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sensory deprivation

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Pills, Capsules, Tablets, Oh My!!

As a former commercial cannabis grower I can tell you a thing or two about plants…from genetics to environmental conditions, to soil composition… it’s more than just ‘dirt’, that’s for sure; from water to minerals to organic matter to air… there’s quite a bit in there, and having that balanced composition creates the best medium for growing the most nutrient rich, healthy, delicious plants.

So what about you? How’s the composition of your body? Is your grow medium going to provide the nutrients you need to flower and to fruit?

Ever heard of the Goldilocks Zone? It’s a term that refers to the environment that’s “Just Right” to produce life. The planet, Earth, is in the Goldilocks Zone— just far enough from the Sun to not be melting, and just close enough to not be frozen. Coral reefs live in the Goldilocks Zone— in deep enough water to be protected, but shallow enough water to receive sunlight and to house sea creatures. Mushrooms often thrive in the Goldilocks Zone— not in an open field, and not deep in the woods, but where it’s “just right”.

Plants, as a whole, have a relatively wide Goldilocks Zone, and as you may have noticed from seeing dandelion growing up through a crack in the sidewalk, they’re quite resilient, and so are we, but we could do more to facilitate that upward growth!

In a perfect world, you’d have perfect soil: from a mix of bushes and trees and grasses and animals leaving behind the detritus to be deconstructed by fungi and insects and water and temperature…but that’s seldom the case. Often— in the forest— invasive species take over, pine trees over-crowd and acidify the soil, and there are not natural forest fires and regrowth that occur. In a garden, or on a commercial (often mono-cropped) farm the situation is even more dire. So we amend!

Compost, Worm Castings, Fungi, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Water— these are the BASICS of soil. They’re easily added as a ‘top dressing’ (sprinkled or spread on the top soil around the plant), sprayed on the plants “pores” called stomata in a foliar feed, or watered-in during normal watering times. It doesn’t get much more simple than that.

DO YOU NEED TO AMEND YOUR BODY’S SOIL?

I always jokingly say “I’ve learned a lot about people from observing plants”, because I think I’ve spent more time acutely observing the micro-movements and expressions of plants than people….I also had a scary boss who would get really mad when things didn’t go right and we had a lot of money on the line all the time so I REALLY had to make sure I was looking after the plants, and I don’t have a child yet so…yeah.

Our happiness and success and overall well-being are like a plant, and our body’s like the soil. Or, our happiness, success and overall well-being are the flowers of our body, which is the plant. Either way, you get the metaphor!

It’s laughable to think that we can thrive in any environment without the proper nutrition, hydration, and sunlight, and since we’re trying to maximize our yield during our life-cycle, we need to either amend or start working on putting ourselves in the UTMOST PERFECT environment (eat, drink, think, exist) to get the goodness we truly need. But proper nutrition, hydration and sunlight can be hard to obtain!!

Two things that pretty much everything on Earth needs: water and sunshine.

Do you drink 2.5-4 liters of water per day?

Do you get 15-45min of midday sun every day or so?

The odds are the answer to both those questions is no, and that’s OK!

Staying properly hydrated is crucial to any plant, and to any person! You’re not a cactus.

Getting adequate sunlight (vitamin D) has a whole host of benefits, [and if you think that’s not the case, let me just clue you in to the fact that THE ENTIRE EARTH AND EVERYTHING ON IT IS POWERED BY THE SUN!]

So…take vitamin D supplements and wash it down with a gallon of water? Not quite…but that’s a good start!

Seeing a physician, or getting some blood work done, or visiting a health coach, or even doing some basic research on different vitamins and minerals are the steps one needs to take in order to find out what supplements could work best for them. There’s no single way to supplement needed nutrients into our bodies; it can be done through eating healthy and exercise, cleanses, diets, fasting, supplemental vitamins, and more. Oh and one more thing, don’t forget to move your body! All that supplementation can feed an active lifestyle in the most beneficial ways.

Amend your body’s soil!

This post is not intended to diagnose anyone, or encourage one thing over another, but more-so to put in perspective what supplementing could do for a person’s overall health.

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What Is Floating?

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What Is Floating?

Sitting at the helm of this cloud ship with my salty crew of rubber duckies you can imagine we get asked a wide variety of questions about the float experience-- from the fundamentals to the far-off and infrequent-- we talk about R.E.S.T. rather restlessly. There are a few things you should know, though, so i'll explain below.

R.E.S.T. | Flotation Therapy

R.E.S.T. : Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy or Floating or Sensory Deprivation is amazing.  It's profoundly relaxing.  It's water therapy. 

Just imagine a huge bathtub! 10 feet long and 4 feet wide, with 200 gallons of water in it.  Sounds like a lot of water, right? It is...but it's only 8 inches DEEP! So this 8" of water has nearly 1,000lbs of Epsom salt dissolved into it, which causes you to FLOAT like a cork on the surface of the water. It's more buoyant than the Dead Sea!! The water is the same temperature as your body so you don't feel the water AND you don't feel gravity, and if you choose to (BUT YOU DON'T HAVE TO!) you can close the door and turn off the light which makes the room dark and quiet.  The combined effects sets your mind in the most relaxed state of NOTHINGNESS it's ever experienced.  

So as you float you're receiving all the benefits of 900lbs of Epsom salt in the water which is reducing inflammation, soreness, chronic pain, stress, PLUS you're floating effortlessly with NO GRAVITY on your body-- and for the first time ever your mind-- you brain-- isn't being bombarded by this constant barrage of external stimuli that is our fast paced world. When your mind finds itself in this uniquely relaxed and calm environment it takes FULL ADVANTAGE of the situation.  What happens next is a big part of the takeaway.  

Through fMRI and EEG mapping we observe the brain in the float tank transition into a different state, where it begins to produce Theta Waves, a type of brainwave found in R.E.M. sleep or deep meditation, so that 1 hour in the float tank (we offer 90min sessions, however) can equal 4hrs of rest for the mind. This environment of "controlled nothingness" lets the brain exist in that state of relaxation while at the same time receiving all the benefits of the Epsom salt PLUS no weight on your body which allows your spine to realign, and activates the parasympathetic nervous system (think 'Rest and Digest').  The combined effects creates one of the most profoundly relaxing experiences possible.

Epsom Salt

Epsom salt is the bee's knees (whatever that means) and a household panacea from an older time.  For some reason the young whipper snappers don't know a lick about the stuff!  It's uses range from stress reduction to sore muscles, skin exfoliants to soil prepping-- so it's almost as good as snake oil. 

Epsom salt is also called Magnesium Sulfate.  Magnesium is SUPER IMPORTANT for our bodies, specifically our nervous system, and is known to regulate over 300 functions.  Magnesium also regulates cortisol (stress hormone) levels in our bodies so it literally chills us out! And this isn't just a couple cups of Epsom salt in a bathtub, remember, its 900lbs of SALT! 

Professional athletes, yogis, meditation practitioners, insomniacs, those suffering from chronic pain, stress, hypertension, anxiety, PTSD, eating disorders, and others ALL FIND RELIEF through the use of the float tank.  It's beautiful.

 

Lets recap, shall we?

  1. So no gravity on your body. (that is neat, and feels so damn good)

  2. Epsom salt reducing pain, inflammation, swelling, stiffness, and stress levels.

  3. Your brain is in meditation R.E.M. beta wave heaven.

  4. Your body and mind are crying tears of happiness for how flipping good they feel!!!

 

Now, we can talk all day and all night and all day and all...ok, you get the idea that we can talk ad nauseam about floating, but those right there are the breaks.

Stay salty and afloat my friends.  See you soon.

Peace.

gELLIS

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