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>> Carlee: Do you know what floating is? You'll find out what it is and how it can benefit you in this episode of The Stress Less Show. Hi I'm Carlee Myers, a stress management expert, and this month it's time to treat yourself. I'm really excited to have Keri on the show. She is a founder and owner of Halcyon Floats Floatation Therapy Studios in Philadelphia and as a float therapy guide, Keri focuses on facilitating healing and personal growth with her clients. Over the course of six years, Keri and her amazing team have helped thousands of people from the Delaware Valley find peace comfort healing and well-being through their float practice. I am so excited to have you on the show, Keri welcome.
>> Keri: Carlee, thank you so much for inviting me. I'm so excited I can't wait to get into this. I'm so excited for the opportunity to talk about floating with you.
>> Carlee: Yes. So I just this is something that I experienced, Oh goodness, I started floating a few years ago but when I first started it was kind of one of those things I was like, "What is this and why do people do it?" So I'm curious what got you into this line of work and maybe we can start with a few of the benefits of floating, what it is and a few of the benefits.
>> Keri: Sure absolutely. And you're not the only one that comes in with that kind of perspective. In fact, I probably was one of the biggest skeptics of them all in general in the very beginning about any kind of alternative or holistic healing. But I was at my wit's end by the time I found myself in a float tank. Totally burned out from a job that I was basically working 24/7, constantly worried about bills, achieving goals at work, and I'm one of those people that's just an overachiever in general. So I constantly take on more than I can handle and I just I wasn't sleeping I wasn't eating right. And even though I had anxiety, it was manifesting itself in these ways and I never really acknowledged that that was my core issue. So after trying and seeing therapist, going to the doctor, taking pills, even joined a Buddhist temple and tried to learn to meditate as somebody who isn't very skilled in that, it didn't work out for me. And then like I said in that moment of desperation, I was naked in a float tank trying to solve my problems and believe it or not it actually worked pretty much immediately. And then some. I learned so much over the course of my float practice in the very beginning about myself and the changes that I needed to make. And I'm so passionate about it that I decided to open a center.
>> Carlee: Wow. I remember I just got flashbacks from my very first float and I remember like being in the darkness for those of you who are listeners who have never floated before your - and hopefully I'm describing this well, correct me if I'm not. So you're kind of laying in this warm like body literally body temperature body of water that is filled with salt that actually creates this kind of buoyancy of your body so you just float literally with no effort and it's almost like there's sensory deprivation there's not much noise you can hear yourself breathing like really you are just there in the present moment. And that is it. And so I got flashbacks kind of to my first float which was shoot like five years ago now where I was I laid there and I was like, type A same like same like you hustle hustle hustle and I was like oh my goodness what am I doing Oh my God oh my god I got to God. And then 15 minutes later I was like this is amazing, like totally shifted when I stop resisting it. And it really was like one of those people where meditation was just it was so hard but this felt so, once I got past the resistance it felt so easy. So I'm curious like what what do you recommend or like first of all. For first timer is like what do you what do you recommend. And also like I know you're really interested in our overall health picture and wellness picture. So can you. Do you have advice or feedback for our listeners.
>> Keri: Yeah. Absolutely. So for first timers it's the approach that's going to set you up for the most success. And it's just about being open, wanting healing so you have that intention of going in with just simple expectation of openness and then knowing, being mindful and aware that depending on your body, your level of anxiety is gonna take, it can take a few times and you deserve it. You deserve the opportunity to take a few sessions to learn how to calm down and to be able to achieve a level of peace in a float tank that is going to help you in every aspect mind body spirit. I learned a lot in a float time personally and if I'm going to share some of the most important things that my takeaways from having this practice incorporated in my life to help my complete holistic wellness. First things first you always we have this we're always hard on ourselves about doing things that treat you know treating ourselves doing things that are good for our well-being. We can justify going out for beers weekly and just dropping 100 bucks on that or eating fast food, but for whatever reason when it comes to doing something that's a healing treatment we put that in a category of a luxury and it's not. It's all about being wellness or being well and really really respecting your body and the level of health that you're trying to function on. So number one I think you have to prioritize investing your health, your mental health, your physical health and your spiritual health. So you know burnout is expensive, injuries is expensive, health insurance health bills are expensive. You can go out and get yourself a massage or pay for therapy out of pocket if you need to or do something like floating on a regular basis and end up you're investing in your own personal health and well-being and happiness. So that's one thing that I learned because I wasn't doing that before. Another thing is you have to be diligent. You know it's not a quick fix. There is no quick fix and I feel exactly you know when it comes to anxiety or the way we can physically manifest our stress it happens over time. So you have to also know that it's going to take time to undo that. Quick fixes aren't real life at all. So you really have to invest time as well and be diligent that way.
