Float
With your body fully supported and unconstrained by gravity, your muscles, tendons, and ligaments stretch out, your spine lengthens, and with the body completely relaxed, the mind follows…
What is float therapy?
Flotation therapy is an experience like no other and particularly fitting for 21st century life where we’re constantly bombarded with light, noise, and information. Taking time away from our daily routines, shutting out sensation and reconnecting inwards allows us to step back into the world refreshed, restored, and better able to cope with the stresses of modern life with presence, grace, and poise.
Step into a pod or cabin filled with 10″ of water and 1000lbs of Epsom salt (MgSO4) and float effortlessly on the surface, much like a cork floats on water. The water is heated to the same temperature as your skin so you lose perspective of where your body ends and the water begins.
The effect of this experience is striking – with your body fully supported and unconstrained by gravity, your muscles, tendons, and ligaments stretch out, your spine lengthens, and with the body completely relaxed, the mind follows. To enhance the experience, turn off the music and lights, and float peacefully in quiet, calming darkness.
What to expect…
You’ll be shown into a private suite with either the Genesis Pod or Ocean Cabin and given an orientation about the equipment and experience. We’ll answer any questions you have then leave you to shower and enter your float environment.
In our Ocean Cabins, gentle music will play for the first 10 minutes, allowing you to relax and get accustomed to this unique environment of weightlessness. As the music fades out, you’ll have the chance to experience something truly profound: A state of nothingness where all sensation is muted and the mind is free of outside stimulus. If you are an experienced floater and prefer to have no music, please let the attendant know and we’ll be happy to begin your float with silence. We can also extend the music for the full session.
In our Genesis Pods, you have control over the music. If it is your first float, we suggest you listen to the music for a few minutes, while concentrating on your breathing. Once you feel relaxed and ready to float away, turn off the music and enjoy the quiet calm.
Both Ocean Cabins and Genesis Pods are equipped with lights that you can choose to turn out whenever you wish. Floating in silent darkness is an incredible experience, but should you not be ready to jump right into it, you can leave the lights on until you feel relaxed and at ease.
After 80 minutes of floating, music will fade in to let you know that your float journey has come to an end and you’ll take a refreshing shower to rinse the salt off your body. We hope you have some extra time to relax in our upstairs lounge, or perhaps schedule a sauna or massage for after your float.
Benefits of floating
Expands your mind
The ultra-relaxing float environment encourages Theta brainwave rhythm – that beautiful twilight state between waking and sleeping. Time spent in Theta offers heightened receptivity, encouraging self-hypnosis and super-learning, while flashes of dreamlike imagery and long-forgotten memories spark creativity, intuition, and inspiration.
Focus and Strength
An environment of silence, darkness, and lack of stimulation serves as the perfect antidote to the stress of our always on, plugged-in modern lives which can make us feel scattered and overwhelmed. When the mind is allowed to wander freely without distraction, we are better able to process and connect our thoughts and feelings, realizing a better understanding of ourselves and our place in the universe.
Promotes Peace
Taking a moment away from everyday life and spending some contemplative time alone is an important method of stress reduction. Relaxing and focusing inward allows us to re-emerge calm and clear, enabling us to go back out into the world ready and willing to tackle life’s challenges and reconnect on a deeper level with others.
Relieves Stress
Floating allows us easy access to the relaxation response – one of the most effective techniques we can learn to cope with stress. Without external stimulus, our natural defence systems automatically relax, and we benefit from significantly reduced levels of adrenaline and cortisol (the “stress” hormones) and can bask in the glow of increased endorphins and dopamine (the “feel good” hormones).
Promotes Recovery
Floating shows great promise for treating physical pain. With the body fully supported, muscles, tendons, and ligaments stretch out, the spine lengthens, and locked in tension begins to release. As the body relaxes, the mind is also able to let go. Floating has been clinically proven to reduce stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure, improve sleep, boost optimism, and decrease anxiety and depression. Research is being conducted on the effects of flotation for a wide range of physical ailments, including fibromyalgia, back pain, whiplash, migraines, high blood pressure, as well as post workout muscle recovery.
Performance Boost
Floating is great for improving mental focus as well as post-workout muscle recovery. The meditative aspect of floating encourages mindfulness, allowing for improved performance from a relaxed, centered place of calm presence. Floating also helps reduce the buildup of lactate in the blood, allowing athletes to recover from intense workouts more quickly, and because muscle growth occurs during rest, the relaxed, weightless effect of floating after intensive training helps stimulate rapid muscle growth.
HALSA Experience
Treatment Time
You will enjoy a full 80 minute float in your own private float suite with either the spacious Ocean Float Room or state-of-the-art Genesis Float Pod. You will have an additional 10 minutes for a post float shower.
Amenities Provided
Towels and botanically infused shampoo, body wash, and conditioner are provided in the treatment room. Blowdryers, lotions, and other amenities to prepare you for the outside world are available post treatment in our private vanity area.
Relax Post Float
Plan some extra time to visit our Meditation Lounge to decompress before or after your float. Read a book, take some time to process your thoughts, and enjoy a cup of tea. Quietly chat with other guests or curl up by yourself and stare up at the sky on one of the private lounge chairs on our mezzanine.
