Tag Archives: epsom salt

Guest post: the small, unexpected benefits of floating

June 4, 2016About Floating, Float Experiencesanxiety, benefits, consciousness, epsom salt, experience, float tank, magnesium, meditation, muscle tension, pain relief, physiological, psychological, relaxation, science, sleep, stress, yogaSara

From time to time we like to turn over the microphone to other people. This guest post is from Float staffer Shayna C. – Sara

Now that I am a staff member at Float Boston, I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to float regularly (thanks, Sara and Colin!). Many of the immediate effects of frequent floatation are predictable enough: better sleep, fewer muscle aches, being physically unable to shut up about how great it is. Some of the other unforeseen results of regular visits to the tank took me by surprise. Perhaps you can relate? Continue reading Guest post: the small, unexpected benefits of floating →

Drifting to peace: a claustrophobic seeker learns to float

November 16, 2015Float Experiencesanxiety, claustrophobia, epsom salt, experience, meditation, psychological, relaxation, yogaSara

Ali Mischke is a Structural Integrator and Registered Yoga Teacher based in North Cambridge. I love Ali’s description of her first float because it’s a classic early awkward experience. (Our Beginner’s Package is three floats in part because there’s a non-zero chance that one of your early floats will be less than perfect.) I’m impressed with her for overcoming her fears, and proud of her for coming back and giving it a second shot. – Sara

Drifting to peace: a claustrophobic seeker learns to float

I first encountered Float Boston before it opened, down a side road somewhere on my Internet travels. I had heard about floating for years and was intrigued by its potential to help overcome the psychological, physical, and spiritual effects of our over-stimulated modern environment. I love the Cambridge area, and I’m also acutely aware of how far the concrete and chaos takes us from our natural, centered state.

After meeting Sara, I quickly signed up for my first float. Continue reading Drifting to peace: a claustrophobic seeker learns to float →

Getting up to temperature

November 11, 2013Tanks and Equipmentbusiness, epsom salt, float tank, float to relax, planning, refurbishing, thermostatcolin

The ‘one last obstacle’ turned out to be much more of a problem than I anticipated, but we got past it.

Our Float To Relax tank in the basement — The Space Burrito: our Float To Relax tank in the basement, wrapped with several layers of insulation.

We’ve got our demo tank running in the basement now, and Sara and I have both been in it! It took quite a lot longer to it fully set up than we anticipated, but along the way it’s already been totally worth it as a test bed for the public center we’re building.

If you’re not on our mailing list yet, get on it! Soon we will invite a few lucky names off it to help us give it a try for free.

Continue reading Getting up to temperature →

800 lbs of salt

November 5, 2013Tanks and Equipmentepsom salt, float tank, float to relax, heating, plumbing, refurbishing, thermostatcolin

After a couple weeks of waiting, a lot has started to happen with our home float tank.

The Tank Movers — These heroes of the float revolution, the tank movers, helped shift the tank into our basement.

We’ve washed and moved the tank into the basement, and I’ve put together the electrical system and welded the plumbing, and I’ve made two trips out to Lexington to load half a ton of epsom salt in the back of my Hyundai, and we’ve spent a weekend pouring it fifty pounds at a time into the tank.

I had hoped to be able to announce today that my lovely wife was actually in the tank getting blissed out, but unfortunately we have run into another obstacle. Progress, though. Progress is happening.

A whole lot of fix-it detail follows.

Continue reading 800 lbs of salt →

Epsom salt and magnesium

September 27, 2013About Floatingarthritis, benefits, blood pressure, bone strength, bowel disease, diabetes, epsom salt, heart, magnesium, migraines, muscle tension, physiological, science, skin, sleepcolin

A float tank contains a lot of epsom salt. Like, a lot a lot. Eight hundred to a thousand pounds each, to make the water so dense you literally can’t help but float.

Epsom salt bags — Amount of Epsom salt that goes into one float tank. © Float On

People sometimes wonder, though, why epsom salt? It’s hardly the easiest thing we could lay our hands on in bulk. Most importantly, it’s harmless to soak in for long periods, and it doesn’t cause the itchy, pruny feeling you get from soaking in sea salt. But there are other benefits.

Epsom salt is called that because it was first produced from natural springs at Epsom, England, around 1618, and from 1695 chemists and pharmacies were selling purified “bitter salts” all over England. For three hundred years since it’s been used to cure just about anything, from muscle aches to skin health, foot odor, wrinkles, psoriasis, eczema, mosquito bites, bruises, inflammation, hangovers, migraines, constipation, and the common cold.

Do any of these really work? Let’s look at the science.

Continue reading Epsom salt and magnesium →