losing control (which we never truly had), we create a space within and without, which allows the fresh and vibrant to arise.

My first float was something else! I entered the float tank with child like curiosity, something I had not felt for a while. I had questions running through my mind, will I fall asleep? am I going to enjoy it? how am I going to get the most out of the session? What is going to happen? I didn’t fall asleep as such but entered a deep meditative state akin to NREM sleep. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so that I became a member! I got the most out of the session by having no expectations, going with the flow and surrendering myself to the float. Apart from feeling totally relaxed, serene and as though a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I had an extremely animated and visual experience with my eyes closed and open. This included shapes, colours, patterns, faces and symbols. This was 8 years ago, since then I have had varying degrees of visuals whilst floating. From travelling through tunnels, hieroglyphics to colours and shapes. A number of people that have floated with us have had a range of visual experiences, this has mainly been different colours. On the rare occasion some people have seen more detailed visuals. Now this raises a few questions, which I will answer over two parts! Why do we sometimes see colours with our eyes closed during a float session? Those mysterious blobs and patterns that bedazzle the backs of your eyelids during a float are no illusion. What you see is real light and it’s coming from inside your eyes! As you settle into your float session, close your eyes and begin to enter a deeper state of meditation, you may notice the colourful light show happening inside your eyelids. The lights suddenly intensify, and bursts of bright colours appear all across your field of vision. A few seconds later, the colours settle down again. While you might appreciate the floatation entertainment, in the back of your mind you’ve probably wondered what you’re even seeing. These strange blobs you see have a name; they’re called “phosphenes,” and researchers believe that actual light may play a role. But not ordinary light — this light comes from inside your eyes. In the same way that fireflies and deep-sea creatures can glow, cells within our eyes emit biophotons, or biologically produced light particles. “We see biophotonic light inside our eyes in the same way we see photons from external light,” said István Bókkon, a Hungarian neuroscientist who works at the Vision Research Institute in Lowell, Massachusetts. Biophotons exist in your eyes because your atoms constantly emit and absorb tiny particles of light, or photons. This photon exchange is just a part of normal cellular function. Your eyes can’t tell the difference between photons from outside light and the biophotons emitted by your own atoms. Either way, your optic nerve simply relays these light signals to the brain, which must then decide if it accurately represents the real world around you, or if it’s just a phosphene. Our eyes actually produce far more biophotons than we end up seeing as phosphenes. Almost all of the biophotons you see are the ones both emitted and absorbed by atoms in the retina — the part of your eye responsible for detecting light. Inside the retina, millions of tiny cells called rods and cones collect light and convert it into electrical signals. These signals travel through the optic nerve to a part of the brain called the visual cortex. Here, the brain reconstructs an image using the information received from the eyes. When a reconstructed image looks like nonsense, the brain is quick to label the image as unreal, or a phosphene. Depending on where a phosphene originates, it can take on a variety of shapes, patterns and colours. Different atoms and molecules emit photons of different wavelengths, which is why we see different colours. A phosphene with an orderly geometric pattern like a checkerboard may have originated in a section of the retina where millions of light-collecting cells are arranged in a similarly organized pattern. Researchers have also found that different areas of the brain’s visual cortex create certain specific shapes of phosphenes. In the 1950s, the German researcher Max Knoll at the Technische Universität in Munich came up with a classification scheme for phosphene shapes. He studied phosphenes in over a thousand volunteers and came up with 15 categories, including triangles, stars, spirals, spots and amorphous blobs. Most phosphenes occur spontaneously when the atoms in our eyes exchange their biophotons. So next time you jump into a float pod, close your eyes and admire the phosphenes. Now that you can appreciate the visual effects in a whole new way, you can just lay back and enjoy the show. In part 2 I will be exploring the more detailed visuals a small number of us see during a float session.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a form of depression that people experience at a particular time of year or during a particular season. It is a recognised mental health disorder. Most of us are affected by the change in seasons – it is normal to feel more cheerful and energetic when the sun is shining and the days are longer, or to find that you eat more or sleep longer in winter. However, if you experience SAD, the change in seasons will have a much greater effect on your mood and energy levels, and lead to symptoms of depression that may have a significant impact on your day-to-day life. Many people suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Floatation therapy can help tremendously, especially during the beginning and middle of winter when weather is harsh. What Is SAD? SAD is a disorder that strikes most often during the change of seasons. SAD causes depression, usually at the onset of fall and throughout the winter season. SAD sufferers report a decrease in energy and an increase in moodiness. Other symptoms include oversleeping or problems sleeping, trouble concentrating, change in appetite, and feelings of worthlessness. Some people are more susceptible to SAD, including women, younger people, those diagnosed with bipolar disorder or clinical depression, and anyone with a family history. People living in locations with harsh winters are also at increased risk. If you suffer from any of these symptoms, seek help. You do not have to live with depression. The most common forms of treatment are light therapy (phototherapy), medication, and psychotherapy. However, floatation therapy is showing positive results for combatting SAD. How Floatation Therapy Helps Floatation therapy diminishes SAD symptoms through Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST). Floating removes gravity, light, and sound from the user. By removing all stimuli, including the cause of depression, the mind and body are free to focus on other things. It may seem counterproductive to remove light from a person with SAD, but some researchers feel SAD is less about lack of sunlight and more about the prohibitive nature of cold weather. Brain-Generated Stimuli Without external stimuli, the brain instantly begins generating a multitude of stimuli. Shapes and patterns appear and morph in the person’s mind. The visual cortex becomes highly active. These hallucinations are not limited to visuals; many experience auditory stimulation. Sounds may drift near and far and transform into music. Essentially, the depressed brain enjoys a break from the constant influx of negative sensory stimuli experienced with the change of season. This break has many positive, lasting effects on the person’s state of mind. Transition to Creativity Another common result of floating is an increase in creative thinking. This happens because the body and mind are relaxed. It slips into a deep meditative state, encouraged to explore new ideas. Body rejuvenation and weightlessness free the mind from physical discomfort and negative stimuli. Creative thinking combats depression by boosting energy and positivity. It also improves self-esteem and motivation, which fights depression. Ruminating on creative thought patterns for a short period has long-lasting effects. Most people who use floatation therapy report how the positive effects last for a long time after they finish a session. Some individuals with extreme depression and other mental illnesses find that their conditions are resistant to conventional treatments. However, the deep relaxation, sense of timelessness, improved sleep, and feeling of wellbeing following a float are effective for treating some of these conditions, such as PTSD and anxiety disorders. Those suffering from depression and SAD should consider floatation therapy as an alternative to drugs or for use in tandem with other treatments. While every patient will likely require a unique solution, the benefits afforded by floatation therapy are undeniable. There are no negative side effects, so contact us today for information and to schedule your appointment at Floating Point Float Centre.