#155 Solo episode: on floatation therapy, sensory deprivation, and what's next for the podcast.

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Episode Transcript

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0:02  
Welcome to the personal development mastery Podcast. I am Agi Keramidas. And my mission is to inspire you to grow, stand out and take action towards the next level of your life. I interview leaders, authors, successful entrepreneurs, spiritual teachers, exceptional people who will inspire you to improve your life. Tune in for two episodes each week and make sure you subscribe to get them as soon as they are released.

0:35  
Welcome to the personal development mastery podcast episode 155. Today, it's going to be quite a different episode, I wanted to share with you an experience that I had the previous weekend. And I think it's something quite interesting. So a few days ago, for the first time I did something called the floatation therapy, or I had heard it before being called a sensory deprivation tank. And this is something that I have heard a couple of times before during my podcast conversations. And I really wanted to try it. So if you if you haven't heard about this before floatation therapy involves a line on the surface of warm water. And this water is saturated with Epsom salts. So when you lie on your back, you're pushed up and you float like like a cork.

1:35  
And what's interesting is that both the water itself and the air are being heated to room temperature. So your body doesn't feel where it really ends and where the water or the air begins. And on top of that the room is soundproof. And it's also pitch black darkness. And this eliminates the senses of sight and hearing.

2:01  
So this is what the floatation tank is all about. And I will share with you some of the benefits that it has, first of all, and then my own experience. So regarding the benefits of floatation therapy First, the one that interested me very much was meditation, then improvement, if you will of meditation or the ability to go deeper into meditation, there are some other benefits that are very useful, such as boosting creativity, muscle recovery, relieving aches and pains, and also reducing anxiety and stress. But for me, the main reason I went was what I was looking for was the the meditation the ability to shut off my senses my sight, hearing a sense of gravity, so that I could go deeper.

2:59  
And as far as my experience with it, first of all the the feeling with the body floating.

3:09  
I wouldn't call it exactly weightlessness, but it certainly felt very, very light, my weight felt much, much less. And because of the temperature, it was quite easy to to stop being occupied with the body senses.

3:31  
A very interesting thing was the pitch black darkness. It was an interesting observation. At some point I opened my eyes while I was there. And it was the exact same darkness that was with my eyes closed. And you know when you meditate and you have your eyes closed and you have your eyes open, there are very uniquely different experiences. And in this particular case, it was the same exact darkness regardless of whether I was having my eyes open or closed. The only difference was the feeling that my eyelids were shot or open there was no other difference.

4:21  
And another thing I noticed was my breathing I felt like I was breathing more slowly and it felt like more of a shallow breathing

4:34  
somehow I felt like I was not breathing very deep. I was breathing just enough as I needed to maintain this, this state that I was in and because I'm you more used to the active diaphragmatic breathing by doing Wim Hof breath org exercises.

4:56  
While I was in the tank, it felt like my breath

5:00  
was more shallow. And it was certainly very slow and very relaxed.

5:09  
And asked for what was happening with the mind. That's where some really interesting observations come.

5:19  
The mind tasks, it often does, obviously initially started projecting thoughts and fears and all the terrible things that might go wrong. while I'm there,

5:33  
it was quite easy for me just to relocate my attention and put it into the present moment. So I did not entertain those thoughts. And they just went away quite quickly.

5:48  
That the whole experience was very relaxing, I felt like I could sleep if I wanted to. And even though I'm not a person who sleeps easily on his bark, I think I would, it would be very easy for me to fall asleep in there. I didn't, but I could have.

6:09  
And another sense to mention or lack of sense actually was not hearing. Because I was wearing earplugs, and there was nothing come in from the outside. What I remember very clearly is I could hear my heartbeat. That was the only thing really that I could hear. And it was a shoe thing.

6:35  
So if I were to summarise the experience, what really stands out for me was how relaxing how calming how tranquil, I felt. And the feeling that the head afterwards and it lasted for a good few hours was a deep sense of calmness and relaxation, it felt like time had slowed down. And that was more present. And especially just afterwards, I felt like I wanted to whisper. I didn't want to speak loud, it was so peaceful and tranquil and slow. And I had the big smile on my face as well. It was a very calming and a very freeing experience in many ways.

7:24  
It's a wonderful experience in all and certainly something that I will do again. And one thing that I am going to do differently next time that and that's a bit of self reflection right now is

7:38  
those initial 1015 minutes when I first step into the tank, I think these are crucial if you want to go really deep, really fast and in domain deep in the mind, not in any other way. Going deeper past the mind, if you want these first 1015 minutes can set the tone of the next

8:01  
40 3040 minutes afterwards. Because once the internal dialogue is set aside in a way, then the experience of the flotation and essentially the the sensory deprivation can really facilitate this going deep.

8:23  
So if this resonates with you, if it intrigues you check out floatation therapy or sensory deprivation tank, there are quite a few around so you might be able to find one easier than you might think. Or if you find yourself in the town of Colchester in the UK go and visit Flo than boots, which is the place that I went. And Shaw thank you very much for listening. I hope I gave you some interesting pointers or something to consider.

8:55  
And a couple of announcements if you wish. One of them is lookout for Episode 160, which is coming up soon. And I will not say maths because I'm working on something very exciting, very new for me, and I can't wait to share it with you. But apart from that region, it is the actual topic of the show, which involves something greater than me greater than us something greater than all of us. So that's all I'm going to say for now. Keep an eye out for Episode 160.

9:34  
That was the first announcement and the second one is for the next three episodes. So I'm going to I have picked three interviews that I did in the early days of this podcast and all three were interviews that were quite long. And at the time I had split them into two parts and there were outstanding conversations with deep messages inside and

10:00  
I am going to bring them back to the surface again, while I condensing them and beat show to make sure that you check them out. I realise sometimes that, especially if you have discovered this podcast fairly recently, it's difficult to go back and check out 150 plus episodes. So there are three interviews that I think you will benefit listening from, at least if the topic interests you. That is show I'm going to for your convenience, condense those three conversations and present them in a more concise format over the next three episodes. And I really hope that you will enjoy them and get those messages that they they share.

10:55  
Thank you very much for listening. And until next time, stand out don't fit in!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai