Just Float
| Published: 1st June 2008 19:41 |
What is floating really about?
Just down the road on North St is one of Leeds' hidden treasures, Just Float. Slightly away from the bustle of the city centre, Yorkshire's only dedicated float centre offers an oasis of calm where you can switch off for a little while to experience the restoring benefits of rapid relaxation and de-stressing. Our float rooms are fully equipped with Floataway capsules and showers. You float in a tank containing salty water and you can operate both the lights and the lid from inside the tank. Gentle music will help you to relax, and this can last throughout the hour or can fade to silence - it's your choice.
So how is floating different from other therapies?
For a start, no one else "does" anything to you. The float process takes a full hour, during which no one will intrude on your privacy (as long as you've remembered to you're your phone off!!) For those of us who cope with the fine balancing act between work, domestic disasters and the demands of family and friends, this is a luxury in itself.
But I do that in the bath!
Not the same at all. When you float you can stretch out fully and your body is totally supported by the water, giving you the effect of near weightlessness. It's the concentrated Epsom salts that makes the water dense enough to float and it's the salts that leave your skin feeling really smooth. And it's not hot like a bath - the water is only heated to skin temperature, just enough to be cosy when you are inside the capsule.
Floating and Pain relief
When your body is in pain, it operates under stress. Different muscles can come into play to compensate and, over time, this can become habitual, causing long term difficulties. Floating allows your muscles to relax and your frame to fall back into alignment. Our clients have reported rapid and lasting relief to painful conditions such as trapped nerves and frozen shoulders and improvements to sports and dance injuries.
Recent research into benefits for people with longer term pain related stress shows that floating can be an effective way to trigger the body's relaxation response. The level of stress hormones goes down during and after floating. Moreover, it seems as if the treatment has an even greater effect since prolactin, a kind of ‘life-force hormone,' is released in larger amounts.
A recent study showed that "the treatment method can be used for several groups, such as people with whiplash injuries, fibromylegia, depression and long-term stress-related pain" What the researchers find particularly gratifying is that the positive effects were still in evidence four months after the floating treatment ended.
Further research is taking place at the Human Performance Laboratory at Karlstad University, Sweden. Researcher Sven-Ake Bood www.alphagalileo search words float + tank
Time to think....
Most people complain about not having time to think. When you float, you stop and give yourself that time, allowing one of the major benefits of floating comes into play. Although some people are so tired that they fall straight into deep sleep in the tank, many do not sleep but enter into a meditative state. Several recent visitors to Just Float have written about the "Think Tank" effect of floating-
"I spent my fourth and fifth floats doing a lot of thinking. At first, I was worried that I was wasting my time and not relaxing properly. Then I realised that I had a lot to think about and I mean the big stuff about life and work... the stuff that usually gets crowded out by living and working! You might find that you do some of your best thinking in the tank. It's certainly a different and better quality of thinking than you get day to day; useful, constructive rather than scatterbrained and rushed" - Marie
"I took a float the day before my final exam - which is one I thought I would not do too well in - and that hour of calm allowed me - passively - to collate all of the information I had and put it in some kind of order. Obviously, it didn't miraculously give me more knowledge than I had already learned, but it did allow me to view the information from a new perspective and make connections I hadn't previously made." - Will
My wife is pregnant - can she still float?
Floating is a great way to take the strain off the body during mid-late pregnancy
At Just Float we have welcomed women right up to 34 weeks. And of course it's not just women who have to prepare for the arrival of a child - many "expectant" parents book both tanks, enjoying a leisurely weekend treat together.
The Calm Room
A range of therapeutic treatments are available in the Calm Room. Deep tissue, Swedish and Indian Head Massage are available from Val Rawat or Angie Allen and therapist Nick Edwards offers Cranio-Sacral Therapy, EMDR and EFT treatments. Advance booking is essential for the Calm Room.
Prices from £35 single, from £20 (Multiple floats)
Open Tue-Fri 1-7 Sat 10-4.30 Sun 11-5
To book a float or treatment call Just Float on 0113 2433800, email just.float@btconnect.com www.justfloat.co.uk
