Something in the world of floating have you stumped?
Show Highlights
Graham has Juliet on the podcast today since Ashkahn is doing some post-Conference traveling.
The duo talks about times when floating just doesn’t feel like a good idea, which is something they have a bit of disagreement about. Juliet shares her experiences being cautious of her experiences in the tank and how she tends to have to be more mindful of when she floats.
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Graham: All right, hello everybody.
Juliet: Wow.
Graham: My name is Graham.
Juliet: And my name is Juliet.
Graham: And Juliet is joining us in the studio today. We’re going to be doing another sans Ashkahn episode while he’s off frolicking around Europe post-conference. And Juliet is one our Float Tank Solutions team who’s been with us for a while now. She went on Float Tour, if you remember that. It took three months to visit a ton of float tank centers around North America. And she does a lot of the blogs and behind-the-scenes content work as well, including a lot of the free products there. About Float Tanks Guide and Tank Comparison Chart and just an increasing amount of responsibility here at Float Tank Solutions. So we actually wanted to take a little bit of time and answer some questions that weren’t quite so technical and may be relating more to the personal floating side of things. Which, in addition to being one of the crew, Juliet is obviously an avid floater as well. That’s it. So now you can say I finished my introduction.
Juliet: All of that is true. “I am absolutely indispensable.” I think is the big takeaway there.
Graham: “And I think I need a raise.” So today’s question is, “Are there times when you feel like you can’t float?”
Juliet: Yes. Next question.
Graham: Like if you have giant cuts all over or something like that. Like you were just in a car accident. You probably don’t want to immediately hop in a float tank.
Juliet: Right. Or after downing like three cups of coffee or …
Graham: I’ve had super-caffeinated floats that were not the worst thing in the world.
Juliet: I’ve had really bad super-caffeinated floats. So I think that that’s another thing is just being mindful of your own limitations. I think that there are definitely people who are very open and explorative when going in a float tank and there are other people who need to … I don’t know, tread water in a float tank.
Graham: Before you start adding adding caffeine?
Juliet: Yeah.
Graham: The hard stuff?
Juliet: Exactly. I honestly, I think having too much going on in your mind can sometimes really affect the float and not always in a productive way.
Graham: See, it’s interesting because, for me, I … if there’s not an actual physical reason to not go in a float tank, I often just get a lot out of the float tank. There’s … I can’t think of a time when I haven’t wanted to hop in because I have emotional stuff on my mind or I’m going through things. If anything, I personally have found the float tank to be just a really nice place to work through things. I mean, it’s not always the best floats and sometimes they’re hard. But it’s not … I guess it’s not a place that I shy away from.
Juliet: Right. And I think that that’s probably true for a lot of folks but I think that may be not true for everybody. So-
Graham: Something that I feel isn’t universal ? That doesn’t seem right.
Juliet: Surprising, I know. But, and this is actually something that I’ve heard a lot from other people in the float community where they feel like it’s not something that’s really recognized. It’s like … we should always be open to floating. And I think you should definitely try more often than not, but also recognizing when you know that there’s going to be times when it’s maybe not going to work out. Which has been really helpful for me is knowing that there are times where it’s not a good idea to float. I also don’t like to float … not just on caffeine, but on a whole lot of intoxicants or anything like that, like different things. If I’m a little drunk, I don’t want to get in a float tank. For example …
Graham: Alcohol is definitely not the thing to mesh too much with floats.
Juliet: Right.
Graham: And it seems so unappealing too. But, yeah, I’d definitely put that in the same category.
Juliet: I would too, for sure.
Graham: Ashkahn really does not want to go floating when it’s morning time because it’s really hard for him to wake up in the first place. So he’s like, “I just got out of bed. It took so much effort. I don’t want to go hop in a float tank, start resting again.” Other time, I guess if my tank is making a weird clicking noise, I just know that if I float, I’m going to think about fixing it and won’t be able to concentrate on it or anything like that. When a float tank is malfunctioning in some way, I find the floats especially difficult. So I guess I … those are times when I’ll shy away from particular tanks maybe.
Juliet: Right.
Graham: Or you go float at another float center, you know?
Juliet: Yeah. I mean, if that’s an option. There are centers out there where they’re the only place within a hundred miles.
