Shift your perspective.
Sounds simple, but it isn’t so easy in practice when you are just trying to survive in fast-paced Vancouver.
Shifting people’s perspectives is what Float House Gastown founders Andy and Mike Zaremba are doing with their regular #VancouverSurvivalGuide podcast. They talk with the city’s leading innovators to unveil the latest and greatest practices to enhance your life.
But in their latest podcast, Mike turned the conversation inward to highlight how Float House is shifting people’s perspectives through relaxing floating sessions.
It’s all about opening your mind to the power of the unknown – something Mike learned all too well before the brothers even started Float House.
Mike, an experienced meditator and yoga enthusiast, was craving something new to open his mind when he heard about floating. He tried it in a tank that had been set up in woman’s basement. It wasn’t a professional set-up to be sure, but Mike is open to trying new things. The experience was far from perfect, but it was powerful enough that he and his brother bought their own tank and set it up in their condo.
“I just knew I wanted to experience this environment more,” Mike remembers, admitting that he had to give up his own bedroom to accommodate the tank.
Floating became a part of his life, like going to the gym. Soon, the brothers realized they wanted to share this profound experience with others, so they started hosting floats in their condo that gained a dedicated legion of fans.
A half-dozen locations and tens of thousands of floats later, Mike says Float House has refined the floating experience.
Floaters arrive to a serene environment, with tranquil music and a cup of a natural anti-anxiety elixir called kava-kava. The water is heated to the same temperature as the surface of your skin so that boundary between your skin, your body and the water is dissolved.
Mike says the benefits of “mindfulness meditation” can be profound, from deep physical and mental relaxation, to floaters contemplating aspects of their lives and behaviors through intense reflection.
“All you hear usually is your heartbeat and your breath. I guarantee a profound relaxation experience consciously so you get to go into an environment where you're completely supported by water. Every square millimeter of your surface area is contoured and supported so you can completely relax and all of the stability muscles that partially hold you up all the time.”
