FLOAT Relaxation—
Foundation for Health, Wealth & Happiness

By Kane Mantyla

The research data is in and stress has been chosen as the main culprit in keeping people from achieving their dreams. It has been shown that stress is currently the main reason for many people's inability to keep in good health, generate adequate wealth, or to simply keep a state of relative happiness.

Testing concludes that stress is the leading cause of weight gain, cardiovascular disease, headaches, digestive ailments, sexual dysfunctions, insomnia, hyper-tension, and immune deficiencies. If stress is prevalent in ones life to any major extent, then chances are it has a stranglehold on their health.

Stress also affects other aspects of life, including the workplace. When asked the number one reason for quitting a job, stress was identified. Stress leads to poor decisions, lessened creativity, productivity, and communication ability. Although the workplace is often the cause of stress, acting upon it there could be destabilizing to one's life. Finding a place where one can shed this stress is imperative for maintaining a good work environment.

Happiness and stress have an inverse relationship. When a body is in a state of stress, it cannot be in a state of relaxation or happiness. By natural design, when the body/mind system is stressed it goes into a fight or flight response and produces hormones and chemicals that tense the body and mind. Depression, anxiety, and fear all have their roots in stress caused by feelings of being helpless or out of control. Stress places tension in the body which often leads to emotional outbursts, and instability.

The prescription for relieving stress is rest and relaxation. These both come in different forms and have different functions. Rest is passive and generally involves reducing excess stress on the body/mind system. During sleep the physical body is at rest but the mind is still producing stress.

Relaxation generally refers to an active process of releasing tension and is the best way to relieve stress. Vacations are considered a form of relaxation and great when one can get away. Other specific techniques are meditation, breathing, and various forms of therapy techniques, the most effective being floatation therapy. Meditation and breathing techniques have been used, for over a millennia, by monks and sages alike to achieve higher states of being. These techniques often require skill and focus to reach these states of relaxation, but simple breathing and meditation techniques are effective for releasing tension.

Floating is unique and easy as one is simply required to float in concentrated Epsom salt, for buoyancy, and merely rest while reducing visual, audio, and sensory stimulus. In R.E.S.T. (restricted environment stimulation therapy), the body/mind system is released of about 90% of its processing burden, including gravity, allowing states of total relaxation. The body moves into homeostasis or equilibrium where one feels health, vigor, and immense pleasure in being alive. Stress is effectively eliminated, allowing states of immense happiness to resonate from deep within.