>> Carlee: Yeah. It reminds me I just had a conversation with one of my clients yesterday which she's trying to break one of her bad stress coping mechanisms and she's like, "Why is this so hard?" and I'm like OK. It's 20 plus years of putting effort into a bad habit. It's so easy now it's like blinking or breathing and you have to do your due diligence to not only break that habit, but then invest the time into creating the new replacement positive habit. We always think like oh you can just take a magic pill or we're going to find that magic thing that's going to transform our life. But at the end of the day we're like if we boil it down I feel like it's old habits versus new habits how do we break those down and build new ones and invest in ourselves so that they be... they do become easy.
>> Keri: Yep that's 100 percent correct. And the cool thing about that and about floating is that floating which is my third tip You should get in a flow tank immediately and I know that's a shameless plug but it's absolutely true because
>> Carlee: Totally not biased at all.
>> Keri: But yeah the happy the happy accident that I found so I wanted to achieve this peace and comfort, but the happy accident that I found in floating is the reprogramming that can happen. Because it's almost like when you don't have anything to fight against when you're in a float tank you're not you're in a very very basic leveled out state of mind where your stresses aren't overwhelming you and you can think things you can take an inventory of your life and you can kind of decide what you need and what you don't need. And it really looks lets you evaluate your behaviors and kind of like take in how you can change and what you need to change and how you can evolve and grow and we do it in such a way where you don't feel bad you actually feel good you feel excited to be to be better after and that all that all happens in the float tank. And the more you do it the easier it becomes. I always say that if I'm doing my job right, my clients will start out floating a lot in the very beginning and eventually they'll be able to just use the practice that they learn in the float tank out in the real world. And then it just becomes maybe they float every once in a while maybe once a year or whatever. I'll eventually put myself out of business with this philosophy. We're just teaching people how to get to the root of their stress and evaluate their lives and feel better
>> Carlee: So for those of us who are looking to try out floating and they want they want to take your advice and do some like do their due diligence put in the time. How is it that they can find you and start experiencing this practice?
>> Keri: Yeah absolutely. So we're on social media at Halcyon floats Halcyon floats on Facebook. But our Web site is Halcyon floats dot com. We have two locations in Philadelphia. And if you're really looking to take a practical approach to floating you want to visit us Halcyon Floats dot com and click on our float practice page and we'll go into how you can start floating right away. And we actually have an offer. So if you join the float practice which is very affordable 54 bucks a month is the beginning tier 1 float a month but you get three for free as soon as you sign up. So that really helps people along to get their foot in the water and learn how to float. We offer you those three for free just so it kind of takes eliminates that pressure and stress of I'm paying for this. I'm paying for this kind of thing. We don't want you worried about anything when you first start floating.
>> Carlee: I love that. So definitely hit Kerry up on that offer. I know I float on a regular basis. This is something that I do. I feel like I'm more of that I'm at that point where I'm like once a year twice a year but I got it. I'm still on it. It's definitely something to try out. It's definitely transformed the way that I view mindfulness and presence and the whole nine yards. But we want to know from you right now what are you planning to do this holiday season for self care. Like what. Even if it's not a float or maybe it is right what is it that you're gonna do to take care of yourself because this is a crazy time of the year with family with shopping with travel with. I mean the whole nine yards it's crazy. So we want to know what is it that you're going to do to take care of yourself this time of the year. Now this concludes this episode of The Stress Less Show. If you enjoyed this week's episode give us a big old thumbs up and let us know by hitting that follow or subscribe button. Thanks for listening and we'll see you in the New Year with brand new episodes of The Stress Less Show. Happy Holidays!