Floating into Fifty

My birthday was last week.  It was one of those ones where people say "Oh, that's a BIG ONE" and then look at your face to see how well you are dealing with adding another year to your Life Resume.  For the most part I am embracing the opportunities that adding another year brings (Anxiety and I did A LOT of work around this aging thing about a decade ago...) and decided to do something new and unique, so on the 50th Anniversay of the Day of my Birth I spent an hour floating in a Salt Float!  I guess you could say that I Floated into Fifty....literally!  

When I heard about plans for Salt Float business opening in my hometown, I was intrigued.  I did some research about what Salt Floats are (picture yourself laying in a big bathtub in a water/epsom salt mixture that is just short of being a gel....you definitely float!) and their benefits (great for sinus issues, detoxing, stress relief) including "anxiety relief".  Hmmm....this sounded interesting.  So, I decided that I would book a session as a present to myself.  Disclaimer:  one of the main reasons that I was interested was that, as an introvert (does that surprise you that I tend to be more introverted?  I consider myself a "social introvert"....more on that another time!) the thought of spending an hour in a dark and quiet room with no one saying "MOMMY", no ringing phones or pings from devices, and no one asking me anything from me....yep, sounded like a little bit of paradise!  

Now, I would imagine that some of you already have Anxiety's annoying little voice in your head, the one that brings up what could go wrong, the "what ifs", and is just a great big scaredy cat when it comes to anything new or outside of your comfort zone. Yeah, my Anxiety does that too!

Fortunately for me I have done a lot of work to get my Anxiety to work more as an Ally than an Enemy, so I pretty quickly moved past the typical “anxiety provoking” thoughts like “it will be dark and dark is scary” or “will the salt hurt if it gets in my ears (nose, throat, eyes, other sensitive parts)?” or my favorites (those pesky “what ifs”) “What if something goes wrong?” or “What if I don’t like it?”.  I thought this was going to be a breeze….silly me!


My Anxiety will still take opportunities (often when I am doing something “new” or “unknown”) to attempt to at least unnerve me and, if it gets it’s way, cause me to Panic.  So here is how it went down…

I arrive on time and fill out the paperwork.  You sign this waiver that says, among other things, that they are not liable if you get hurt or die and that if you don’t follow their rules (shower with their soap and get all of your “contaminants” off of you before entering the float tub) and they find your tub contaminated you owe them a hefty fine.  OK, so my Anxiety tries to freak me out, but it’s not working…yet…

A very nice young woman comes out and invites me back and I get the tour of the facility.  All good so far.  She shows me the room and gives me instructions and then I am on my own.  Still excited (have you ever noticed that anxious and excited feel about the same, so I tend to label any similar feelings as “excited”) and now I start to prepare to enter the tub.  Now is when it gets a little bit…shall we say…interesting?   Just before I take my shower I put in the wax earplugs as per the instructions.  Guess what?  Plugging my ears does not go over well with my sinuses and my sense of balance!  Oh, wow, Anxiety has a foot in the door.  I literally feel unbalanced and Anxiety starts whispering (actually louder than a whisper) “this is not going to end well” and “this is uncomfortable”.  When I “hear” the word “uncomfortable” it triggers my memory and I remind myself that the goal is not to be comfortable.  The goal is to continue the experience.  Being uncomfortable for a moment or two is just part of the experience (and part of life).  This is not a life or death situation!  So I breathe and keep moving forward.

Now I am in the tank and the temperature is comfortable and I get myself situated and am ready to turn off the light.  So far so good.  I have the option of having music playing (you know that awesome meditation type music you hear when you get a massage….the kind you do not play in the car while driving because you will fall asleep!) and decide to play the music.  And then I lay there (OK, float there, because you literally cannot make yourself sink….I tried!) and my senses start attempting to make sense of this new situation.  At first it is mostly curious.  Then I start thinking…”my feet are kind of cold”…so I dip them under the water….”my arms are getting uncomfortable”….so I put them over my head (side note:  I found this to be the most comfortable position….like a starfish!)…still so far so good.  

And then Anxiety jumped in and pulled out these doozies….😳

• The humidity and salt triggered drainage (remember that this is supposed to be healing for the sinuses) and for a moment I thought I was going to choke!  My amygdala sent off the alarm that I was going to die and I had to get myself to the front part of my brain and work on rational thought. After the initial panic I simply sat up, swallowed, took a breath, and lay back down
• About ten minutes into the float the humidity increased the air temperature in the enclosed tank (there is a door similar to a shower door where you enter) and I suddenly got hot….that triggered nausea, which triggered the thought that I might throw up….so... I embraced the thought (being fully willing to throw up because, while that would be unpleasant, I would still be alive) and then opened the door (as the nice young woman had suggested during the instructions) and the cooler outside air entered and my nausea subsided
• I dripped some salt water on my face and immediately thought that it would hurt my eyes….so I embraced that while it would be uncomfortable, that I would survive and, most likely still have my 50 year old’s body’s eyesight, and then felt around for the wash cloth and clear water spray bottle that are provided for just such and occasion!

Apparently three attempts were enough for my Anxiety and she backed off, and we both relaxed and enjoyed the rest of the Float!  I was able to clear my mind (or at least mostly think about what I wanted to think about rather then what Anxiety wanted me to focus on) and simply "be" without having to "do" anything. When asked about my experience by the nice young woman, I shared that there was simply a learning curve (which she shared that she related to as she recalled her first float) and that I would be up for the adventure again since I had learned so much!

So what did I learn? First and foremost that no matter how much work I do to keep a working relationship with my Anxiety, there may always be situations where she will go back to her old tricks and I will be given an Opportunity to practice my skills (walk my talk you might say!).  

Here are my top three takeaways:

1. To truly live our lives it is important to be open to new adventures, even when our Anxiety may attempt to convince us that it is a bad idea and to just stay safe.  If we are not willing to risk going outside of our Comfort Zones, we are missing out on a whole lot of what life has to offer.
2. That embracing what is happening to me, even if it is uncomfortable or unpleasant in the moment, allows me to go from the primitive reactionary part of my brain (which focuses on survival) to the rational problem solving part of my brain (which allows me to focus on thriving) where I make a decision as to how to handle the situation.
3. That while so many people seem to get anxious about getting older, Floating into Fifty was an awesome way to give myself the message that I am only as old as I think that I am!  I am so ready to step into the stage of my life where I get to say and do whatever I want so watch out!

P.S.- I did notice benefits from the salt float.  My sinuses were clearer (for about a day) then they had been in quite some time, my skin felt somehow "renewed" (I don't know if I can explain that any better), and let's just say that my body eliminated some serious toxins later that day 😊. If anyone is intested, here is the link for Float Frederick’s website:
http://www.floatfrederick.com