Try a Sensory Deprivation Tank
From Chris Black at AttainYourPotential.com
There are ways to enhance your performance and wellbeing without taking any supplements or special diets (not that there is anything wrong with those approaches). These lifestyle methods have strong evidence to support their efficacy and benefits that run deeper than just nutrition.
Sensory Deprivation Tanks
Sensory deprivation tanks are enclosures that block out all light and background sound containing water almost saturated with Epsom (magnesium) salts. The salty water is circulated through a heater that keeps the water at skin temperature (and a filter to keep it clean!). This allows the user to float in the tank without experiencing any sensory input.
Why commit time to it?
‘Sensory deprivation’ or ‘floatation’ tanks have physical, mental and even spiritual benefits. Physically, the experience helps your posture by relieving you’re spinal disks from the constant downward stress and you will find that when you float your body will naturally fall into a nice straight posture. Floating allows the muscles to undergo deep relaxation and you even absorb the magnesium salts through the skin. Magnesium flushes toxins from the cells and improves nerve function and the body’s ability to use insulin (Universal Health Institute). Whilst all this is going on the experience has been proven to reduce stress, accompanied by a big drop in cortisol levels, blood pressure and heart rate (P Suedfeld, 1997). However, the effect on stress goes deeper than just the physical relaxation.
As a Spiritual Practice
There is a great opportunity to stop thinking and become ‘present to the moment’ because once you settle into the tank experience, you lose a sense of time and special orientation. Some people have described this as feeling like a shining ball or point of awareness. Because you lose a sense of bodily awareness and you are not being bombarded by the sensory stimulus of daily life you have a chance to go deeper within: others describe the experience as being on a date with yourself (the famous comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan- big proponent of flotation tanks). Sounds pretty uncomfortable right? Well, it can be initially. It’s like beginning a meditation session: the mind automatically focuses on what it can correct, switching position etc. But once you let go of that and don’t resist it, you go into a kind of strange flow state. It definitely makes meditation easier for this reason.
The great thing about this is that if you can step out of thinking through meditation, during the experience, you can enhance the stress crushing effects of the tank. Scientifically, it has been proven that isolation tanks illicit the some of the same brain activity as meditation: increases in theta brain waves have been demonstrated (P Suedfeld, 1997). These are associated with very relaxed states such non directive meditation. Theta brainwaves are thought to make the thought processes much more fluid allowing free association and even creative insights, but most importantly- deep relaxation! Some people even see hallucinations like flashes of bright light, but I didn’t, maybe because I kind of wanted it to happen.
For a video and two more ways to biohack (intermittent fasting and earthing mats), click here to go to attainyourpotential.com.
Image: imgur.com/user/meganjwnz