Graham: What? My activities aren’t universal across all people in the float industry? So here’s a question for you. Do you know that you’re … how do I phrase this? Do you know that it’s going to be a bad float before you get in or do you just have times where you know that you shouldn’t float?
Juliet: Oh, yeah.
Graham: Or is it more like, you hopped in the tank, it’s not going well, and then you get out after like 15 minutes.
Juliet: I’ve experienced both of those, yes. And there are definitely times where I’ve known it’s going to be a bad float and it’s not necessarily contingent on my mood. Because I’ve been in bad, negative spaces and had really positive floats. So I’m not saying being in a negative mind space or being kind of down on yourself is necessarily a bad place to get into a float from. It’s more like recognizing where your thoughts and patterns are taking you in that moment and maybe recognizing when being completely isolated by yourself isn’t super helpful, right?
Graham: So kind of like, just trust yourself?
Juliet: Yeah.
Graham: And if you’re not having a good float then hop out?
Juliet: Yeah. I think that that’s a really important and valuable thing.
Graham: That’s something we tell our customers too. Especially ones who are worried about having a bad float or think that … sometimes people think we’re actually going to lock them in the tank which, obviously, is true only in the most extreme circumstances.
Juliet: When they really deserve it.
Graham: But no, I mean actually telling people. It’s like, “Hey, you don’t have to shut the tank.” And if you want to, if you get in the tank, you lay down, the door is open, the light is on and it’s not for you. You can just get out and we’ll refund you. If you get out after 15 minutes, don’t worry about it, you know?
Juliet: Yeah. A float mulligan.
Graham: Totally. Everybody gets one.
Juliet: Everybody gets one.
Graham: All right, anything else to say about times when you don’t feel like floating?
Juliet: No.
Graham: I guess, I mean, I really liked your kind of message, which is just giving permission people to feel that. I think especially as float tank owners, there is a lot of pressure to take advantage of hopping in the tank and almost feel like this should be something that you feel like doing all the time, so-
Juliet: And float center owners are typically, from what I’ve noticed, very enthusiastic about the practice. And there’s probably a little bit of a disconnect between that and their average customer and it’s important to recognize that, I think. And find that there are going to be different ways that people approach floating.
Graham: Cool. Well, I think that’s a great message for anyone and on that note, if you have any questions of your own, go on down to floattanksolutions.com/podcast and send it it.
Juliet: And see you next time.
Graham: Talk at you next time.
Juliet: Talk at you next time.
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Having travelled across the United States, I’m reminded of how insular Portland is. We are aggressively fixated on keeping things local. Local beer, ketchup, bikes, pet food, pillows, phone cases… it’s part of our charm. We want to reward people for living here and being a part of the community. It’s so pervasive that, after living here for so long, I kind of forgot that Secret Aardvark hot-sauce isn’t available everywhere, and that most cities don’t even recycle, let alone compost.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #27
Our northern neighbor – a sister city, of sorts – Seattle is the largest metropolitan area in the Pacific Northwest. It’s the land of Microsoft and Kurt Cobain, and the culture here embraces both simultaneously. It’s tech business professional in the front and rock n’ roll grunge in the back. This blend creates a perfect storm of high energy business life and high energy nightlife, making relaxation a valuable commodity. Floating helps fill the void left by nightmarish traffic and overcrowded restaurants.
Given that it’s so close to home, the float centers in Seattle are a lot more familiar to us. Our visits here were more like a high school reunion than they were like the first day of school. During some of our visits, we were picking up conversations right where we left them.
The Float Tour Blog Issue #26
Vancouver is the largest metropolitan area in Canada, and third largest on the West Coast. It’s a major hub for international trade, with one of the largest ports in the world, giving it a large migrant population, mainly from Asia, the Middle East, and Australia. It’s also been a long-time home to the Canadian film industry, and has even been nicknamed “North Hollywood.” Dozens of film and television productions from major studios film here every year.
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In the last 3 years, 10 float centers have opened up, most of them being larger 4–6 tank centers. The really interesting thing is how they all opened within the same short amount of time about 1 ½ to 2 years ago, within months of each other.
The Float Tour Blog – Issue #25
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